Baldwin of Biggar (ca 1110 - 1174)

Historians generally agree that Baldwin was born at Bratton (Devonshire, England) in about 1110 but he moved to Scotland as a young man. His father was Stephen Flandrensis of Bratton (1066 – 1146) whose land (nearby the modern town of Bratton Fleming) had originally been granted to Stephen’s father, Erchenbald Flandrensis, by William the Conqueror soon after he became the English King in 1066. Baldwin's brother Erchenbald (ca 1100 - 1175) is recognised as the founder of the le Fleming family of Ireland, the Barons Slane.

While Baldwin was born in England, he is identified as one of the “Flemish” settlers in Scotland because his name was originally recorded as “Baldwinus Flandrensis”, where Flandrensis means native of Flanders. However, as historian F Lawrence Fleming has shown, it is likely that his most recent Flemish ancestor was his great-grandfather, Erchenbald Vicecomes.

Before he moved to Scotland, Baldwin and his father were both charged with manslaughter in 1130. It is possible that King David I of Scotland (who had been raised in the English court of Henry I) sat in judgement on their case. Baldwin was let off with a warning while his father was fined. 

Soon afterwards, probably at the invitation of King David, Baldwin moved to Scotland. David granted him the Barony of Biggar (Lanarkshire) in return for Baldwin’s military, judicial and administrative support. This baronial land remained in the hands of Baldwin’s descendants right up to the twentieth century.

King David had to battle hard, with King Henry’s help, to subdue powerful Scottish lairds who resented the new ideas that he brought to his Kingdom. One of his key battles was fought near Renfrew in 1164. The men of the Isles, accompanied by forces from the Kingdom of Dublin, were commanded by Somairle mac Gilla Brigte, King of the Isles. While the identity of the Scottish commander is unrecorded, it was probably either Baldwin (Sheriff of Lanark/Clydesdale), Herbert (Bishop of Glasgow) or Walter fitz Alan (Steward of Scotland). The battle was a disaster for the Islesmen and Dubliners, with Somairle slain and his forces routed.

Having subdued opposition to his reign, King David changed the system of government so that he could exert and maintain better control of the country: the so-called "Davidian Revolution". These changes included his foundation of burghs (towns) and regional markets and the introduction of feudalism through land grants to immigrant knights like Baldwin Flandrensis. He and his family were staunch supporters of the Scottish Kings for generations to come.

Baldwin’s son, Waltheof (or Waldreve) was probably named for Waltheof (father of Maud, wife of King David I) who was England’s last Anglo-Saxon earl and was by then viewed as a saintly martyr. Waldreve of Biggar succeeded his father as Sheriff of Lanarkshire, a position subsequently held by his son (Robert of Biggar); Robert’s son (Hugh of Biggar); and finally bu Hugh’s son (Nicholas of Biggar). Nicholas held the post in 1273, a century after his great-great-grandfather, Baldwin. Nicholas predeceased his father Hugh of Biggar, who flourished in the 1290s. 

Hugh of Biggar was coeval with Robert Fleming and, like him, a supporter of Robert Bruce before he was crowned as King Robert I. On his death the Barony of Biggar passed to his heiresses Marjory and Ada of Biggar. Robert I arranged the marriage of Marjory to Robert Fleming, thus bringing the Biggar estate into the Fleming clan.

This was the first time that the surname Fleming was associated with Biggar. (Baldwin, Waldreve, Robert, Nicholas and Hugh never used a surname, relying instead on the appellation “of Biggar” to distinguish themselves.) 

Robert Fleming was succeeded as laird of Biggar by his second son Patrick Fleming of Biggar. He married Joan Fraser, heiress to Simon Fraser, who thus brought the Fraser estate of Olivercastle into the Fleming family's portfolio.

The Biggar arms were extinguished with the death of Hugh of Biggar, so Patrick Fleming took new arms. His arms were quartered 1 and 4 for Fleming (gules a chevron within a double tressure flory counterflory argent) and 2 and 3 for Fraser (azure three fraises argent).

Some historians say that Baldwin of Biggar married the widow of Reginald, illegitimate son of Alan, Earl of Richmond who was related to King Malcolm IV by marriage. Baldwin then raised his stepson (Reginald’s son John) in his household. John subsequently obtained lands at nearby Crawford in Lanarkshire. These lands came to be called Crawfordjohn. Members of the Scottish Crawford Clan are John’s descendants.

Baldwin’s wife may have been a sister of another “Flemish” immigrant, Theobald Flamatico, who seems to have come to Scotland from Yorkshire at about the same time as Baldwin came from Devonshire. Theobald was granted land at nearby Douglas Water (Lanarkshire) in 1147 and is generally believed to have been the father of William de Douglas, progenitor of the Scottish Douglas Clan.

Note also that the families of Baldwin’s two brothers (Erkenbald and Robert) settled in Ireland after they accompanied King Henry II on his invasion of Ireland in 1171. They were granted Irish land and were the progenitors of the le Fleming family (the Barons Slane) in Ireland.