Francis Masterton of Parkmilne (1643-1719)
Sheriff-Depute of Clackmannanshire
Francis Masterton was a graduate of Edinburgh University and the author of "Remarques by Francis Masterton 1660 to 1719" intended to be a combination of a diary, family record, and advice to his descendants. He died in 1719, after the first Jacobite rebellion and it seems his religious sympathies lay with the Roman Catholic restoration movement. There is a clue in the title of his manuscript:
SOME REMARQUES upon severall things since the Happie restauratione of King CHARLES YE SECOND
It forms a remarkably good source for the extended family's genealogy and is a useful piece of social anthropology. Victor A. Noel Paton (1862-1931) provided a commentary on the manuscript in his:
Introduction to "Masterton Papers 1660-1719"
Genealogy
Francis Masterton was the third son (but presumably the first to survive until the death of his father) of John Masterton and Marie Lindsay. John Masterton had been a member of Scotland's Committee of War in 1648. Francis married Christian Keirie in 1678 and they had no fewer than 15 children registered in the Old Parish Records, including Francis Masterton, apothecary in Edinburgh.
A fuller genealogy of the extended family of Francis Masterton is gven in the following link.
The Masterton genealogy contained within the Masterton Papers is reproduced here.
Register of the Privy Council of Scotland
Third Series, Vol III, 1669-72.
4 August 1670, Edinburgh
Supplication by the justices of peace and commissioners of excise and for the militia within the shire of Clakmanane, as follows:- "There being several persones nominat and appoynted by the Parliament to be justices of peace and commissioners of excise and for the militia, and they being in all bot nyne in number, seven whereof is a quorum, and seing tuo of that number, viz, William Stirling of Herbertshyre and Mr Thomas Naper of ....., does not reseid within the said shyre, and that there is a vacancie by the decease of the late Earle of Marr, so that his Majesties service within the said shyre does thereby suffer prejudice, "they crave the Lords to nominate some fit persons to take the place of those deceased or removed out of the shire. The Lords appoint......., now Earl of Marr, Major George Bruce and Mr Francis Mestertoun of Parkmill to be justices of the peace and commissioners in place of the foresaid three persons, and to be received and admitted by the rest."
The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland
edited and abridged by P Hume Brown
Third Series, Vol III (1669-72)
HM General Register House
Edinburgh, 1910
Register of the Privy Council of Scotland
Third Series, Vol XIV, 1689.
30 December 1689, Edinburgh
Commission to the Viscount of Tarbet and others to be commissioners of excise in the shire of Clackmannan in place of those deceased. ...viz. George, Viscount of Tarbett, Sir Charles Erskin of Alva, the Laird of Tillibody, Mr Francis Mastertoune of Parkmilne, the baillie of Alloway for the tyme, George Stirling...., George Abercrombie of .....and....Bruce of Kennett,....
The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland
Henry Paton (ed)
Third Series, Vol XIV 1689
HM General Register House
Edinburgh, 1933
National Archives of Scotland
Letters from Francis Masterton of Parkmill to John, Earl of Mar.
Parkmiln 30th November, 1708
May it please your Lord,
We are all verie glad when we hear of yor Lo/ health and all your good circumstances at court, Long may they continow with you and increase and never diminish. My Lord my son Charles designs to be a writer to the Signet, when convenient but no ways to pairt with the office yor Lo/ putt him in so long as you please to continow him. Wherefor I humbly beg that your Lo/ would be pleased to grant him an commission for that effort with your convenience which will be ane act of verie great kyndness to him and me. So wishing your Lo/ and son and noble families all health and prosperitie to
My Lord
your Lo/ most oblidged, obedient and most humble Servant.
Parkmilne 9th Feb, 1709
May it please your Lo/
My son wrytes to me that your Lo/ has given orders to Mr David Erskine to give him ane commissione to be ane writer to the Signett, for which favour and gratuitie I pray God Almightie may recompense your Lo/ a thousand fold, and I shall wish he may be a faithfull servant to you and noble familie all his days for this and former kindnesses. I wish your Lo/ a good new year and many happie ones and your continuance in the Queens labor and those to Serve hir all your days which shall be the constant desyre of
My Lord
your Lo/ most faithfull, most oblidged and most humble servants.
My wyfe and all h... gives ther blissing and humble duties to your Lo/
Fr. Mastertone
I remembered your health the 6 Jany.
National Archives of Scotland
Papers of the Erskine Family, Earls of Mar and Kellie
Correspondence and personal papers, 1566 - 1941
GD124/15/924
Letters to the Earl of Mar from Francis Mastertone [Masterton], at Parkmiln [Park Mill], whose son Charles wishes to be a WS and gets a commission to be one.
A History of the Society of Writers to HM Signet
List of Members
MASTERTON, CHARLES, of Parkmill. February 1709.
Apprentice to Charles Row. — Eldest son of Francis Masterton of Parkmill, Clackmannanshire. Died about 1747. Mar. Mary, daughter of John Kiery of Gogar,
Perthshire. Substitute-Keeper, 1708-9 and 1713-14.
A history of the Society of Writers to Her Majesty's Signet [electronic resource] : with a list of the members of the society from 1594 to 1890 and an abstract of the minutes.
Society of Writers to H.M. Signet (Great Britain)
[electronic resource]