Synopsis
Edward Bryce was a Scottish Presbyterian minister and is recognised as the earliest minister to preach and promulgate Presbyterianism in Ireland. He may have been born into the
Bruces of Airth family, though the evidence is by no means clear. He died in co. Antrim in Ulster, having moved there from Scotland following some liturgical disagreements. Edward founded the Northern Ireland Brice family, many of whom went on to subsequent fame and importance.
Early Life
Edward was born circa 1569 (date is inferred from his tombstone, see below), probably at
Airth in Stirlingshire, Scotland.
His parentage is contentious: some sources, as well as many online trees, make Edward the son of Alexander Bruce, 8th Laird of Aird. The evidence in favour of this relationship is thin and scattered and by no means conclusive. I've tried to assemble the various arguments and sources here to make sense of it a little. Just bear in mind that 90% of the people I will refer to are called Edward Brice, so to try to avoid too much confusion I have added their dates of birth and death to help separate them.
Firstly An entry in
Notes & Queries1 which seems to have been followed, to some degree, by many modern pedigrees, reads:
Bruce of Airth - Who was the Laird of Airth in 1608?
In that year Edward Bruce, younger brother of the Laird of Airth, and lawful scion of the great northern house, was compelled to change his name and migrate to Ireland under circumstances of a peculiar nature. A dreadful quarrel broke out between, apparently, John, Lord Erskine, Earl of Mar, of the one part, and Alexander, fifth Lord Livingstone,
Alexander, fourth Lord Elphinstone, and Bruce of Airth, of the other part, concerning the disputed title of the Castle of Kildrummie; and in the fight which ensued David Forrester, a follower of Mar, was killed, the murderers being hounded on by the Laird of Airth.
So says Drummond.
Who Drummond was, I've not yet been able to work out, but he must have written a pedigree or historical account which includes this story. Of the characters mentioned in this quote, we know that Alexander, 5th Lord Livingstone was born 1500 and died in 1553, and Alexander, 4
th Lord Elphinstone, was born in 1552 and died in 1638. The latter, therefore, would have been most similar in age to Edward Bryce himself. The relevant 'Lairds of Airth' in this period would have been Alexander Bruce, 8th Laird of Airth (1530-1603) and his son William, the 9th Laird. William's date of birth is not known, but William's brother,
Robert Bruce of Kinnaird, was born in 1554. These dates therefore are consistent with (but by no means proof of) Edward Bryce having been a brother of Robert Bruce of Kinnaird and William, 9
th Laird. Note that Robert Bruce of Kinnaird is also in our tree, being an ancestor of
Marion Higgins and the Burn-Murdoch line.
As will be discussed more in the next section, the reason for his "expulsion" from Scotland to Ireland appears to bear nothing in common with the dramatic descriptions given here, though perhaps these stories were fabricated by later generations to add some romance to the slightly more mundane liturgical disagreements that actually transpired (see
Career below).
Secondly In the New Edition of
Burke's Landed Gentry (1847)2 there appears the following cryptic footnote to the entry for
Robert Brice of Castle Chichester (Edward Bryce's son):
The reason for changing the name [from Brice to Bruce] is thus described by Mrs Bruce's grandfather, in a letter to his son, relative to the family descent, &c., in 1775-5:
"One of my ancestors had a dispute with his chief, who attacked him; he, according to the laws of Scotland, retreated as far as wood, water, &c., would allow him, then turned in his own defence and killed his chief. In those days, two or three hundred years ago, the chiefs had great influence. He was prosecuted with great virulence. The sentence was 'that he should be either banished or change his name;' he said he had done nothing sinful or shameful to fly his countyr, but put a tail to the 'u' and made it 'y'; thus it was Bryce; but when my grandfather went to Ireland he spelled his name with an 'i', and since it has so remained."
