Lockharts

Silver Artifacts as Historical Documents

Today money takes the form of paper and plastic, and increasingly it has become electronic, pulses of energy on the World Wide Web. Capital, meanwhile, defined as money in aggregate, is now recorded on bank statements or else embedded in financial instruments of various kinds, paper or virtual: stocks and bonds, collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) or asset backed commercial paper (ABCP), for example. What a difference a couple of centuries have made! In the eighteenth century money was usually specie, defined as gold or silver currency; and capital–-surplus wealth–-was often kept as silver plate in the home. Capital stored in this form usually bore marks of ownership, heraldic crests or inscriptions, which are of great interest to collectors of antique silver. In rare instances, as in the case of the Lockhart candlesticks, these badges of ownership can also be historically important. They can tell us things about the past that we otherwise wouldn’t know, serving as ‘primary sources’ of historical information. ⁱ

The case of the Lockhart candlesticks shows just how important engraved crests on silver can be, and how far reaching the stories are they sometimes tell.

Fig. 1. The Lockhart candlesticks are neo classical in style. The columns are heavy cast in .825 fine silver,

and the bases are fabricated of silver sheet over a wooden base. “Loaded”, the columns have a core of plaster

or pitch to add weight, and the “bobeches”, or drip pans, are detachable. (Photograph by Ilja Hargas)

In 2002 I bought a pair of loaded, hallmarked candlesticks at auction (Figure 1). They were catalogued as 18th century, probably from the Low Countries; and they bore an interesting crest (Figure 2). I began investigating my purchase, first by searching the Internet for the motto blazoned on the crest, Corda Serrata Pando ( I open locked hearts ), and I discovered that the Lockhart family of Lee and Carnwath from Lanarkshire still use this motto. The device on the crest, a boar’s head erased, is also correct for this family. It seemed as though I had found the original owners.

Fig. 2. Crest with motto, “Corda Serrata Pando”, and five-pointed coronet. (Ilja Hargas)

Intriguingly, however, the crest is surmounted by a five-pointed coronet, appropriate to a nobleman of the rank of an English earl or a European count. This posed something of a problem because the Lockharts, while property owners, had only ever contained baronets among their ranks. At the same time I also ascertained that the sticks were hallmarked for Brussels, in the then Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium) for the year 1778. This posed a second mystery: why would a set of Brussels candlesticks bear a Scottish crest? My investigation revealed quite an interesting story. Essentially, I found that these candlesticks are part of a remarkable trail of historical evidence. They help tell the story of a Scottish military man with an amazing career that spanned much of the 18th century.

Fig. 3. Hallmarks. The crowned lion rampant denotes the standard of fineness, “78” signifies 1778,

the year of manufacture, and the third mark denotes the city of Brussels as the place of manufacture.

(Photograph by Ilja Hargas)

Fig. 4. Maker’s mark. This mark, of a swan, represents a Brussels maker

of whom almost nothing is known. ( Photograph by Ilja Hargas)

In fact, these candlesticks together with two other artifacts, an enameled gold snuffbox and a medieval charm stone called the Lee Penny, are all related to each other. They all once belonged to James Lockhart, a Count of the Holy Roman Empire. Considered as a group, these objects cast light upon some important aspects of the history of Scotland, ranging from the legends and folklore of medieval times to the Jacobite cause. One of them even helped to inspire Sir Walter Scott’s famous novel, The Talisman.

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History

According to The General Armory, “In the centre, two flags parted per fess argent and gulles flotant to the dexter and sinister, placed behind a boar’s head erased proper” is the crest of James Lockhart of Lee and Carnwath, Count Lockhart-Wischeart of the Holy Roman Empire, (1727–1790). ^iv

Born James Lockhart in Lanarkshire, Lockhart was the second son of a prominent Jacobite family, the Lockharts of Carnwath. His grandfather, George Lockhart, was the Scottish agent of James Francis Edward Stuart, the “Old Pretender,” and the author of the posthumously published Lockhart Papers. These documents, including letters and George Lockhart’s journal, comprise probably the most important primary source of information on the Jacobite rebellion of 1715. ^v

Portrait of James Lockhart, by Johann Ernst Heinsius (1740 – 1812)

Lockhart’s elder brother, also named George, was the personal aide-de-camp to Charles Edward Stuart, the ‘Young Pretender,’ during the Jacobite rising of 1745. George Lockhart accompanied Prince Charles into exile in Paris after defeat at Culloden. James Lockhart, then eighteen years old, was both the scion of a known Jacobite family and also a second son. Since his prospects in Scotland were poor, he left to make his way in the world.

