Although the Kinloch family had owned the Kinloch Estate in Meigle since 1616, their fortunes suffered following the Battle of Culloden due to Sir James Kinloch's support for the Jacobite cause. 

His son was forced to sell the estate, but it remained in the wider Kinloch family as it was sold to his cousin, George Oliphant Kinloch, George Kinloch's father. George Oliphant Kinloch was able to purchase the Kinloch estate in Meigle due to an unexpected inheritance in 1770 of the Grange sugar plantation in Jamaica. 

At the time of George Kinloch's birth in 1775, Kinloch House was being rebuilt following a fire, so he was born at Belle View House in Dundee. In that same year, George's father died, so George's older brother, John, inherited the Kinloch estates. John died in his teens in 1789, so the properties passed to the 13 year old George. These properties included the Grange Plantation in Jamaica, including its enslaved workers. George sold the Grange Plantation in 1804, when he was aged 29, and then in 1808, he extended his landowning in Scotland when he bought extensive landholdings at Carnoustie.

George Kinloch became involved in politics in Dundee and took a prominent part in the development of the Dundee harbour, which opened in 1815.

Although he was a member of the landowning classes, George Kinloch was a prominent figure among those who were arguing in the early 19th century for the reform of the UK Parliament and the extension of the franchise to include working people. This earned George the nickname 'The Radical Laird' and led to him presiding over a meeting on the Magdalen Yard Green on 10 November 1819 that advocated for annual elections by secret ballot, with universal suffrage. Although the mass meeting went peacefully, George was subsequently charged with sedition and was declared an outlaw on 24 December 1819. He spent three years in exile in France but returned to the UK, living as a fugitive in London until he received an official pardon in May 1823.

Kinloch was elected to become the very first MP for the newly-formed constituency of Dundee 13 years to the day after he had been declared an outlaw. The abolition of slavery was part of his election platform even though he had himself become a slave owner following his father's and brother's deaths. His parliamentary career was cut short by his own death just the following year. 

He was also chairman of the Dundee and Newtyle Railway Company, which opened the first regular passenger railway in Scotland in 1831. The development of the planned village of Washington, now Ardler, which was designed around the railway and saw many streets named after prominent social reformers, was very much his brainchild. However, his early death meant that he was not to see any of these plans become reality, and the development never reached the scale that his plans envisaged.

Although George Kinloch had forfeited his estates when he was declared an outlaw, they were regained by his son, who was made Baronet when the Baronetcy of Kinloch of Kinloch was restored in 1873.

Patrick Murray of Simprim played an important role in Meigle’s history. The illegitimate son of Lord Elibank of Simprim, Simprim being about five miles north of Coldstream in the Borders, Patrick had a difficult childhood and was only about seven years old when his father died. 

As an illegitimate child, he could not inherit the title of Lord Elibank (although he did use the title on occasion anyway) so it passed to his uncle, George Murray. He was, however, able to inherit his father’s fortune, though this was contested in the courts for decades. Lord Elibank's landholdings were extensive and included the Cardean and Potento Estate by Meigle. 

Patrick Murray became a close friend of Sir Walter Scott and shared his interest in collecting antiquities. Sometime in the early 1800s, Patrick Murray built 'The Steading', which incorporates a quantity of medieval masonry, much of which would almost certainly have come from the old Abbey at Coupar Angus. The Steading used to have Patrick Murray’s coat of arms on the section nearest the road but, sadly, this feature has now gone. 

In 1838 Patrick Murray bought the Arthurstone Estate and immediately began adding extensively to the original house. 

When his elder daughter, Susan, married Captain (later Admiral) Popham in 1841, Patrick Murray built Cardean House to be the couple’s marital home at Potento, though he had renamed Potento ‘Cardean’. The new Cardean House incorporated the old Potento House, with much new build, including a wing that had been built at his house at Arthurstone and was dismantled and reconstructed at Cardean. At this time, he also renamed Easter Cardean to become Simprim, after his birthplace in Berwickshire.

