LAUDER, Robert of Lauder and Bass, Sir

  General Notes:

"In Balfour's Annals (c1548) we read that 'Sir Robert Lauder of Basse, with the French garisone of Dunbar Castle, takes the English provisione going from Berwick to Haddingtone; kills many shouldiors and takes the Governor of Haddington, named Wilford, prissoner.'

This was after the Battle of Pinkie, in which Sir Robert is noted, with his kinsman Sir Alexander Lauder of Haltoun, in the cavalry. Unfortunately Sir Alexander was killed. This Sir Robert built Lauder's Hospital in North Berwick and died in 1561. His son, another Sir Robert (d.1576), husband of Elizabeth Hay of the Yester family, was at Carberry Hill with Queen Mary to whom he had loaned £2000, never recovered."

from The Lauders of Bass

"With reference to the peculiar indenture of Sir Robert Lauder of Bass, his descendant Sir Thomas Dick-Lauder writes as follows:

- 'The curious indenture in my possession, handed down to me among the ancient parchments of my family, not only establishes the existence of this Robert Lauder but also proves that the family of Lauder of Lauder, and Lauder of Bass continued to be one and the same, at least until after his time. The indenture is dated in the year 1531. It is written in twenty lines, in the more modern German hand, on a piece of parchment about 11 1/8 inches wide by 9 inches high. It has those indentations at its upper part which marks it as cut from the other part of the indenture, viz. that which remained with the parties with whom it was entered into, which would at any time have proved the identity of that corresponding part, which indentations give the name of indenture to this species of written contract. At the bottom of the writing are the signatures of nine friars of the convent of Dundee.

'We frier John Gregory Provincial of ye friers Predicators within ye Realme of Scotland, Prior and Observant of ye place of ye said ordo of ye Burgh of Dundee, to all & sundry quhais knowledge in Christs salvation. Greeting in God everlasting. Amen.
Forasmeikle as ane nobill man, Robert Lauder of Bass.....' In witness hereof we have houng our Priory sele, togidder with our subscriptions manual to ye Predicators Indentures, and it to remain with ye said Robert Lauder and his airse, and that by part to remain with us and our successors for them & theirs information of this our present bond & obligation.

'At our said place of Dundee ye twenty aught day of November ye zeir of God Ane thousand fyve hundred & thretty ane zeirs...'
Robert Lauder, the granter and holder of this curious old document, was a great supporter of the Queen-Regent, Mary of Guise, doing good service for her in East Lothian against the English, and also in upholding her authority in opposition to the Lords of the Congregation. He married Alison Cranstoun of Cranstoun, and from deeds extant he must have had four sons - William, John, Robert and Alexander; but it is also very clear from the same source that John the second son was illegitimate, and not the son of Alison Cranstoun; for, on the 15th February 1531, James V. granted 'letters of legitimation to John Lauder, natural son of Robert Lauder of the Bass,' in order that he might eventually inherit a portion of his father's estate, which as a bastard he could not do. Sir Robert had evidently made provision for the separating of the Lauder lands from the Bass estate long before his death, desiring to apportion each of his sons therein, leaving Lauder Tower and the Forest to his eldest son William as chief, and the Bass estate with the East Lothian lands to his second son. That this son was called John, and not Robert, is clearly evidenced by the charter itself, which Sir George Mackenzie distinctly affirms bore, 'Joannii Lauder, filio secundo genito de Lauder Tower' and in after years, when a dispute arose as to which should take precedence, Lauder Tower or Bass, this charter was brought forward to prove that, of the two branches after the division which took place in 1561 upon the death of Sir Robert Lauder, the last Baron of Lauder and Bass combined under one representative, Lauder Tower was chief and Bass younger, which fact was also manifested by the junior branch changing the supporters of the arms, taking angels in lieu of the two white lions of the chief, and the new motto:'Sub umbra alarum tuarum!"

from The Grange of St Giles ^{1 2}

Robert married Alison CRANSTOUN. (Alison CRANSTOUN was born about 1495 and died after 1 March 1567 ³.)

Robert next married.