His name first appears in 1745. In A Memoir of the ‘Forty-Five’, (Chevalier de Johnstone, 1958), a Lockhart is mentioned who is probably James ^vii:

“We were scarcely a musket-shot from the shore, when the captain pointed out to me one of the midshipmen in the boat, of the name of Lockhart, asking me if I knew his family in Scotland. I answered in the negative, telling him that I had never been in any other service than that of Mrs. Gray. I was uneasy lest Mr. Lockhart should have recognized me for, as I had been a schoolfellow of his elder brother and frequently in the house of his father, Mr. Lockhart of Carnwath, he might very possibly have known me. He was about eighteen years of age and had been four years in the navy. His eldest brother, the heir to a considerable estate, had been foolish enough, like so many others, to join the standard of Prince Charles.”

There seems little doubt that this passage refers to James Lockhart and a short career at sea might also help explain how he came to serve as a common soldier in the army of Nadir Shah, the Shah of Persia during 1746 as Persia would have been difficult to reach by journeying overland from Scotland at that time. More importantly perhaps, it is unlikely that Lockhart could have left the Royal Navy at this time without deserting.

In any event, after Lockhart’s servce in Persia he roamed Europe enlisting in various armies and learning the military arts. Towards the end of the war of the Austrian Succession he joined the Austrian service to fight in the armies of the Empress Maria Theresa and, in 1752, he was commissioned a captain of the Grenadier Company of the 33rd Regiment, the “Waldeck.” Lockhart also fought in a series of battles against the Prussians during the Seven Years’ War (1756–63), including the battle of Prague in 1757. At the battle of Kunersdorf, in 1759, he was instrumental in turning the tide of the battle and securing an Austrian victory. He was promoted on the battlefield by his commanding officer, Field Marshal Freiherr von Laudon.

Baron Ernst Gideon von Laudon, he officer who promoted Lockhart at Kunersdorf, was one of the most suc- cessful military commanders of his age. It is said that the legendary Russian general Suvorov credited von Laudon with teaching him the military arts and von Laudon was himself descended from a Scottish family that had settled in present day Estonia two centuries previously. In any event, Lockhart was again cited for bravery at the battle of Landshut in 1761 and from then on he rose rapidly through he ranks of the Austrian army, eventually being promoted to the rank of general. While serving abroad James Lockhart had clearly not forgotten about the family estates in Scotland and he engaged in a number of legal and extra-legal manoeuvres to keep the lands in the hands of an obviously pro-Jacobite family.

The Chevalier, a Jacobite, was escaping from England after the disaster at Culloden. While he does not give the Christian name of this midshipman Lockhart, James was in fact eighteen years old then. A career at sea also helps to account for his presence afterwards in the dominions of Nadir Shah, as the journey overland from Scotland to Persia was well nigh impossible in 1746.

In 1761 Lockhart had to resign his commission in the Austrian service and return to Scotland to secure title to the estates. His father was ailing, and the Carnwath lands and property were entailed upon his brother George, still living in exile in Paris. George, however, was attainted with treason for his role in the ‘45, and the patrimony would therefore revert to the Crown upon the death of the elder George Lockhart. Staging the death of George the younger fixed the problem. At George’s “funeral” in Paris a casket of stones served as his mortal remains. And so the Carnwath estate were passed to James Lockhart upon the death of his father.

Returning to Europe with the future of the family estates assured James reentered Austrian service and, after a campaign in Lombardy in the service of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, the Empress Maria Theresa ennobled Lockhart in 1782. As Count Lockhart-Wischeart of the Holy Roman Empire he remained in the Austrian service under Maria Theresa’s successor, the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, who later stood a godfather to Lockhart’s son. Count Lockhart was also a Knight of the Order of Maria Theresa and a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to the Emperor Joseph II and it is also thought that he served in the last war the Austrians ever waged against the Turks.^xi

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Artifacts as historical documents

According to Simon Lockhart, the Count served in his later years on the staff of the Duke of Lorraine, Impe- rial Viceroy to the Austrian Netherlands. C. L. Johnstone, writing in 1878, also claimed that Lockhart became the “Viceroy of the Netherlands.” Unfortunately, neither of these claims is documented so they cannot be completely relied upon without supporting evidence. This is a shame because such an exalted office would have been quite an accomplishment for a Scottish younger son who could have been a deserter from the Royal Navy.

This is why the Lockhart candlesticks are so important: they are currently the only piece of physical proof that Lockhart could physically have been in Belgium. They place him squarely in the Austrian Netherlands at the correct time, and so provide some small support for these statements about his later imperial career.

The Lee Penny

(Photograph © by Bill Lockhart)

As the heir of the Lockharts, Count Lockhart was an owner of the ‘Lee Penny,’ a family heirloom of great distinction which was the most famous of the Scottish charm stones. It consists of a small, dark-red stone set in the reverse of a Groat coin of the reign of Edward IV (1461–83). According to tradition, Sir Simon Lockhart of Lee acquired the stone as part ransom for a prisoner he captured at the battle of Teba in 1330, the death place of Sir James Douglas while on crusade with the heart of King Robert I in Spain.