The story of expulsion to Ulster from Scotland following a family fued is actually an incredibly common one for Scots Irish families and I've found it in several other places in my tree, so treat it with a high level of circumspection. Leaving that particular part aside for a moment, there's a bit to unpack here: firstly, who is this Mrs Bruce? Confoundingly, there is no mention of who she might be anywhere else in these pages. So to answer that, or at least narrow down the candidates, we pass to the next question: Who might her grandfather have been? He is said to have been writing to his son (i.e. presumably her father) in 1774-5. My suspicion is that this could have been
Edward Brice (1721-1808) writing to one of his sons, possibly his eldest,
Edward Brice (1753-1815) who would have been around 20 in 1774 and thus of the right age to be receiving information from his father about his heritage.
If this is right, then the grandfather (Edward Brice b. 1721) would have been talking about his own great-grandfather (Edward Bryce, the subject of this page). In turn, the mysterious
Mrs Bruce might be one of the daughters of Edward Brice (b. 1753), namely
Rose, wife of John Blake, 11th Baronet or one of her sisters (
Eliza,
Theodora or
Charlotte). These sisters were all born in the early 1800s, so would have been middle-aged in 1847 when the Burke's entry was written. The only contradictory problem is that all these daughters married, so would not necessarily have been referred to as Mrs Bruce, but rather Lady Blake (Rose), Mrs Hill (Theodora), Mrs Smyth (Charlotte) or Mrs O'Connel (Eliza). Now, it may be that one of these women was widowed by 1847 and so reverted to her family name...this I have yet to establish.
Thirdly Getting back to Edward Bryce (b. 1569) and his ancestry, the
Dictionary of National Biography3 says the following:
His [Edward Bryce's] descendants claim that he was a younger son of Bruce, the laird of Airth, but there is no confirmation of this story in M.E. Cumming Bruce's elaborate pedigree of the Bruces of Airth, in 'The Bruces and the Cumyns,' 1870
I haven't yet consulted this work, but another pedigree of the Bruces of Airth was given by William Bruce Armstrong in 1892
4 and this does not show Edward as a son of Alexander Bruce, 8
th Laird of Airth, nor indeed does the name Edward appear anywhere in the family tree.
Fourthly The
National Library of Ireland has a number of Brice pedigrees
11 which all mention the Airth link. In addition, there is a copy of a letter from
Alexander Erskine, Lord Lyon in Edinburgh, dated 1693, as follows:
To all and singular whom these presents do or may concern, I Sir Alexander Areskine of Cambo, Knight & Baronet, Lyon King of Armes considering that by the twenty one act of the third session of the second Parliament of King Charles the Second of ever blessed memory I am impowered to visit the whole armes of Noblemen, Prelates, Barons and gentlemen within this Kingdom and to distinguish them with congruent differences and to matriculae the same in my books and registers and to give armes to vertuous and well-deserving persons and extracts of all armes expressing the blazon thereof under my hand and seal of office which Reigster is by the said Act ordained to be respected as the true and unrepealable rule of all armes and bearings in Scotland to remain with the Lyon Office as the public Register of the Kingdom. Therefore conform to the tenor of the said Act of Parliament I testify and make know that the coat-armoriale appertaining and belonging to Captain
Edward Brice (alias Bruce) second lawful son to
Robert Brice, of Castle Chichester Esquire in Ireland whose father Master
Edward Brice (or Bruce) was a lawfull son of the family of Bruce of Airth in Scotland and which Robert is now represented by Randall Brice of Lisburne Esq. in the county of Antrym in Ireland, and approven of, and confirmed by me to him is matriculated in my said publick register upon the day and date of these presents and is thus blazoned viz. The said Captain Edward Brice (or Bruce) for his atchievement and ensigne armoriall Bears or a Saltyre and cheif gules with a mollet in the dexter canton of the first (this being the old coat of the said house of Airth), all within a bordure waved as the second, on a helmet befitting his degree with a mantle gules, doubled argent and wreath of his colours is set for his crest an arme from the elbow holding a cutlace. The motto is an escroll above
Do well, doubt nought, which coat above-blazoned I declare to be the said Captain Edward Brice (or Bruce) his coat and bearing.
