Robert Riddle Stodart
Robert Riddle Stodart’s lifelong interest in genealogy and heraldry began early, before 1845 when he was sent to Ceylon at the age of eighteen. During the next sixteen years, while managing a coffee plantation, he indulged in research “almost amounting to a passion” and had “nearly every work of importance on these subjects which appeared either in Britain or on the Continent forwarded to him.”
One of those books would undoubtedly have been Burke’s Landed Gentry, which appeared in 1846 under the title ‘A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland, a companion to the Baronetage and Knightage’. It included a section on his own family: “STODART OF KAILZIE AND ORMISTON”, represented by his uncle George Stodart. The Kailzie estate, between Peebles and Cardrona in Scotland, was acquired by Robert Riddle Stodart’s grandfather Robert Stodart (1748-1831), who in patenting the English Grand Action in 1777 is credited in creating the grand piano. As described in the book, he “was, by the command of King GEORGE III, offered a baronetcy by Mr. Pitt”, which he declined. Robert married Alison Turnbull (1759-1833), heraldic heiress of James Turnbull (died 1794). James Turnbull was a London merchant who traded to the Levant and “the last male representative in the direct line of a branch of the ancient family of Turnbull”. Robert’s son George was entitled to quarter the Stodart and Turnbull Arms. Burke indicates that both the Stodart and Turnbull crests were displayed but only the Stodart motto.
The arms of James Turnbull are not found in the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland, established in 1672. James lived most of his life in London. He married Hannah Hutton in Lambeth in 1754 and died in Holborn in 1794. He was survived by his two daughters: Alison and Esther. Esther Turnbull (1760-1835) married John Riddle (1751-1806) from County Down - they had no children but the Riddle name was carried over to Alison’s family.
The quartered arms of George Stodart were presumably in use and the Stodart quarters fit with the legend, reproduced by Burke, describing an origin story about a standard-bearer who accompanied the Vicomte de Pulesdon at the Battle of Hastings. There was widespread inclusion of apocryphal family legends in early editions of Burke’s Landed Gentry and the story is a fantasy. Burke’s Stodart heraldry borrows sixteenth century arms, crest and motto of an Englishman with a similar surname - the arms of William Stoddard of London and his son George, recorded in the 1568 Visitation of London.
Robert Riddle Stodart was fascinated by the genealogy and history of his Scottish Stodart ancestors, which he traced back to John Stodart of Liberton (1565-c.1643) - a near contemporary rather than a descendant of the London armiger. Familiar as he was with Clan heraldry, Robert sought and found a Scottish armiger of his own clan: the arms and crest of William Stoddert of Southhouse, Liberton listed in the first volume of the Public Register of Arms, 1672.
Arms of William Stoddert of Southhouse, Liberton from the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland, 1672: Argent, fess nebule betwixt three stars Sable
Crest: A Starr issuing out of a Cloud Proper, mantled Gules doubled Argent
The shape of these ‘stars’ may not necessarily match modern heraldic practice and a ‘Starr… Proper’, as in the crest, could at the time have been interpreted as wavy and golden in colour. In Deuchar’s British Crests, published in Edinburgh in 1817, the star in the crest of “Stodart of Stodart” is “of six points waved, argent.”
William Stoddert died c.1695 and was survived by a daughter, Christian, who married John Fullerton of Kinnaber (1648-1698), MP for Forfar. Although she was a heraldic heiress, their son John (1678-1768) did not quarter the arms. His Fullerton arms passed from his only child, Mary (b.1714), to her husband after he adopted the Fullerton name. They survive quartered with Carnegie in the arms matriculated in 1901 for Edward Hugo Wakefield Fullerton-Carnegie OBE (1870-1955).
Prolonged residence in a hot climate proved unfavourable to Robert’s health. He returned home in the close of 1863 and soon found his calling. In 1851, while Robert was in Ceylon, his sister Hannah Riddle Stodart (1835-1916) married James Lorimer of Kellyfield (1818-1890), later Professor of National Law at the University of Edinburgh. Lorimer was appointed Lyon Clerk and Keeper of the Records at the Court of the Lord Lyon in 1848. He was an excellent Lyon Clerk, appointed through a family connection. His father was Factor on the Earl of Kinnoull’s estate and Thomas Hay-Drummond, 11th Earl of Kinnoull, was Lord Lyon. In 1864 James Lorimer’s appointment was made “for life” and a few days later Robert Riddle Stodart was appointed Lyon Clerk Depute.