In 1842, Patrick’s younger daughter, Maria, married James Talbot, fourth Baron Talbot of Malahide and it was at Malahide Castle, near Dublin, that Patrick Murray died in 1855. Both Patrick Murray and his wife, Susan, are commemorated on a plaque in the small mausoleum which stands beside the last remaining masonry from the Abbey still in situ within the grounds of Coupar Angus Abbey churchyard.

Three families with the name Dargie were among the first to settle in the newly founded village of Ardler in the 1830s, as recorded in the census of 1841. While many of the residents of Ardler in the mid-19th century were employed as agricultural workers, labourers and weavers, Andrew Dargie stood out as a teacher of dancing and deportment. A small publicity booklet published by him in the 1890s shows that he was able to teach ‘Scotch, Irish, English and Modern’ dances, by private tuition or in public classes, offered across the country from London to Inverness and Elgin. A separate leaflet explained that "having secured the services of some thoroughly efficient musicians" he was also "in a position to accept engagements for Balls, At Homes, Evening Parties, Gymkhanas, Garden Parties &c".

James Stuart Mackenzie was Lord Privy Seal for Scotland and an amateur scientist who was one of the earliest members of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 

Born in 1719, he was the younger son of James Stuart, second Earl of Bute, and brother of John, the third Earl, who served as tutor to George III and briefly as the first Scottish-born prime minister in the 1760s. Mackenzie purchased the Kirkhill estate in 1751 and later renamed it Belmont. 

In 1763, almost certainly through his brother’s influence, Mackenzie was sworn of the Privy Council and appointed Lord Privy Seal for Scotland. However, the Earl of Bute was widely disliked, and his close relationship with George III was resented in the House of Commons. Thus, when Bute lost his position in 1765, Mackenzie also fell from office. He was however reinstated in 1766 as Lord Privy Seal for Scotland for life, with the same salary of £3,000, but without the political authority he had previously enjoyed. 

Mackenzie therefore began his ownership of Belmont as an absentee proprietor, still occupied with his duties in public life. In 1780 he withdrew from politics and settled at Belmont permanently, devoting himself to amateur science and to improving the estate. He carried out triangulations on distant hills, kept weather records, and built Kinpurnie Tower as an astronomical observatory. From the 1760s onwards he had been in regular contact with other 'improving' landowners and he put many of the then new agricultural methods into practice on his own land. 

In the 1790s the Reverend James Playfair wrote of “a gentleman” who “formed plans of improvement, enclosed farms with proper fences, banished sheep from infield grounds, combated the prejudices of his tenants, furnished them with marl, distributed premiums, and otherwise rewarded their exertions”. Although Playfair did not name him, the two men were friends, and it seems very likely that Mackenzie was the subject of this admiring description. 

Mackenzie died in London in April 1800 and his estate passed to his second brother’s son, James Archibald Stuart-Wortley, whose own son became the first Baron Wharncliffe. A memorial to Mackenzie celebrating his scientific endeavours was placed in Westminster Abbey and can be viewed here.

Henry Campbell-Bannerman was born as Henry Campbell in Glasgow in 1836, the son of James Campbell, a Glasgow merchant who was to become the Lord Provost of Glasgow. Campbell-Bannerman married Sarah Charlotte Bruce in 1860 and entered politics with the Liberal Party, being elected to parliament in November 1868 as the MP for Stirling Burghs.

His name change in 1870 resulted from a condition included in the will of his maternal uncle, Henry Bannerman, that Bannerman must be included in his name for him to inherit the Hunton Estate in Kent on his uncle’s death. However, he was unhappy with his new surname and preferred to be addressed as 'C.B.'.

Henry bought Belmont Castle in Meigle shortly after a devastating fire in 1884. The building had to be largely rebuilt so it was not until three years later that the Campbell-Bannermans were able to move into their new residence. 