In testimony whereof I have subscribed this extract and caused append my seall of Office hereto at Edinburgh the tenth day of July and of our Soveraigne Lord and Lady King WIlliam & Queen Mary their reigne the fyfth 1693.
[Signed] Alex
r Areskine, Lyon
Given that this register of arms was made in 1693, 60 years or so since the death of Edward Bryce, it seems likely that there must have been good evidence to hand for the relationship between Edward Bryce and the house of Bruce of Airth.
Finally One final piece of information is the fact that a number of Edward Bryce's descendants were successful in changing their surname to Bruce, by Royal Licence. For instance,
Edward Brice (b. 1783) changed his name to Bruce by royal licence in 1811
2.
Archibald Adair Brice, a half-uncle of the aforementioned Edward Brice, also changed his name by royal licence:
Whitehall, October 1, 1825.
The King has been pleased to give and grant unto the Reverend Archibald-Adair Brice, of Bathwick, in the county of Somerset, Clerk, Rector of Saint James, in South Elmham, in the county of Suffolk, His royal licence and authority, that, in order to commemorate his descent from the noble and ancient family of Bruce, of Airth, in Scotland, he and his issue may henceforth take and use the surname of Bruce, instead of that of Brice.
Edward Brice (b. 1783) also changed his name (see his own entry for a copy of the confirmation). Given that these name changes were registered at the College of Arms, one presumes that there was some level of documented legitimacy to the claim.
Thus whilst there is some evidence for Edward Bryce being a son of Alexander Bruce, 8
th Laird of Airth, we are still some way from being any way sure. So, for the time being, I will leave Edward as a tree-top and save a connection to the Bruces of Airth for a future time when more evidence appears.
Career
After graduating from Edinburgh University in 1593, Edward was admitted by the Sterling presbytery to the parochial charge of
Bothkenner (in 1595), before moving to be the vicar of
Drymen in Stirlingshire from the 14
of May 1602 and then Dumbarton later that same year. A few years later, he moved to Ulster under slightly contentious terms, as revealed in the following texts:
From the Ballymena Observer7:
[He] was obliged to leave [Scotland] in consequence of opposition to High Church measures for the enforcement of Episcopal uniformity. Aware that many of his countrymen had settled in County Antrim, he proceeded there, and having been kindly received, acknowledged and licensed by [Robert]
Echlin, then
Bishop of Down and Connor, he, in the year 1613. commenced the exercise of his ministry to a congregation at Broadisland, a district of country lying between Larne and Carrickfergus.
From the Kilroot Excavations10:
During the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries the Church of Ireland experienced difficulties recruiting clergy in Ireland and was often forced to 'import' Protestant clergy from England and Scotland. Echlin had close connections with the Scottish nonconformist ministers of the north of Ireland, several of whom he received and acknowledged, including Edward Brice who settled in co. Antrim about the time of Echlin's arrival...
It was not unusual for presbyterians of Scottish origin to hold Church of Ireland livings before the 1630s. A pragmatic, or perhaps sympathetic, attitude by Bishops such as Echlin, combined with broad similarities in theological outlook and a shortage of ministers in Ulster, made such an accommodation possible. Although tradition identifies Edward Brice as the first presbyterian minister in Ulster, he did not belong to the radical wing of presbyterianism which emerged in Ulster during the 1620s under the leadership of Robert Blair.
From the Ballymena Telegraph6:
...at the Synod of Glasgow in 1607 he opposed the appointment of an Archbishop [
John Spotswood] against the recommendation of the king. His enemies then accused him of immorality [adultery] and he was so persecuted that he sought refuge in Ulster.
The DNB3:
On 29 Dec 1613 Archbishop Spottiswood and the presbytery of Glasgow deposed him for adultery. Robert Echlin, bishop of Down and Connor, probably believed him innocent, for he admitted him to the cure of Templecorran (otherwise known as Ballycarry or Broadisland), near the head of Lough Larne, co. Antrim. The date given is 1613; it was perhaps 1614, new style [i.e. Gregorian calendar]. Brice was attracted to this locality by the circumstance that
William Edmonstone, laird of Duntreath, Stirlingshire [
connected in my tree through the Adairs], who had joined in the plantation of the Ards, co. Down, in 1606, was now at Broadisland, having obtained a perpetual lease of 'the lands of Braidenisland' on 28 May 1609.
