• General Notes

  Sir Alexander KIRKPATRICK, ,Lord of Kirkmichael and Conheath
  
  At this time Scotland was exhausted by the constant struggle with England, and the everrecurring conflicts between the different clans, had reduced many to poverty.
  
  Mr. C. L. Johnstone in his book "The Historical Families of Dumfrieshire and the Border Wars" wrote -
  
  "It was thought no degredation for the younger son of a Laird's family to act as a serving man in another house. Also, the mercantile class in Scotland were chiefly drawn from that source, for the predudice against trade which we find amonst the landed gentry in Germany and some other countries, seems never to have existed there.
  The will of John Johnstone, merchant, brother to the Laird of Weststraw, is proved June 4th, 1576, and several of the Johnstones of Newbie and that ilk, of the Maxwell's, Kirkpatrick's, and other Dumfrieshire families, many were merchants.
  
  A relationship with a provincial chief was extremely useful to merchants in early days as it insured a safe conduct through any district where his authority was respected, and the merchant living in town, probably a seaport, and with more education than his country cousin was a very useful relation for a Laird to possess." 

Details of Alexander's family with Margaret Kirkpatrick