The story relates that Sir Simon brought the Lee Penny back to Scotland, and it became famous as a healing charm against the bite of mad dogs, and against diseases of cattle. When used for healing the amulet was drawn once round a vessel filled with water and then dipped three times. The charmed water then served as an infallible cure, for example against cases of the “routing ewil” in cattle. In yet another story it is claimed that,

“[...] in one of the epidemics of the plague which attacked Newcastle in the reign of Charles I, the inhabitants of that town obtained the loan of the Lee-Penny by granting a bond of £6000 for its safe return. Such, it is averred, was their belief in its virtues, and the good that it effected, that they offered to forfeit the money and keep the charm-stone.”

Whatever the case, we do know that in 1789 the Empress Maria Theresa presented Count Lockhart with a gold and enamel snuff box in which he afterwards kept the Lee Penny. It remains there today, in the keeping of Angus Lockhart, current laird of the Lockharts.

The Gold Snuff Box

(Photograph © by Bill Lockhart)

The Lee Penny is important for another reason because Sir Walter Scott based his novel The Talisman (1825) in part upon the story of the Lee Penny. In the introduction to this work he described the amulet, and recounted its history and curative properties. He wrote,

“The most remarkable part of its history, perhaps, was that it so especially escaped condemnation when the Church of Scotland chose to impeach many other cures which savoured of the miraculous, as occasioned by sorcery, and censured the appeal to them, excepting only that to the amulet, called the Leepenny, to which it had pleased God to annex certain healing virtues which the Church did not presume to condemn.”

The Lockhart candlesticks, 6.5 inches tall, are desk candlesticks, not the kind of tall table candlesticks then used at grand dinners. One can imagine them sitting on the count’s escritoire while he delighted his important guests by taking the Lee Penny from his writing bureau, showing it to them, and telling the tale of Sir Simon Lockhart, the battle of Teba, and the journey made by the heart of Robert the Bruce. If he did, the talisman must have sparkled in the candlelight.

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Kevin Brown is a freelance writer and set designer living near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Bibliography:

1. Macdonald Lockhart, Simon (1977) Seven Centuries: The History of the Lockharts of Lee and Carnwath, SFM Lockhart, ISBN 0-9505711-0-5

2. Szechi, Daniel (2002) George Lockhart of Carnwath 1689-1727, A Study in Jacobitism, Tuckwell Press Ltd, ISBN 1-86232-132-9

3. Johnstone, C.L. (1878) The Historical Families of Dunfriesshire and the Border Wars. Available online from: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/dumfries/index.htm

4. Johnstone, Chevalier de (1958) (Edited with an Introduction by Brian Rawson) A Memoir of the ‘Forty-Five, Folio Society, London

5. Vanwittenbergh, Jacques, Orfevrerieau Poinconde Bruxelles. Exhibition catalogue: (1979) Bruxelles, Société Générale de Banque

Websites:

1. Johnstone, C.L. (1878) The Historical Families of Dunfriesshire and the Border Wars. Available Online: www.electricscotland.com

2. John William Lockhart, Isabelle S. Lockhart and John Barson Lockhart, www.lockharts.com

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Footnotes:

ⁱAcademic historians distinguish between primary and secondary research sources. Primary sources are unpublished materials (archival documents, minutes, birth and death records etc.); and secondary sources, published histories.

ⁱⁱ Macdonald Lockhart, Simon (1977) Seven Centuries: The History ofthe Lockharts of Lee and Carnwath. Three 17th century Lockharts of this lineage were baronets. Pages 50–69.

ⁱⁱⁱVanwittenbergh, Jacques, Orfevrerie au Poincon de Bruxelles, page 235.

^iv The General Armory, page 617

^v Szechi, Daniel (2002) George Lockhart of Carnwath 1689-1727, A Study in Jacobitism, Tuckwell Press Ltd. ^vi MacDonald Lockhart, op cit. page 256.

^vii Johnstone, Chevalier de (1958) (Edited with an Introduction by Brian Rawson) A Memoir of the ‘Forty- Five, Folio Society, London. Page 244.

^viii MacDonald Lockhart, op cit. page 258.

^ix Available Online at Economic Expert.com, this link: http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Ernst:Gideon:Freiherr:von:Laudon.htm

^x MacDonald Lockhart, op cit. page 259.

^xi Johnstone, C.L. (1878) The Historical Families of Dunfriesshire and the Border Wars. Online at: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/dumfries/index.htm

^xii MacDonald Lockhart, op cit. page 261.

^xiii Johnstone, C.L. (1878) op cit

^xiv The full story of the journey of Robert the Bruce’s heart is recounted by: Lockhart, Isabelle S., The Heart, available Online: http://www.lockharts.com/the heart/index.html. This work also includes much information about the Lee Penny and Count Lockhart’s snuffbox, presented to him by Maria Theresa.

^xv Scottish Charms and Amulets: the Lee-Penny, available Online: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/articles/charms13.htm

^xviScott, Sir Walter, The Talisman, The Literature Network, available Online: http://www.online-literature.com/walter_scott/talisman/0/

^xvii Johnstone, C.L. (1878) op cit.

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