Henry had a very successful political career, serving twice as the Secretary of State for War under Gladstone, and became the Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1884. He was knighted on 1 July 1895 when he was awarded a CGB (Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath).

He became the leader of the Liberal Party in 1899. Following the surprise resignation of Arthur Balfour in December 1905, Campbell-Bannerman unexpectedly became Prime Minister, leading a minority Liberal government. He then led a very successful election campaign which returned an overall majority for his party in February the following year. 

He remained as the Prime Minister until 3 April 1908, when he resigned due to his failing health. Sadly he was to die in 10 Downing Street just 19 days later. His funeral was held in Meigle Church and he was buried in Meigle Churchyard alongside his wife, who had predeceased him in 1905. There is a carved stone plaque marking their final resting place. 

Peter Carmichael was born on 21 March 1809, the son of James Carmichael, the manager of a small flax mill in Fife. 

Following his education at the Grammar School in Dundee, he was apprenticed to a foundry in Monifieth which was involved in the manufacture of textile machinery. 

After a short spell working as an engineer in England, Carmichael returned to Dundee in 1833, where he was appointed as a mill manager by Baxters of Dundee, Scotland’s foremost linen manufacturers. His skills as an engineer and his inventiveness saw him rise from fairly humble beginnings to become a senior manager and eventually a partner with Baxter Brothers. Working with Sir David Baxter, he ensured that Baxter Brothers took advantage of the mid-19th century demand for sail cloth, tarpaulins and other linen products. He continued in this role until his death on 6 May 1891.   

In 1869 Carmichael purchased the estate of Arthurstone, to the west of Meigle, where he set about remodelling the mansion house and improving the gardens. He was much involved in local affairs and, together with his partner Sir David Baxter, and his sisters, became known for their philanthropy, having wide interests in education, nature and church affairs. As feudal superior of the village of Ardler, he funded the building of Ardler Kirk and manse in 1885, built as a memorial to his son James Drummond Carmichael (1849-1881), and the enlargement of Ardler School in 1889. 

In 1878, James Cox purchased the Cardean estate, and later Drumkilbo. James was senior partner of Dundee's Cox Brothers and Co., one of the largest jute companies in Europe. In addition to his business interests, he was active in municipal activities and was elected Provost of the Burgh of Dundee from 1872 to 1875. He was also an elected a member of the Board of Directors of the North British Railway Company and Chairman of the Tay Bridge Company during its construction. Following the collapse of the bridge two years later he was considered a major figure in supporting the construction of the second railway bridge.  Born in July 1808, he married Clementina Carmichael and left one son, Edward Cox, and four daughters when he died in 1885. 

His son Edward Cox became chairman of the Camperdown Jute works in 1893 and by 1900 the firm employed more than 5,000 people. Edward was also a Director of the Scottish American Trust Companies and the Northern American Trust Co. Ltd, and several railway companies. From 1890 to 1891 he was president of the Dundee Chamber of Commerce, and a Governor of University College. He was a Deputy Lord-Lieutenant for the County of the City of Dundee and a Justice of the Peace for Dundee. He was known for philanthropic work and religious work. He died at Cardean in 1913 aged 63. The Meigle Cottage Hospital was built and endowed by Mrs Ada Mary Cox, in memory of her husband. 

The family work in the jute industry was continued by their son James Ernest Cox (1877–1950) who became chairman of Jute Industries Ltd and its subsidiary companies and was a prominent figure in the business and commercial world.  

However, with the globalisation of the jute industry and the Cox family increasingly detached from their workers, by 1912 industrial relations at the Camperdown works had reached boiling point. Workers there were earning no more than their grandparents had earned in the 1840s and, in desperation, they called a strike and marched into the centre of Dundee. The Cox family’s response was to order 16 .38 caliber automatic pistols and 1500 rounds of ammunition from Harrods using a game licence. Luckily these weapons were never used against the workers as the strike was called off, but the industry continued to decline in Dundee and the Camperdown works finally closed in 1981. More information can be found about the Cox family here.

