Cardinal David Beaton

For my first attempt at starting a 'blog' I am going to add a picture of Cardinal David Beaton, Chancellor of Scotland (1494-1546), possibly an ancestor of Samuel Orchart Beeton, who married a lady called Isabella Mayson who then edited a cookery book for Sam's publishing business. Sam and Isabella are related to Annie Beeton - 1861-1927 (left), my daughter's great grandmother and therefore cousin of Louise and my granddaughters Abigail and Frances! I hope to be able to write the Silver & Beeton story for them, and perhaps post it on the blog. But for now let's see how we get on with David Beaton (the various spellings by the way seem to originate from the pronunciation of the original name 'Bethune' ie "Beetun" - not at all unusual for a period when my own Calladines evolved from Kanderdine!).

The link with David Beaton comes from Sarah Freeman's book "Isabella and Sam" where she shows that Sam's earliest direct ancestor is Roger Beaton born in 1535. She then outlines the reasons for the family believing they were linked to the Highland Bethune/Beaton family of David Beaton. As late as 1880 members of Sam's Beeton family used the same coat of arms.

In her book "Cardinal of Scotland" Margaret Sanderson shows the link with King James II. His daughter Princess Mary Stewart married James 1st Lord Hamilton, whose son James, 1st Earl of Arran, married Janet Beaton, David Beaton's first cousin both being gandchildren of Marjory Boswell and John Beaton of Balfour. This gives rise to the problem of how to show a King in my family tree on Genes Reunited!