The tradition is that Brice preached alternately at Templecorran and Ballykeel, Islandmagee. In September 1619 Echlin conferred on him the prebend of Kilroot. The 'Ulster Visitation' of 1622 says that Brice 'serveth the cures of Templecorran and Kilroot - church at Kilroot decayed - that at Ballycarry has the walls newly erected, but not roofed.'
In 1629 Brice, who had reached his sixtieth year, is described as 'an aged man, who comes not much abroad;' and in 1630, though present on a communion Sunday at Templepatrick, he was unable to preach as appointed...Probably Brice's infirm state of health saved him from being deposed, with his neighbours of Larne and Templepatrick, in 1632, for non-subscription to the canons.
On Echlin's death, 17 July 1635, [Henry]
Leslie was consecrated in his stead. He held his primary visitation at Lisburn in July 1636, and required subscription from all the clergy. Brice and [Henry] Calvert were among the five who refused compliance. A private conference with the recreant five produced no result, and though on 11 Aug. Leslie made two concessions to the presbyterians, viz. that in reading the common prayer they might substitute for its renderings of scripture 'the best translation ye can find', and might omit the lessons from the Apocrypha, and read from Chronicles, Solomon's Song, and Revelation, the subscription was still refused. Accordingly, on 12 Aug. sentence of perpetual silence within the diocese passed, Brice, probably as the oldest, being sentenced first. Brice survived the silencing sentence but a very short time.
The following are quotes from The History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland9, talking about Edward in around 1629 and secondly in 1632:
Livingston thus describes him:- "He was an aged man ere I knew him, and came not much abroad. In all his preaching he insisted most on the life of Christ in the heart, and the light of His word and spirit on the mind; that being his own continual exercise.
Brice...scarecely survived his deposition. He returned from the vistation at Belfast, oppressed with the thoughts of being compelled to resign the beloved exercise of his ministry; and, before any steps could be taken by Leslie to carry his sentence into effect, this venerable minister resigned both life and office into the hands of the great "Shepherd and Bishop of souls".
Family Life
Neither the name of Edward's wife, nor their date of marriage, are known. We do know that he had at least two sons, Robert and Edward and an un-named daughter who later married Alexander Innes and whose son William Innes married his first cousin Jane Brice, daughter of the aforementioned Robert.
Warning The early Brice men (from Edward Bryce b. 1559 downwards) seem to have had children relatively late in life. The result is that the Brice line is relatively "out-of-synch" with parallel lines. For instance, Edward Bryce's grandson (Edward) was born in 1659, but the latter's wife (Jane Dobbs) was born in c. 1689, a 30 year difference. As a result, Edward Brice (b. 1659) had a grandfather born in 1569, whereas his wife's grandfather was born in 1634, a 65 year (nearly 3 generation) difference! Now, we know that Edward Brice (b. 1659) married Jane Dobbs secondly, and therefore later in life, but the result is that his own son (called Edward, obvs) was born in 1721 when he himself was 62! These ages are not impossible, but they are a little out of the ordinary, so the reader should be aware that I may be missing a generation somewhere in the Brice line.
Kilroot House
Kilroot House and its lands, near Carrickfergus, were conferred on Edward Bryce by Robert Echlin and subsequently held by the Brice family until 1850 when they were sold in the Encumbered Estates Courts to Richard Conway Dobbs of Castle Dobbs (a descendent of Richard Dobbs (1634-1701), High Sheriff of Antrim). The following is from Excavations at Kilroot, co. Antrim10:
Richard Dobbs [probably
this Richard Dobbs], writing in 1683, recorded that
"To the east of Carrickfergus about a mile stands Killroote, now the mansion howse of the Lord Buishop of Downe & Connor, not farre from the sea, though noe Bishop has liued there Since Buishop Ecklyn whoe was (as I take it) about the latter end of King James (PRONI ref. D/162/6).
