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The Pringles of Whytbank
In early life, James Pringle of Whytbank served for some years in France as an officer in the Scottish guards. He and James Murray of Philiphaugh represented the county of Selkirk in the Estates in 1633. For his adherence to the cause of King Charles I., he was heavily fined by the committee of Estates in 1646. He greatly improved his estate, and added several lands to it, both in Selkirkshire and Mid Lothian. He married in 1622, Sophia Sebuner, a Danish lady, maid of honour to Anne of Denmark, queen of James VI., on which occasion, we are told, "her majesty presented her with her portrait, enamelled on mother of pearl, and set with small rubies and emeralds, suspended by a massy gold chain, a relic still preserved by the family." On his death in 1667, he was succeeded by his only son, Alexander Pringle of Whytbank, who, in 1652, was sheriff principal of Selkirkshire. Warmly attached to the Presbyterian form of church government, he was a frequent member of the ecclesiastical courts. He died in 1695, without issue, and was succeeded by John Pringle, grandson of his father's next brother, George Pringle of Balmungo, Fifeshire, a major in the army of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, who, after serving, with considerable reputation, during the Thirty years' war, returned home, having married one of the daughters of Sir Patrick Ruthven, a general in the same service, created by Charles I., earl of Forth in Scotland, and Brentford in England. His only son, the Rev. John Pringle, minister of Fogo, described as an elegant scholar, was father of John Pringle of Whytbank, who succeeded his father's cousin in 1695, and died of a fever in 1703, at the age of 25. He had a son, Alexander Pringle of Whytbank, who died in 1772, and was succeeded in his lands of Whytbank by his eldest son, Lieutenant John Pringle. The latter served on the staff of his relative, the Hon. General James Murray, commander of the British forces in Canada, after the death of General Wolfe. Lieutenant Pringle died in Canada in 1774, when his next brother, Alexander Pringle, then in the civil service of the East India Company on the Madras establishment, became proprietor of Whytbank. He returned to Scotland in 1783, and some years afterwards repurchased from the duke of Buccleuch the family estate and residence of Yair in Selkirkshire, which had been sold, with some other portions of his lands, by his father. At Yair he built a new mansion house, and devoted a considerable part of his attention to the improvement of his estates. He commanded the Selkirkshire volunteers, until that corps was disbanded at the peace of Amiens, March 27, 1802. The same year he was appointed vice-lieutenant of Selkirkshire, on the establishment of that office by act of parliament. He was Sir Walter Scott's neighbour at Ashestiel, when he went there to reside in 1804, and in the second Epistle of Marmion he is mentioned as "The long descended lord of Yair."
An extract of a letter from him to the author of Marmion, on the publication of that poem in 1807, is given in Lockhart's Life of Scott, (page 184, 8vo edition). in 1812, Mr. Pringle obtained the patent office of chamberlain of Ettrick Forest. He died in 1827. By his wife, Mary, daughter of Sir Alexander Dick of Prestonfield, be had, with six daughters, five sons; three of whom, namely, John Alexander Pringle of Castledykes, the second son; William Alexander Pringle, the third; and David Pringle, the youngest, were in the Bengal civil service, and Robert Keith Pringle, the fourth son, was in the Bombay civil service, and afterwards became chief secretary to the government at that presidency.
The eldest son, Alexander Pringle of Whytbank, studied at Cambridge, and was admitted an advocate at the Scottish bar in 1814. In July of the following year with Scott of Gala, he accompanied Sir Walter Scott to the field of Waterloo, and leaving him in Paris, he made a tour in Switzerland. He continued to practise as an advocate till 1830, when, at the general election which followed the death of George IV., he was elected M.P. for Selkirkshire. After the dissolution in 1831, he was re-elected. At the general election, after the passing of the Reform Act in 1838, he was defeated by Pringle of Clifton, by a majority of nine. Re-elected in 1835, by a large majority, he again sat for the county in 1837 and 1841. In the latter year he was appointed one of the lords of the Treasury, in the ministry of Sir Robert Peel, and also a commissioner of Revenue Inquiry. In July 1845 he resigned office, as he could not give his support to the ministerial measure for increasing the endowment of the Roman Catholic college of Maynooth. In January 1846, he was appointed principal keeper of the General Register of Sasines in Scotland, when he retired from parliament. In 1830 he had been appointed vice-lieutenant of the county of Selkirk. He died 2d September 1857. He married his cousin, Agnes Joanna, daughter of Sir William Dick of Prestonfield. His only son, Alexander Pringle, succeeded to Whytbank.
Tombs at Melrose Abbey
There are tombs of a number of members of the Whytbank branch of the Pringle family at Melrose Abbey. There is a life-size effigy of Andrew Hoppringle on his tomb, with the inscription: 'Heir leis ane honrabil man Andro Pringil, feuar of Gallowshiels. Quhadecessit ye 28 Februarie, an. dom. 1585.' There is a memorial to James Hoppringle in one wall, with the inscription: 'Hic jacet Dominus Jacobus Pringall us a Gallosheils Eques: qui obiitvicesino die Au gusti An. Dom 1635, aetatis suae 60. ' Yet another reads: 'Here lies ane honorable woman Christine Lundie spouse to James Hoppringle of Whytbank. She deceased 19th July 1602. Syn and still thou murn, for to the grave thou turn.'
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