In 1404 Meigle passed from William de Megill into the hands of Sir David Lindsay, the 1st Earl of Crawford and son-in-law of King Robert II, and the lands around Meigle remained with the colourful dynasty of the Lindsays for many years. 

The 1st Earl of Crawford died at Finavon Castle only three years after acquiring Meigle and so it passed to his son, Alexander. He was knighted at the coronation of James I in 1424 for agreeing to be held hostage by the English in exchange for James himself. 

On Alexander’s death in 1438, his son, David Lindsay of Meigle and 3rd Earl of Crawford, inherited the estates. His son, Alexander, had been appointed Baillie of the Regality by the abbot of Arbroath Abbey who later regretted the appointment and instead appointed Alexander Ogilvy, 2nd Baron in Inverquarity. Alexander decided to reclaim his position in what became the Battle of Arbroath and David rode between the two armies in an attempt to prevent any bloodshed, but was mortally wounded by a spear. 

Alexander then became the 4th Earl and was also known as 'The Tiger Earl' or 'Earl Beardie'. He was a major player in the Douglas Rebellions which came to an end in 1452 with his defeat at the Battle of Brechin. However, remarkably, King James II showed clemency and restored his estates to him, including Meigle. 

His estates then passed to his son, David Lindsay, 5th Earl of Crawford, who was made the 1st Duke of Montrose by James III in 1488 for his loyalty, becoming the first Scotsman not of royal blood ever to be granted a Dukedom. However, later that same year, James III was killed during the Battle of Sauchieburn when his troops were defeated by rebels supporting his son, James, Duke of Rothesay who was to become James IV. David Lindsay was stripped of his titles and offices but, like his father, he was fortunate to have his titles restored to him just the following year, albeit only for his own lifetime. 

As a result, following his death in 1495, the Meigle estates passed to the Lyons of Glamis. This stoked animosity between the two families which was to endure over several generations. A significant event in this feud was when his grandson, yet another David Lindsay, the 11th Earl, was involved in a street brawl in Stirling, which resulted in the Lord High Chancellor of Scotland, John Lyon, 8th Lord Glamis, being shot dead. 

Almost 10 years later, in 1589, Crawford’s men, together with those of the Earl of Huntly, ambushed Thomas Lyon, Master of Glamis. The Master of Glamis took refuge in Kirkhill Tower House (now part of Belmont Castle) but, when he refused to give himself up, the men set fire to the Tower. As a result, Lyon was captured and kept prisoner for some weeks 'somewhere in the North'. 

In the same year that Thomas Lyon was taken prisoner, David Lindsay, the 11th Earl, was convicted of treason, due to his associations with Catholic nobles and conspiring with Spain. However, he was released from St Andrews Castle the following year. 

The Ardler Tavern is among the earliest houses to have been built in the village, appearing on the Ordnance Survey map of 1862. The first publican was Agnes Millar, born in Coupar Angus in 1820. Her name appears first in the census of 1871 which describes her as ‘public house keeper’, and later in the census of 1881 which records her as ‘ale merchant’. She is also recorded as a ‘vintner’ or wine merchant in the property Valuation Roll of 1881. Although the property has undergone many changes of ownership since then, we can tell from these records that the business begun by Agnes c.1870 has served as the village pub for more than 150 years.

Lt. Cmdr. M D Wanklyn VC DSO (2 bars) appears as the first name for the deaths resulting from World War Two commemorated on the Meigle War Memorial at Victory Park on Ardler Road. To this day David Wanklyn holds the record for the tonnage of shipping sunk by a submarine commander. 

Malcolm David Wanklyn was born on 28 June 1911 at Alipore near Calcutta in India. He returned to the UK to live, initially in Monmouthshire and then later in Ayrshire. Though he moved regularly he very much considered himself a Scot. 

He joined the Royal Navy in 1925 and served on the battleship HMS Marlborough and HMS Renown before volunteering for the Submarine Service in May 1933.  

