Pursuing Hugh & Helen (Campbell) Walker I find that someone has her grandfather John Campbell marrying Janet Morton at Loudoun and that this John's father is none other than James Campbell 2nd Earl of Loudoun and his wife Margaret Montgomerie. It is rather astounding the the second and known son of the Earl's granddaughter should end up a cottar's wife at remote Bridgeburnbent.

However it seems as hard to prove incorrect as it is to prove correct. Nothing much is seemingly known about this particular son - his elder brother Hugh of course went on to be the third earl of Loudoun. But John - he is variously known as Colonel John Campbell of Shankistoun and other snippets but it is all vague and contradictory. He is supposed to have married a Barbara Villiers but I think it is 'wrong John". He cannot have been the laird of Shankistoun as that position is filled by another branch of the Campbell family which seems well documented on the web.

James the second Earl is said to have lived and died abroad. He certainly died abroad but the Loudoun Kirk site transcriptions clearly show that James and his wife have two children (at least) christened at Loudoun - Hugh on 14/1/1674 and John on 8/3/1675.

These were troubled times fraught with covenanting issues - the first Earl John was in the thick of it and his Campbell kin the Marquis of Argyll went to the Maiden - John 1st Earl made a rousing defence of the Marquiss and it is thought that he might have had doubts as to his own fate. In the troubles of 1650 he was apparently charged with and to be tried for adultery - which were only dropped after Hamilton's defeat at Worcester and the Whiggamore raid in which John was involved. He had his estates confiscated by Cromwell with only a pension for his wife and children and then after the restoration was subject to a huge fine 'for assistance given to Cromwell'.
Tom Caldwell

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