The construction of Kilroot House, and all three of the successive phases of the early modern garden, evidence for which was uncovered during the course of the excavations, would have taken place during the ownership of the site by the Brice family...
The site is dominated by the three storey ruin of Kilroot House, also known erroneously as the Bishop's House or Palace, which probably dates to the eighteenth century...The house was probably built by the Brice family, who owned the site for nearly two hundred years, and apparently remained roofed until the beginning of the nineteenth century...
How Edward Brice obtained possession of the manor and lands of the Bishopric of Down and Connor has accurately been described...as 'a puzzling question that we cannot answer'...
[On the sale of the properties to Richard Conway Dobbs] The Encumbered Estates Acts allowed the sale of Irish estates which had been mortgaged and whose owners, because of the Great Famine, were unable to meet their obligations. The fortunes of the Brice family and the status of Kilroot House must have been on the wane prior to the mid-nineteenth century as Kilroot House is not listed amongst the Gentleman's Setas described in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs prepared in 1839, although the Brice family maintained some interests in the area including a corn mill on the Copeland.
An elaborate garden was built just south of the house, which was excavated in 2003.
The Brice/Bruce family is referred to as "of Scoutbush and Kilroot" in Burke's Landed Gentry New Edition (1847), 2nd Edition (1853), 3rd Edition (1858) and 4th Edition (1862) but not thereafter, adding weight to the argument that the family declined in wealth and status after the 1850s.
Death
Edward died in 1636, probably in August; his grave and the ruins of his meetinghouse are in Ballycarry, on the road between Carrickfergus and Larne, 12 miles form Belfast, in modern-day Northern Ireland3.
From On The Tombstones of the Early Presbyterian Ministers of Ireland5:
Neare this lyeth the body of that faithful & emenent servant of God, Mr. EDWARD BRICE, who begun preaching of the Gospell in this parish 1613, continuing with quiet success while 1636, in which he dyed aged 67, & left two sons and two daughters.
The document then continues:
The inscription then goes on to relate, in a few words, the history of his descendents [but sadly for our purposes, this history is not given]; by which it appears, that they came to wealth and eminence in the land.
A different source (a letter from Barnett Wilson to Anne Louisa Falkner8) notes:
He has the Royal Arms of Scotland on his grave in Ballycarry.
Which again adds some circumstantial support to the Bruce of Airth links discussed above.
Footnotes
[1] Notes & Queries, 11th Series, Volume VIII, July-December 1913, available at archive.org
[2] Burke's Landed Gentry, New 1st Edition, 1847, Bruce of Scoutbush and Killroot,pages 151-152
[3] Dictionary of National Biography, 1921, Volume 2, Pages 1218-1219, available at Wikisource
[4] The Bruces of Airth and their cadets, William Bruce Armstrong, Edinburgh, 1892, available at archive.org
[5] G. “On the Tombstones of the Early Presbyterian Ministers of Ireland.” The Belfast Magazine and Literary Journal, vol. 1, no. 4, 1825, pp. 351–355. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20495571. Accessed 19 Aug. 2020.
[6] Ballymena Telegraph, 15 Aug 1957, page 4
[7] Ballymena Observer, 8 July 1910, page 10
[8] http://www.rjbw.net/Barnett%20Wilson%20Letters.html retrieved 19/8/2020
[9] History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Volume 1, by James Seaton Reid, publ. Belfast 1867
[10] Excavations at Kilroot, co. Antrim. AE/03/72. Data Structure Report no. 36. Centre for Archaelogical Fieldwork, School of Archaelogy and Palaeoecology, Queen's University Belfast
[11] http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000530338#page/192/mode/1up, http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000530453#page/84/mode/1up and the letter from Alexander Erskine: http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000530453#page/93/mode/1up
[∞] Some sources that I have not been able to consult but which look to be very useful:
Abt 1569 - 1636 (~ 67 years)
[1] 