Returning to the arms suggested for Robert’s uncle George Stodart, William Berry’s Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Heraldica of 1840 listed various combinations of Stodart arms used by families in Scotland but only those of William Stoddert were officially recognised by the Court. Berry notes “Stodart [Leith, Scotland]” with arms sa. three mullets ar.; a bordure of the last but no reference to the “bordure or” described by Burke in 1846 for Robert’s uncle. Perhaps the ‘or’ was a misreading of ‘ar.’ and the arms used by George Stodart were simply those of William Stoddard of London with bordure Argent and mullets replacing estoiles.
Robert Riddle Stodart supported his uncle George’s petition for an official grant of the Stodart-Turnbull arms, with ‘destination’ extended to the descendants of Robert and Alison Stodart. The arms, crest and motto granted were those of William Stoddert, identified in the petition as “of the same family”. These arms are differenced with a bordure Gules, denoting ‘indeterminate cadency’ - the exact relationship had not been traced. The shape and colour of stars in the crest and shield are clearly defined in the blazon - each straight-sided stars of six points. These new Stodart arms were quartered with the Turnbull arms of George’s mother, although not previously matriculated in the Public Register, but without the Turnbull crest.
George Stodart died in 1867 and in 1871 the same quartered arms, crest and motto were matriculated for Robert Riddle Stodart.
Arms of Robert Riddle Stodart from the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland, Volume 8, Record 90, dated 16th February 1871 and signed by James Lorimer, Lyon Clerk: Quarterly 1st and 4th Argent, a fess nebuly between three Stars of six points Sable, all within a Bordure Gules, 2nd and 3rd Or, a Chevron between three Bulls heads couped Sable
Crest: A Star of six points Argent issuing out of a Cloud Proper
During his time in office, Robert Riddle Stodart devised a system of differencing arms between branches of a family which could be carried out through a number of generations. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the bordures he was familiar with in his own, Stoddard and Turnbull arms, his system is based on bordures which vary in tinctures, boundary and partition lines. This scheme was adopted as the broad basis of the Scottish system for matriculation and remains in use to this day. Known as the ‘Stodart System’, it is one of the distinctive characteristics of Scottish heraldry.
The Stodart System has its limitations, particularly in the inference given to existing arms which have a bordure, such as Robert’s own arms. The bordure Gules implies that his grandfather Robert Stodart was the fourth son of James Stodart of Walston and that his brothers can be identified by bordures of varying tinctures. In reality neither James Stodart nor any of Robert Stodart’s brothers were armigers. Robert Stodart was the seventh and youngest son born at Walston. Burke’s Landed Gentry recognises this in a note, stating that the Stodart family is represented by Robert’s nephew George Tweedie-Stodart of Oliver.
Robert Riddle Stodart researched the genealogy and history of the Stodart family at Walston and there were close family ties. George Tweedie-Stodart was a regular visitor at Kailzie. Robert was familiar with the story of how James Stodart rode 40 miles to Dryden with a timely warning that helped George Lockhart’s son escape to France. The Lockharts were Jacobites and George Lockhart’s son was personal aide-de-camp to Bonnie Prince Charles. James Stodart (b.1703) was Factor and Coal Grieve to the Lockharts of Carnwath and Dryden for most of his life.
Before 1746 Walston was occupied by a Baillie family. After their male line died out there was a dispute over ownership of the property, which was eventually settled by the House of Lords in favour of George Lockhart (1700-1764), known as ‘The Hunting Laird’. The tenancy of Walston was then given to James Stodart.
A branch of the Stodart family continued farming at Walston until 1878. The 1879 edition of Burke’s Landed Gentry focussed on this family due to its connection with Tweedie of Oliver. In 1834 Lawrence Tweedie (1766-1837) settled his estate by disposition on his nephew from Walston, on condition that he adopt the surname Tweedie-Stodart. George Tweedie-Stodart of Oliver (1799-1869) was not entitled to the Tweedie arms and did not petition the Court of the Lord Lyon for his own. The grand-quartered arms attributed to George Tweedie-Stodart in Michael Forbes Tweedie’s History of the Tweedie Family mistakenly combine the 1864 arms of George Stodart of Kailzie and Ormiston Hill with Tweedie.
