JAFFRAY, Alexander of Kingswells, Magistrate ^{2 3 4}

   Other names for Alexander were JOFFRAY, Alexr. ⁵ and JOIFFRAY, Alexander.¹

   User ID: X145.

Alexander married Christian BURNET, daughter of Alexander BURNET of Kynneskie and Elspeth CHALMERS, on 30 August 1579 in Saint Nicholas parish, Aberdeen, Scotland.¹ (Christian BURNET was born about 1554 and died in July 1619 ².)

  Marriage Notes:

"JOIFFRAY
ALEXANDER
CRISTAN BURNETT/FR3903 3848 (FR3903)
30/08/1579
168/A 120 171
Aberdeen"

"BURNETT
CRISTAN
ALEXR. JOIFFRAY/FR3903 3848 (FR3903)
30/08/1579
168/A 120 114
Aberdeen"

from Index of Marriages




"The elder son was the father of the Provost, and first proprietor of Kingswells, which he purchased from Robert Arthur, burgess, in May, 1579. This Alexander Jaffray was for a long time one of the Magistrates, and, by his wife Christian Burnett, the father of at least four sons: Alexander, the Provost, David, Andrew, and James, besides a daughter Marjorie."

from Aldermen and Provosts




"The younger Alexander Jaffray here mentioned afterwards married his guardian's niece. Christian, daughter of Alexander Burnet of Kynneskie, and purchased the estate of Kingswells, a few miles west of Aberdeen, in 1587, and the family of Jaffray of Kingswells seem to have been made gentlemen of coat armour as early as 1613. Of that date their arms (Paly of six, argent and sable on a fess of the first three mullets of the second) appear on the seal of Alexander Jaffray, bailie of Aberdeen (Laing's Catalogue, Vol. H., p. 91), either that Alexander or his son. Alexander Jaffray, son of Leys' ward, was elected Provost of Aberdeen in 1636 and on several subsequent occasions, was a prominent covenanter, and represented Aberdeen in the Scottish Parliament of 1639. Notwithstanding his armorial status and his maternal Burnet descent, and his being married to a daughter of Erskine of Pittodrie, Jaffray was, in respect of his paternal origin, looked down upon as a parvenu by some of the town aristocracy. 'Mony,' says Spalding, in allusion to his first election as Provost, 'lichtleit both the man and the electioun, not being of the old blood of the toun, but the oy of ane baxter, and thairfor was set down in the provostis deas before his incuming to sermon ane bakin pye. This was dune divers times but he miskenit all and never querellet the amen.' This Alexander died in 1646 (his son's diary informs us), in the house of his cousin, Alexander Burnet in Aberdeen (a Burnet of the Camphill line, whose mother was a sister of Provost Jaffray). His son, also named Alexander, was obnoxious to the Cavalier party for his connection with the death of Gordon of Haddo, as one of the charges for which Haddo was executed was the imprisoning of Jaffray in Auchindoun Castle in 1644. On the occupation of Aberdeen by Montrose in 1644, the younger Jaffray took refuge at Dunnottar. In the following year, he relates in his diary, on returning from a visit to Crathes in company with his brother and Andrew Cant (whose daughter he soon afterwards married), the party were encountered by the young laird of Harthill on his way home from the battle of Kilsyth. Harthill's party carried him prisoner to the garrisoned house of Pitcaple, whence he was released by his friends after seven weeks' confinement. He represented Aberdeen in the Covenanting Parliament of 1649, and was twice named as one of the Commissioners to negociate with Charles H. for his return. In his later days he became a member of the Society of Friends, and has left a characteristic diary, edited 1833. Like Quaker diaries generally, it abounds in retrospections, including deep compunction at his share in forcing the Covenant on those who would not have it, and for zeal even unto slaying against both Prelatists and Friends, many of whom were men of a far more religious spirit than himself. A note by the editor (p. 568) states somewhat incorrectly his relation to the Bumets."

from Family of Burnett of Leys


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