Barnbarroch by Jamie Vans

The first member of the Vans family to inhabit Barnbarroch was John who, in 1384, obtained the land from Archibald, Earl of Douglas and Lord of Galloway. At this time the house or castle was presumably a fortified tower of a type then common in the Scottish borders and which can still be seen in a few places.

A charter granted to Robert Vaus by William, Earl of Douglas, presumably the 8th Earl, on 26 Jan 1451 is among the Barnbarroch papers now in the Scottish Record Office.

The most famous member of the family was Sir Patrick Vaus of Barnbarroch (d 1597) whose correspondence was edited and published by Robert Vans Agnew in 1882. Sir Patrick was one of the ambassador who travelled to Denmark in 1587 to arrange the marriage of the future king James VI to Princess Anne of Denmark. Letters to Sir Patrick from Mary Queen of Scots and James VI are among the family papers.

By the second half of the seventeenth century the fortunes of the family had declined and ...