Robert Riddle Stodart’s interest in heraldry extended not only to his Stodart and Turnbull ancestry but also to his maternal family. His mother, Jemima Henrietta Stodart or Brown (1807-1865), was the daughter of David Brown of Greenknowe (1774-1813) and Hannah Cassels (1772-1859). Memorials of the Browns of Fordell, by Robert Riddle Stodart, was published in 1887 and includes the arms of ‘Cassels of Greenknowe’. Jemima’s cousin, Walter Gibson Cassels (1811-1890), whose father sold Greenknowe to David Brown, was granted arms in 1864, with his Letters Patent signed by James Lorimer. Like George Stodart’s grant of the same year, the ‘destination’ was extended to descendants of the armiger’s father and mother “with such congruent differences as may be hereafter matriculated”. These descendants included Walter’s nephew, the Canadian lawyer and judge Sir Walter Gibson Pringle Cassels (1845-1923).
Robert’s daughter Jessie Cassels Wyld (1849-1916) petitioned the Court of the Lord Lyon together with her Canadian husband Henry Castle Scott (1843-1912) and their impaled arms were matriculated in 1905. It has always been possible for ladies to matriculate arms in the Lyon Register but the inclusion of impaled arms, where hers would not be inherited, was a novelty. The arms of Jessie Cassels Wyld and Henry Castle Scott were individually registered by the Canadian Heraldic Authority in 2015 and announced separately in the Canada Gazette.
Robert Riddle Stodart was a bachelor. He lived with his sister Henrietta Mary Stodart (1840-1927). Both of his sisters were allowed to use the Stodart-Turnbull arms as a courtesy and Robert included impaled arms in his account of the Lorimer family, printed in 1877.
Robert died in the spring of 1886, aged 58, following a fall on ice that was lying on the street. This sudden and unexpected event was a severe bereavement to all, most severely felt by his sister Henrietta. The undifferenced arms passed to their brother David Riddle Stodart (1832-1893). David had emigrated to Canada and raised a family in Quebec, but with only one grandchild, Marie Géorgine ‘Jeanne’ Rambau (1886-1961), the arms of Robert Riddle Stodart have since fallen out of use.
The Lorimer arms passed to the artist John Henry Lorimer (1855-1936). Although these same arms appear on a memorial in St. Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh in memory of John’s younger brother, the architect Sir Robert Stodart Lorimer (1864-1929), they were rightfully John’s rather than Sir Robert’s arms. In 1931 arms were matriculated posthumously for Sir Robert Stodart Lorimer with the line of the chevron engrailed for difference. These arms have since been matriculated with a bordure, the first among those of Robert Riddle Stodart’s relations to be matriculated in accordance with the Stodart System.
James Lorimer’s arms could also have been impaled with the arms of Robert Stodart Lorimer‘s brothers-in-law, Sir Everard Ferdinand Im Thurn (1852-1932) and Sir David Patrick Chalmers (1835-1899).
Thomas Bell’s granddaughter, Janet Liddell Steele (1812-1840) married James Stodart of Walston (1804-1869), brother of George Tweedie-Stodart. A member of this Stodart family, possibly James, was photographed in 1865 wearing the MacDonald of Clanranald tartan, associated with the Lockhart family. James and Janet’s son, later named Thomas Stodart-Milne (1835-1915), was the last to farm at Walston, then held by the Macdonald Lockhart baronets, of the Lee and Carnwath.
In the early 1900s, George Tweedie-Stodart’s granddaughter Mary Tweedie-Stodart (1873-1953) turned her attention to the Stodart family history. With the help of her cousin, Grizzel Gillespie Stodart (1855-1929), Mary designed and drafted several copies of a large family tree, ink on paper, depicted as an oak tree and based on the genealogical notes of Robert Riddle Stodart. Beginning with John Stodart of Liberton, born about 1565 and alive in 1643, it branches out to include as many names as could be traced to the late nineteenth century. The Genealogy of the Stodart Family of Walston is a fascinating record of a Lowland Scots family whose descendants are dispersed around the globe and it owes much to Robert Riddle Stodart’s passion for heraldry and genealogy.
Though he never held the rank of herald, Robert Riddle Stodart’s knowledge and enthusiasm left a lasting impression on Scottish heraldry. His clear, practical system, together with his masterpiece Scottish Arms, continue to inform its practice today. Within the arms he was personally associated with lie stories which he helped to tell - of heraldic heiresses and custodians of family histories whose fascination for their heritage reflects Robert’s own passion.
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