John Bellenden (Lord Justice Clerk)

With Sir Robert Carnegie, he agreed an indenture with English commissioners for peace on the Scottish border at Berwick upon Tweed.[1] In 1555 Sir John Bellenden audited accounts for fortifications built by Mary of Guise at Inchkeith. He was a Commissioner for the Treaty of Peace with Anna of Oldenburg, signed at Aberdeen 19 October 1556 confirmed by Mary, Queen of Scots, 26 September 1557. In the articles of the Treaty of Edinburgh he was nominated to discuss the French withdrawal from Scotland on behalf of the Lords of the Congregation.[2]

His brother, Patrick Bellenden was present at the murder of David Rizzio at Holyrood Palace. Rizzio hid behind Mary, Queen of Scots. According to Mary, Patrick Bellenden pointed his gun at her pregnant belly.[3]

John Bellenden attended at the coronation of King James VI of Scotland on 29 July 1567 at Stirling. In February 1572, during the Marian Civil War, Regent Mar sent him and Robert Colville of Cleish to greet two English ambassadors, Thomas Randolph and William Drury, in Edinburgh and invite them to supper.[4]

Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet, writing in the seventeenth century, tells us that "Sir John made the conquests, and left his eldest son Sir Lewis a fair estate, viz. the barony of Broughton, with the superiority of the Canongate and North Leith, having therein near two thousand vassals; the baronies of Auchnoul, Woodhouslie, Abbot's-grange, and many others. And to the eldest son of the third marriage he left the barony of Carlowrie, (Linlithgowshire), and Kilconquhar, Fife, and diverse lands about Brechin."

Sir John married three times:

1. Marion (or Margaret) Scott, by whom he had three daughters. Two died young and the third, Marion (d. 1604), married John Ramsay of Dalhousie. This was probably the wedding in October 1564, three miles from Edinburgh, described by Thomas Randolph.[5][6]
2. Barbara Kennedy, daughter of Sir Hugh Kennedy of Girvanmains by his spouse Janet Stewart, daughter to John Stewart, 2nd Earl of Atholl. The contract was signed by the Regent Mary of Guise herself on 30 September 1555. Barbara was a lady-in-waiting to the Queen Regent,[7] who bought a black velvet gown for her.[8] Guise contributed £266-13s-4d to her a dowry in October 1555. At this time, her father was employed by Guise on a military mission in the north against the Clan Mackay, and John Bellenden was working with the Regent at her justice ayres in Dumfries and Jedburgh.[9] They had four sons and one daughter. They were;
   1. Sir Lewis Bellenden of Auchnole & Broughton, Lord Justice Clerk, John's heir.
   2. Adam Bellenden, Bishop of Aberdeen.
   3. William Bellenden, Vicar of Kilconquhar.
   4. Thomas Bellenden of Kilconquhar, Fife, a Senator of the College of Justice (14 August 1591).
   5. Annabella Bellenden, married before June 1599, as his second wife, Sir Alexander Lauder of Haltoun, Sheriff Principal of Edinburghshire.

His third marriage was in January 1565.[10]

• The Scots' Peerage, by Sir James Balfour Paul, Edinburgh, 1905, vol.ii, p. 64/5.
• Melrose Regality Records, edited by Charles S. Romanes, C.A., Edinburgh, 1917, vol.3, p. 374/5.