Robert Ker of Kersland took a decided part, early in life, with the Covenanters; and, from his inflexible integrity, enjoyed the confidence of the party to a considerable degree.
On 28 November 1666, he was one of the small body of horse who, under William Muir of Caldwell assembled at Chitterflat, in the parish of Beith,[4] with a view to join Colonel Wallace previous to the battle of Pentland.
After Rullion Green he escaped to Utrecht, whence he returned in the end of 1669 to see his estate enjoyed by General Drummond, and to fall into the hands of the Government through the treachery of Robert Cannon of Mardrogat, the informer.
Captain Thomas Crawfurd of Jordanhill (who surprised the castle of Dumbarton in 1571) married Janet, heiress of Robert Ker of Kersland (the elder), the representative of a very ancient family in Ayrshire.
133,) and was either the father, or (which is more probable) the grandfather of Robert Ker of Kersland (the younger) who forfeited his estates after the battle of Pentland.
[15] Kersland in the hurry and confusion of his affairs, after the meeting at Chitterflat, executed a holograph deed of settlement, making an eventual provision of 40,000 Scots to his daughters; but this was found not to be positive debt, in a question between Margaret Ker and her sister, decided February 8, 1715.
Robert Ker and Barbara had two sons: Besides these two sons, he had four daughters: There is preserved a draught of a petition to the Privy Council, in which the petitioner, after mentioning that he had been confined for five years in different prisons, says, "in the very coldest of this season, and in such a time when some of them were wrestling under heavy and sad sickness, others enduring pains of the stone-gravel so excessive as cannot be expressed, were my thus pained children extruded out of the castle with all the rest, except one daughter, who, with myself and tender wife, and one servant, were thrust up to another room, that is known to be intolerable for smoke and cold."
The petition concludes with a request for "a change of imprisonment to Edinburgh castle," with the view of having an operation performed on the child afflicted with the stone.
The name of the petitioner has been carefully deleted, but on a narrow inspection appears to be "Robert Ker of Kersland," prisoner in the "castle of Stirling."
In a note on the back of the petition, in a different handwriting, and apparently Kersland's, the petitioner signifies that, after the draught was made, he hesitated as to its being his duty to present it, "being diffident of treating or tampering with these so dreadfully-given-up men."
A letter, which appears to be written by the same person to Macward, is dated, "From my closs prison at Stirling castle, the 31st Dec.
)[20] Robert Ker's sword, inkkorn, and a small jar belonging to him, were (at the time of the New Statistical Account) still preserved.
These relics, at the seizure of the effects of Kersland, were taken by a servant of the family, who bequeathed them to his nephew, the late Hugh Brown, piper, Dairy, a worthy who, had he lived in the days of Habbie Simpson, would have proved a formidable rival to the far-famed piper of Kilbarchan Brown left them to Mr Andrew Crawford, Courthill, Dairy.