Robert Barclay of Ury 1648—90

Friend of George Fox and William Penn, Barclay was the aristocrat, scholar and apologist among the early Quakers. His major work, Apology for the True Christian Divinity became the standard text-book and authority for belief and practice of the Society of Friends for two centuries. He was a direct descendant of James I; his mother, Catherine Gordon, was cousin to Charles I and Robert was born and brought up at her home, Gordonstoun in Moray. His father, David Barclay, had been colonel in the Covenanting army in the Civil War but, repelled by the bickering and bloodshed, had given up politics before the Restoration. He was, however, imprisoned in Edinburgh castle because he had held office under the Commonwealth, and here he was converted to Quakerism by his cell-mate, John Swinton, ancestor of Walter Scott.

Young Robert Barclay, who had been educated in the Reformed tradi­tion in schools in Morayshire and in the Catholic tradition at the Scots College, Paris, where his uncle was Rector, also became a Friend and at the first Quaker wedding in Aberdeen (1670) married Christian Molleson. Father and son developed their recently acquired estate at Ury near Stonehaven in the intervals between frequent imprisonment and persecution. Their family connections and their Quaker pacificism shielded them from the fiercest of the persecutions which the Covenanters were suffering.

David Barclay personally pleaded with Charles II for himself and for other Friends. Robert found an ally on the continent in his relative the Princess Palatine who secured for the Quakers the good offices of Prince Rupert. When in London Robert attended the Court and became friendly with the Duke of York, later James II and VII. He had no love of Romanism but his schooling under his uncle at the Scots College led him to under­stand James, whose Toleration Acts he believed were perfectly sincere. On the accession of King William, Barclay retired to Ury. His father David, who had built the house and also a meeting-house and had seen the estate raised to a barony, had died in 1685. Robert was appointed governor of the East Jersey colonial scheme in 1682 and although he never visited his colony he was able to help some of the Covenanting prisoners in Dunnottar Castle by having them sent across as colonists. He died at the early age of 42 and was buried in the mausoleum at Ury which still exists although the house and the meeting-house are long since demolished. Through his three sons and four daughters Robert Barclay was progenitor of a number of famous people: Elizabeth Fry, Francis Galton, William Forster (of the 1870 Education Act), and the powerful Barclay’s Bank.