David met Elspeth (Betty) Kinloch, the second child of James Kinloch and descendent of the radical reformer, George Kinloch, in Malta in May 1937. The couple married at Holy Trinity Church in Silema, Malta on 5 May the following year.  

The couple made their home in Meigle at Ellengowan on the Dundee Road, and had a son, Ian David Kinloch Wanklyn, who was born in Gosport, Hampshire, on 31 August 1939. Ian was later to also join the Royal Navy and served upon HMS Ark Royal.  

David Wanklyn's submarine career made a slow start. He sank a German submarine hunter off Norway in June 1940 while commanding the submarine H31, before being given command of new submarine, HMS Upholder, which was under construction in Barrow shipyards. Following sea trials, HMS Upholder was stationed in Malta but it was over three months before she achieved her first kill, the Antonietta Laurno, a vessel of 5428 tonnes, on 25 Apr 1941.  

Wanklyn went on to sink 97,000 tonnes of merchant shipping and also three U-boats and a destroyer. One was the Conte Rosso, a large troop ship of 17,879 tonnes with 2729 soldiers and crew on board. The Upholder only had torpedos remaining and the Conte Rosso was protected by five destroyers. However, Wanklyn sank the vessel and managed to get away.  

In September 1941 Wanklyn received the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and was later to receive the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest military award. 

Upholder was lost in April 1942 with all its crew. It is not entirely clear whether this was from hitting a mine, from depth charges from an Italian motor torpedo boat or from an attack from a German aircraft on. 

Wanklyn was posthumously awarded two further DSOs. 

David Wanklyn’s widow, Betty, lived much of the rest her life in France and passed away on 30 May 2000 in Bexhill in Sussex, aged 88. She is buried in the Kinloch Mausoleum on the edge of Meigle village. 

The Reverend James Playfair was born in Bendochy in 1738, the second son of a farmer. He studied theology at St Andrews and trained for the ministry, serving first at Newtyle but moving to Meigle in 1777, where he would remain until 1800. 

Playfair took charge of the parish at a time of transition, when agricultural improvement and estate reorganisation were beginning to reshape the local landscape, and was very interested in the science of these changes. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and was also historiographer to the then Prince of Wales.  

Playfair’s most enduring legacy for Meigle is his contribution to the Statistical Account of Scotland, published in 1791, which provides us with a fascinating source of information about the parish at that time. 

While written in his role as parish minister, it is narrated with great gusto and reveals a scientific mind keenly interested in measurement and detail. He recorded the heights of nearby hills using barometrical readings and carefully traced the course of the River Isla. He also wrote with evident admiration about those local proprietors who embraced new methods of farming, enclosing fields, draining marshland and experimenting with fertilisers.  

In contrast, his discussion of Meigle’s early history and antiquities is less glowing, describing many traditional tales as “too wild and extravagant to merit belief”; words which reflect both his rational outlook and the broader intellectual climate of the late 18th century Scottish Enlightenment. His description of the village itself is also notably unsentimental: by 1791 Meigle had a population of 1,148, but he dismissed it as an "ancient" but “inconsiderable, meanly built market town". He said little about the daily lives of its people, paying more attention to land use, river courses and estate boundaries than to the housing or working conditions of the general population. 

In 1800 Playfair left Meigle to take up the post of principal of the United College of St Leonard’s and St Salvator’s at St Andrews, as well as minister of St Leonard’s Church. Here he turned increasingly to writing on geographical themes, publishing several books. The most substantial of these was his Geographical and Statistical Description of Scotland of 1819, which was based largely on the original 1790s Statistical Account of Scotland, but expanded the scientific approach he took with the Meigle account to the whole of Scotland.  

Playfair died at Dalmarnock in 1819 and is buried in Glasgow, but a memorial was placed in St Andrews Cathedral churchyard. 

