Col Robert Bruce

• General Notes
  • http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mdallegh/bios/bio-b.htm
    
    
    Col. Robert Bruce
    
    COLONEL ROBERT BRUCE was the son of Upton Bruce, who came to Cumberland in 1789. Mr. Upton Bruce was born in that part of Frederick county Maryland, at Bruceville, now within the limits of Carroll county. He was the son of Norman Bruce, who came to Maryland in 1748, and located in Saint Mary's county. He was the high sheriff of Saint Mary's county from 1761 to 1764, and of Frederick county from 1768 to 1771.
    
    The Bruce family was of Scotch descent, and the tradition of the family is that Norman Bruce was a descendant of Robert, Earl of Garrick, King of Scotland.
    
    He married in December, 1761, Susannah Gardiner Key, the daughter of Philip Key, a brilliant lawyer and statesman, and a member of the Council of Maryland. Mrs. Bruce was the aunt of Francis Scott Key, author of the Star Spangled Banner, and of the wife of Roger Brooke Taney, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Honorable Philip Key, her father, while always a resident of Saint Mary's county, Maryland, was a man of large affairs and one of the most extensive land owners in Maryland. Besides immense holdings in, Saint Mary's county, be owned over five thousand acres of land in Frederick county, now the fertile Middleburg district of Carroll county, and this was the occasion of his daughter and her husband locating in that part of the State. Among their children was Elizabeth Key Bruce, who married John Scott, a distinguished man of his time, and was the mother of Dr. Norman Bruce Scott, an eminent physician of his day, and the ancestor of that branch of the Scott family now of Frederick and Washington counties. Their two sons, Norman [should be Upton] Bruce and Andrew Bruce located in Allegany, about the time that it was erected into a county.
    
    Norman [should be Upton] Bruce, the father of the subject of this sketch, represented Allegany county in the Legislature of Maryland in 1804 and for the three succeeding terms; he was judge of the Orphan's Court from 1810 to 1812, and State Senator from Allegany county from 1812 to 1815. He was also the first president of the Bank of Allegany, now the First National Bank of Cumberland. He built, in 1810, the commodious brick building situated on Chase street, and which for many years past has been known as the home of the family of the late Dr. James M. Smith.
    
    Colonel Robert Bruce was educated at the Allegany County Academy, and was considered one of the most skillful accountants of his time, attested by a long experience in the Bank of Allegany. He was a member of the Legislature of Maryland in 1836, and was a candidate for State Comptroller in 1867. He was very active in recruiting the Second Maryland Regiment, Potomac Home Brigade, of which he was the colonel, and in which he served with zeal and ardor to the end of the Civil War. He was elected Judge of the Orphan's Court of Allegany county in 1874, and served for sixteen consecutive years, when a most creditable judicial, career ended by his death. He married Miss Hodges, with whom he lived with unusual felicity for the long period of fifty-six years. They left four children, Robert Jr., and three daughters, one the wife of General B. F. Kelly; one the wife of Mr. D. James Blackiston, and one the wife of Colonel James C. Lynn.
    
    Colonel Bruce had two sisters; Kate, wife of the Honorable Price, the distinguished lawyer, and Marion, wife of General Walter Guynn. He also had brothers, Norman, Henry, Dr. Charles Key and Upton Bruce, all of whom were distinguished in the civil life of Allegany county.
    
    Andrew Bruce, who came to Allegany with his brother Upton, about the time of the organization of the county, was one of the associate judges of the first County Court held in Allegany in 1791, and served in that capacity for six years. He was judge of the Orphans Court from 1803 to 1810, dying in 1814. He was the. father of William Bruce, who married Phoebe Cresap, the parents of the late Colonel Daniel Cresap Bruce, for many years the efficient U. S. Internal-Revenue Collector for the Cumberland District. Andrew Bruce was also the father of George Bruce, Register of Wills of Allegany County from 1805 to 1818; Sheriff 1819, and member of the Legislature in 1823. He married Rachael Tomlinson, and they were the parents of Mrs. Elizabeth Bruce Dickinson, and of the late Dr. John Jesse Bruce, a highly educated man, a graduate with high honors of Washington College, Pennsylvania, with James G. Blaine as one of his classmates. He was an eminent citizen and a man of unusual force and culture.