LITTLE SWINTON: EARLY HISTORY

Corporate name Little Swinton Farm Activity In 1866 the occupier of Little Swinton Farm, near Coldstream, was Mrs Gertrude Clay Ker Seymer (b 1843). She succeeded her father Henry Ker Seymer to lands in Legerwood and the parish of Swinton in 1864. She had married Harry Ernest Clay in that year and he had assumed the name of Ker Seymer. Dates 1799-1853 Family name Ker Territorial designation of Morriston Activity The village of Ledgerwood lies in Berwickshire, 4 miles from Earlston. There was a peel tower at Moriston (or Morriston) which was demolished at the end of the 18th century. The population in 1801 was 495 and in 1891, 475.The Ker family, holders of the estate of Morriston, can be traced back to John Ker of Auldtounburn (1357). It is thought that they came to Britain as part of the retinue of de Bruys, who came over with William the Conqueror, in 1066, and that some of the family then moved to the Borders in about 1190, and settled in Teviotdale. Andrew, 1st of Morriston, fl 1666. The estate was than passed to Mark (d 1675); John (d 1692); Andrew (d 1733); and James Ker of Morriston and Kersfield (d 1794), whose son George (d 1809) died without issue and the estate was passed down through his daughter Grace Ker, who married, in 1781, a Henry Seymer of Hanford, DCL (1745-1800), and their son, Henry Seymer Ker JP DL DCL MP (b 1782), took the additional name and arms of Ker in 1830. His son, Henry Ker Seymer of Handford, JP DL DCL MP (1807-1864), passed the estate to his daughter, Gertrude Clay-Ker-Seymer of Morriston (b 1842) married, in 1864, Harry Ernest Clay-Ker-Seymer (1832-1899), son of James Clay (b 1832), who assumed the additional names and arms in 1864. Dates 1357-1781 Epithet family Notes See 'Ordnance Gazeteer, Scotland, Vol IV' (London); ''Burke's Landed Gentry' (London, 1914); 'Historic Border Families and Houses' (Selkirk, 1989); 'Holders of the Estate of Morriston, Berwickshire' (Borders Archive).