Stirches Armorial Bookplates
These armorial bookplates are from the John Johnson Collection - an archive of printed ephemera, held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
The first two are attributed to Gilbert Chisholme of that Ilk and Stirches. The second pair are attributed to John Chisholme of that Ilk and Stirches.
Both carry the family motto of "vi et virtute".
Gilbert Chisholme (1748-1826) and his son John Chisholme (1810-1868) were descndants of Walter Chisholme of that Ilk and 1st of Stirches, who had originally acquired the Stirches estate in 1660.
(see footnote below)
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Stirches is now part of the town of Hawick in Roxburghshire. It was previously an estate on the outskirts of the old town, owned by several generations of Chisholmes starting with Walter Chisholme of that Ilk and 1st of Stirches WHO acquired the estate of Stirches in 1660.
The estate passed through the hands of succeeding generations, eventually falling to Captain Gilbert Chisholme in 1794.
In 1810 Gilbert Chisholme married Elizabeth Scott of Whitehaugh, a nearby estate south of Hawick. On his death in 1823, the Stirches estate passed to his eldest son John Chisholme (1810-1868) who became known as the 6th of Stirches.
He later acquired the lands of Whitehaugh in 1852 on succession from his wife's family, and John subsequently assumed the name of John Scott-Chisholme.
He was the father of Colonel John James Scott-Chisholme (1851-1899) the cavalry officer who lost his life during the Anglo-Boer War in South Africa.
On his death, John James Scott-Chisholme left a family of three daughters but no male heir. He was the last in the line of the Chisholme's of Stirches.