Playfair’s account of Meigle provides a detailed snapshot of a rural community in transition, offering both a valuable record of the parish on the eve of the 19th century and a revealing glimpse into the attitudes of an 'improving' minister who saw the landscape less as a backdrop to village life than as a field for measurement, classification and change. His account captured Meigle at the point where the long-standing fermtounstyle of agriculture was giving way to a more ordered, 'improved' countryside. 

More discussion of his writings about Meigle, as well as Eassie and Nevay, can be found here: 

Contributors to the Old Statistical Account: Reverend Doctor James Octavious Playfair (1738-1819) 

And his full statistical account of Meigle can be found here: 

Statistical Accounts for Scotland, Meigle, County of Perth, 1791

Research shows that less than one per cent of recorded history is about women's stories, and Meigle and Ardler seems to be no exception to this with women largely missing from the historical records of the villages. 

There are early legends of Vanora – or Guinevere, King Arthur’s queen – whose tomb is said to be in the grounds of Meigle Church, and Isabella Duff – daughter of MacDuff – who was said to have been imprisoned and starved to death in a tower at Belmont Castle, but even their stories are framed by who their husband and father respectively were and the fate that they suffered as a result of those relationships.

In 1932, Our Meigle Book was written by a committee in response to a competition organised by the Scottish Women’s Rural Institutes to create the best Village Book. In many ways it covered similar themes to the Statistical Account of Scotland, but has more about the people – stories, histories and legends. 

The preface explains how it came about and lists the women who wrote and designed it, “all of whom had long been connected with Meigle and knew to whom to apply for stories of by-gone days”. The women on the committee were: Mrs Brand, Cardean; Miss Butter, Kirkhill; Miss Cox, Cardean; Miss Lawson, Hunterleigh; Mrs Mackenzie, Crathy House; and Mrs Struthers, Lochar. 

The book went on to win joint first prize in the competition, along with Largo, and the committee decided to publish it to give Meigle people “a new appreciation not only of our debt to the past but of our responsibility to the future”. 

As well as being a story of women doing something of note in its own right, the book also offers glimpses of the stories of other women. 

For example, while Sir James Caird is usually given the credit for gifting Belmont Estate to the city of Dundee, Our Meigle Book points out that it was in fact his sister, Lady Emma Marryat, who did so after she inherited it from her brother. His will was short and sweet, being simply the following letter to Emma:  

2nd August 1906
My dear Emma
I leave all that I possess to you, all lands and power to sell them, all investments everything without exception, to do with them whatever it please you to do. This cancels any former letters of which you may have copies.
Your Affectionate Brother
J K Caird 

More about Emma can be found in Dundee City Archives 

Another story from Our Meigle Book tells of an incident in 1745 where a resourceful Lady Kinloch protected her horses from being commandeered by government forces while her husband was away fighting for the Jacobite cause. When she heard that the Duke of Cumberland was in the area and would likely demand hospitality at Kinloch, she had the horses driven to a low-lying field by the Isla, where they were hidden by broom until the visitors had gone. The area became known as Horse Haugh for this reason. 

Meigle didn’t escape the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries' hysteria around the prosecution of accused individuals - mostly women - believed to be practicing malevolent witchcraft, with Our Meigle Book recounting the story of local witch Jean of Cardean, and of the women of Drumkilbo, one of whom was accused of being a witch by her heir George Nairne and subsequently burned to death in a barrel of tar without a trial. A further reference is made to “another unfortunate female member of the Nairne family who came to a dreadful end” who “appeared to have been buried alive”. 

By the 19th century we begin to catch glimpses of the everyday lives and struggles of women of the parish. For example, records show that 44 children were born to unmarried mothers in the parish between 1855 and 1874.  

A number of these mothers had several children with no fathers named on their birth records. Interestingly, four women with the surname of McLaren gave birth to six children in total between 1856 and 1866. One of these, Betsy McLaren, went to court to pursue child support from a Robert Millar in 1862, the year her son David was born. The court record shows that Betsy lived at Longlees: did all four McLaren women live there? Were they sisters? There must be a story there that we’d love to know.