[2] James Sandilands received from his brother-in-law, William IV, Lord of Douglas the lands of Calder in Lothian.

[2] He was also preceptor of the powerful religious and military Order of the Knights of St John, whose headquarters were at the Priory of Torphichen in West Lothian.

[2] He died without issue, and the new title devolved on James, the grandson of his elder brother, who succeeded as second Lord Torphichen.

[2] John, the fourth Lord, although a supporter of Charles I of England strongly advised against the plan known as the Engagement.

[2] The Engagers sought to invade England in 1648 to rescue the king, in return for certain conditions, after he had been handed over to Parliament by the Scots army.

[2] He served in the army on the Continent and returned to Scotland during the Jacobite rising of 1715, in which he fought on the side of the British government at the Battle of Sheriffmuir.

[2] The sheriff’s son, James Sandilands, was a colonel in the Coldstream Guards and was elected a representative peer to the House of Lords from 1790 to 1800.