Floors Castle in Kelso is the seat of the Duke of Roxburghe. (John Ker was the 5th Earl of Roxburghe)

Clan Kerr

Our remote forebears left Southern Norway with Rolf the Ganger and settled in the angle of Brittany and the Cherbourg peninsula in 911, then came to England in 1066 in the retinue of de Bruys, the ancestor of the Bruces. He took up land near Preston and they received their small share of it as his gamekeepers, an occupation also followed by John Ker of Stobo four generations later (the "Hunter of Swynhope" and the first recorded Scotsman to bear our name; he is mentioned as taking part in a rough-and-ready land survey, or "perambulation", in 1190). One of his sons held land at Eliston in 1230 or thereabouts, and other members of the family are recorded in Selkirkshire a generation or two later, among them Nicol Kerr, who signed the Ragman Roll (a list of Scottish landowners doing homage to Edward I) in 1296. From the fourteenth century onwards Kerrs, variously spelt, are numerous in the Borders, holding land at Altonburn, Crailing, Kersheugh and several other places, one of them being Sheriff of Roxburgh towards the end of the fourteenth century, while others are found in Ayrshire, Stirlingshire and elsewhere.

Jedforest became Kerr property in 1457 when Andrew Kerr, the originator of our left-handed tradition obtained it from the Earl of Angus in return for becoming the Earl's "man" or vassal. Ferniehirst, or rather the ground on which it stands, already seems to have belonged to another Kerr, Thomas of Kersheugh, whose daughter and heiress, Margaret, married her kinsman Thomas Kerr of Smailholm, younger son of Andrew Kerr, mentioned above. ... more

• A1. John Kerr of the Forest of Selkirk, lvd:1358, m. Mariota;
  • B1. Henry Kerr of Auldtounburn, Sheriff of Roxburgh;
    • C1. Robert Kerr of Auldtounburn,
      • D1. Andrew Kerr of Cessford and Auldtounburn;
        • E1. Andrew Kerr of Calder, m. N. Douglas;  ==>  Clan Douglas
          • F1. Walter Kerr of Cessford, d:1501, m. Isabel Hay  ==>  Clan Hay
            • G1. Margaret Kerr, lvd:1467/1532, m. Sir James Sandilands ;  <==  Clan Sandilands