The Blackness Aisle, burial place of the Wedderburns, Barons of Kingennie and Baronets of Blackness, and now
the property of the Hunters of Blackness. An inscription now obliterated gave the date of erection as 1615.
This is a large stone building, built out from the old wall of
the Howff. It is now in a decayed condition. There is nothing to indicate its
original state except the word Blackness, still legible. Places in the wall,
where tablets must once have been inserted, are clearly visible. In A. C. Lamb's
Guide to Remarkable Monuments in "The Howff"
(1892), it is described as the "burial place of the Wedderburns, and now the
property of the Hunters of Blackness," and the writer adds :—" An inscription,
now obliterated, gave the date of erection as 1615." If this is so, the monument
is anterior to the date (1642) at which the Wedderburns acquired Blackness, and
it must have first belonged to some other family, whether of Blackness or not
does not appear. I have been able
to find no instance of its use by the Wedderburns. The Hunters no doubt acquired
it when they bought Blackness in 1741, and the keystone of the archway, under
which one enters the monument, has a hunting horn, and the letters D.H. (David
Hunter) carved on it. But the present owner of Blackness is unable to say if any
members
of his family are buried within its limits, and his agents also write me that
they can give me no details in regard to it, but that it is Mr. Hunter's
property.
Source: Wedderburn Book.
Sacred to the memory of Alexander Hunter of Blackness, born A.D
1710. died 1777 and was interred here, aged LXVII; also to the memory of Aemilia
Gardyne, daughter of David Gardyne, Esquire of Middletoun and Lauton; and of Ann
Graham of Fintry, born at Middletoun 1713, died December 1804, aged XCII years,
and was also interred here.
Additional note: In around 1834 the remains of the following
words could still be seen:-
D____ SVO EXTRVI________ Anno Domini, the presumed date was
1615.
Source: The Book of the Howff, ©Libraries, Leisure and Culture
Dundee, Local History Centre & is reproduced with kind permission.
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