Maxwell Allied and Dependent Families
• Blackstock •

Blackstock is a common name in the Dumfries area, and the Blackstocks affiliated with the Maxwells in 1570 when John signed the “Band of Dumfries,” obligating him to join the force led by Lord Maxwell defending Dumfries and environs against an English invasion. There were probably also other, unrecorded, affiliations.

Although the Blackstock name is not connected with significant early land holdings, there are mentions of it in Scotland beginning around 1500, as recorded by Black¹. William Blackstok witnessed a notarial instrument in 1517; William Blackstock was appointed clerk of court in 1524; John Blakstok held a tenement in Edinburgh in 1549; and Agnes Blackstock held a tenement in Edinburgh around 1700. John Blakstok signed the Band of Dumfries in 1570; James Blackstok was a tenant of Andrew Hay of Craignethan in 1659; John Blackstock was a merchant in Dumfries in 1641; Robert Blackstock was a tenant in the barony of Mousewall (Mousewald) in 1673; and John Blackstocks was burgess of Peebles in 1689. David Blackstocks was appointed constable in Littleclyde in 1712; William Blackstock was a tanner in Minigaff in 1767; and Robert Blackstock was a shoemaker in Dumfries in 1738. Nine more of the name are recorded ion the Commissariot Record of Dumfries. According to Gilbert Burns, a Miss Jane Blackstock was the heroine of his brother’s “O Poortith Cauld.”