Thank Goodness for Genealogical Data

For this next armorial window in the Glasgow Cathedral, I had to do a bit of genealogical research.

The window is dedicated to Ninian Hill of Lambhill, but a brief search on-line came up with three (or four!) different individuals by that name: one 1621-1685; another 1623-ca.1682 (who may be the same as the first one, since the dates are so close); a third ca.1660-1738; and finally, a fourth 1690-1711.

Fortunately, the window also mentioned the name of his wife, and that helped to narrow down the identification of which particular "Ninian Hill of Lambhill" the window was dedicated to.

The full inscription on the window reads:

This window replaces and earlier window

presented in 1865 by Thomas Hill, Esq.

of Merrylee in memory of Ninian Hill

of Lambhill and Mary Craufurd of

Jordanhill, his spouse, and incorporates

the coat of arms from that window.

By searching for the combination of Ninian Hill of Lambhill and Mary Craufurd, I was able to determine that the man memorialized here is Ninian Hill of Lambhill and Gairbraid, who was born about 1660 and died in 1738. He was the son of Ninian Hill of Lambhill and Jean, daughter of John Caldwell of that Ilk. He married Mary Craufurd, daughter of Hew Craufurd of Jordanhill. (The elder Ninian Hill had married first Margaret, daughter of Hew Craufurd of Cloberhill, though they had no issue. It is these two marriages by a Ninian Hill of Lambhill to daughters of two different Hew Craufurds, one of Cloberhill and one of Jordanhill, which has led to some conflating of Ninian Hill elder and younger by researchers.) Ninian Hill the younger was, like his father, a Burgess of Glasgow.

He and his wife Mary sold part of their property in Glasgow, specifically the lands of Ramshorn and Meadowflat, to the Burgh for “three Houss or Hospitalls” ("the Merchants, Trades, and Hutchesones Hospitalls") there in 1694.

The arms of Hill of Lambhill were matriculated in 1676 by Ninian Hill of Lambhill (the elder) and are blazoned Azure a hill or with the sun rising and appearing over the top thereof in his splendour [proper, or also or].

The arms as shown in the window are the arms of Hill of Merrylee, matriculated in 1865 (and so about the same time as the original window was donated), and so must be the arms of the donor of the window, Thomas Hill of Merrylee, whose arms are blazoned Azure a hill or with the sun rising and appearing over the top thereof in his splendour [proper, or also or] within a bordure ermine. The crest is The Bible expanded proper, and the motto is Veritas superabit montes (Truth shall cross mountains).