Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 21 on 10/07/2005.

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Treasure trove

Charles Douglas visits Dalmeny House near South Queensferry

Some may consider it an unlikely surname for Scotland, but the family name of Primrose originates from the lands of Primrose in Dunfermline, in the Kingdom of Fife, occurring first in a mid-12th century charter.

An early ancestor was Jonne Prymros, a stone mason, who in 1387 was contracted to work on St Giles’s Parish Church in Edinburgh.

Although early records indicate that the family was based in and around Culross, they appear to have risen to prominence in the 17th century, when Gilbert Primrose became Dean of Windsor in 1628, and James Primrose, Clerk to the Privy Council under James VI and I.

James was succeeded by his son Archibald who fought on the Royalist side during the Civil War. As a result, his estates were confiscated by the Cromwellian Government, but his unswerving service to the exiled Stuart kings earned him a knighthood at the Restoration and he was appointed Lord Clerk Register of Scotland.

In 1662, he purchased the Barony of Barnbougle and Dalmeny, and moved his family into the 13th century tower house which stands to this day on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth, some two miles (three km) east of South Queensferry, and six miles (10 km) north west of central Edinburgh.

In the next generation, Archibald’s youngest son, also Archibald, fought with the Imperial Army in Hungary during the reign of James VII and II. In 1700 he was raised to the British peerage as Viscount Rosebery, a title he took from Rosebery Topping, a hill near his wife’s est.....

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By Charles Douglas

Section : Historic Houses

Page number : 14