Old Photograph Bannockburn House Scotland

Old photograph of Bannockburn House by Bannockburn town located just South of Stirling, Scotland. In 1636 the lands of Bannockburn were gifted to Sir John Rollo. He was the second son of Sir Andrew Rollo of Duncrub, who was granted the Baronetcy by King Charles II at Perth, Perthshire, in 1651 for his strong royalist support for Charles I during the English Civil War. When Sir John Rollo died in 1666 he had no direct decendant as his only son had predeceased him. In this case his nephew Andrew 3rd Lord Rollo succeeded him to the Barony. Andrew sold the lands to Hugh Paterson in 1672 after only five years. Hugh Paterson, who was a writer and Clerk of Council in Edinburgh, was to commission the building of the house in 1675. The house and the estates were to stay in the Paterson family who were known to be strong Jacobite supporters until 1715, when the third Sir Hugh Paterson, grandson of Hugh Paterson and a relative of the Earl of Mar, was to fight in the Jacobite rebellion of 1715. For their Jacobite support their lands were forfeited. The Paterson family continued to live in the house, and in January 1746 at the invitation of Sir Hugh, Bonny Prince Charlie, The Young Pretender, was to make Bannockburn house his headquarters after his army’s long march back from Derby in England, where he had tried to drum up English support for the Jacobites. It was during his stay at Bannockburn, after his victory on the 17th January against the Hanovarian army at Falkirk Muir, that he developed a fever. He was looked after by Clementina Walkinshaw, who was an ardent Jacobite supporter. A bullet hole still remains in the wall where the head of the bed was in the room which Prince Charles had occupied. Tradition has it that it was caused by the bullet of an assassin fired through the bedroom window. It is thought that Charles and Clementina were first introduced at her father’s mansion house at Shawfield Glasgow in December 1745, and that they had become romantically involved. Later she followed him and in 1752 the couple were living together in France. Their daughter Charlotte was born in 1753 and was the only acknowledged child of Bonnie Prince Charlie.



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