October 21 – 1098 sometime in. Edgar, King of Scots, issued a ‘founding charter’ for a Church to be built at Coldingham, Berwickshire, Scotland.

Coldingham is north and next to Eyemouth, on the coast of the North Sea in Berwick.

Coldingham’s seal.

1100 sometime this year. Edgar King of Scots, dedicated the Church at Coldingham, Berwickshire, Scotland to St Mary (the figure below with child) and gave the Church to the monks of St Cuthbert (figure on right with crozier), that is to say he gave the Church to the monks of Durham.

seal of Prior William Drax (part figure below) c1420.

1422 Charles VI of France, King of France contracted a fatal illness, and died on 21 October 1422. Only 7 weeks after the death of Heny 5th of England , and 7 years after facing each other at Agincort. Scotland’s auld alliance.

1437 sometime in October –  William Douglas, 2nd Earl of Angus (1398–1437) died. In 1420, Angus was nominated as one of twenty-one noblemen to be delivered as hostages to the English court as security for the ransom of King James I. King James (at age 12) had been captured by the English in 1406, and was held by first Henry IV of England, and then by his son Henry V of England. Lintalee and Hermitage Castle, engaged with the English forces at the Battle of Piperdean, 10 September 1436, near to Coldstream. For Coldstream, see the map of Coldingham Priory in 1100 above.

1496 When news of the invasion of Scotland by an army under English Lord Neville, reached Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, on 21 October 1496, the Duke wrote to his ambassador in Spain, to request the Spanish monarchs make peace between England Henry VII and Scotland James IV. It worked so well that James married Henry’s daughter Margaret.

1707 Robert Miller II of St. Quivox was proposed for entering the ministry. The matter was put down for consideration at the next meeting. YYMA 76.

1805 Cape Trafalgar. Admiral Nelson’s fleet defeated a joint Franco-Spanish naval force at the Battle of Trafalgar. Nelson was fatally wounded during the battle.

Map showing Cape Trafalgar, Atlantic ocean, on north coast of Gibraltar.

Emma Lady Hamilton, [Hamilton 2Stewart 2Millar 2simmons 2Choate 2Sorensen] mother of two by Nelson recalled – ‘’They brought me word, Mr Whitby from the Admiralty. ‘Show him in directly,’ I said. He came in, and with a pale countenance and faint voice, said, ‘We have gained a great Victory.’ – ‘Never mind your Victory,’ I said. ‘My letters – give me my letters’ – Captain Whitby was unable to speak – tears in his eyes and a deathly paleness over his face made me comprehend him. I believe I gave a scream and fell back, and for ten hours I could neither speak nor shed a tear.’’

“England expects that every man will do his duty” was the famous signal at the Battle of Trafalgar sent by Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson from his flagship HMS Victory.

The Battle of Trafalgar by J. M. W. Turner (oil on canvas, 1822–1824) shows the last three letters of this famous signal flying from the Victory. Thus, at around 11:45 am on 21 October 1805, the most famous naval signal in British history was sent. The message was repeated throughout the fleet and logs would have been written up after the battle

1825 PS Comet II, sank in collision off Gourock, Inverclyde, Renfrew, Scotland (21 October 1825).

Map shows the Firth of Clyde and the right hand turn to the east for the River Clyde. Gourock is at the center top of the map pointed on the far north west corner of Renfrew.

1830 Joseph Smith the Prophet, at Fayette, New York. (clans Huntley, Hamilton, Mackenzie, Mack of Inverness, Malcolm King of Scots), Doctrine and Covenants 33. Sometime in October. Hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, whose word is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, to the dividing asunder of the joints and marrow, soul and spirit; and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

1841 Orson Hyde, Apostle, traveling from Illinois, through Germany, Istanbul, Cairo, and Alexandria, enters the City of Jerusalem. In a column in the Deseret News in 1869, Hyde wrote ‘[about 1832] Joseph Smith (clans Huntley, Hamilton, Mackenzie, Mack , and Malcolm King of Scots) a prophet and servant of the Most High God, did predict upon my head that I should yet go to the city of Jerusalem, and be a watchman unto the house of Israel, and perform a work there which would greatly facilitate the gathering together of that people.’   ‘When my natural eyes beheld Jerusalem for the first time, and as I gazed upon it and its environments, the mountains and the hills by which it is surrounded, and considered that this is the stage upon which so many scenes of wonder have been enacted, where prophets were stones and the Savior of sinners was slain, a storm of commingling emotions suddenly arose in my breast, the force of which was only spent in a profuse flow of tears.’


1899 The Battle of Elandslaagte. The Boer War. Northern Natal in South Africa. Brigadier Ian Hamilton. 2nd Gordon Highlanders: now the Highlanders.

[Hamilton 2Stewart 2Millar 2simmons 2Choate 2Sorensen]

. Battle of Elandslaagte: The Gordon Highlanders storm the hill. Highland regiments in Natal devised aprons to conceal coloured kilts and sporrans.

http://www.britishbattles.com/great-boer-war/elandslaagte.htm

Hamilton Crest: In a ducal cornet an oak tree fructed and penetrated transversely in the main stem by a frame saw Proper, the frame Or. Motto: THROUGH. Chief: Alexander Douglas-Hamilton, 16th Duke of Hamilton

[Hamilton 2Stewart 2Millar 2simmons 2Choate 2Sorensen]

1922 Released. Bulldog Drummond. ‘One of the greatest melodramas ever written.’ Fictional Captain Hugh Drummond.

1943 Admiral of the Fleet Sir Dudley Pound, First Sea Lord, died on Trafalgar Day.

1956 What’s my Line TV panel show features James David Graham Niven, born  Kirriemuir, Angus, Scottish with grandfather from St. Martin’s, Perthshire. Born 1 March 1910 – 29 July 1983.

David Niven on What’s my Line Panel. Alexander McGegickin, was a guest from Scotland, on Malta about 1940 under The Highland Light Infantry, David Niven was commissioned into the regiment in 1930 and served with the 2nd Battalion.

2011 Headlines in newspapers, broadcasters, all media – Deposed Libyan leader Ghadafi assassinated in Libya the day before on Thursday the 20th   .

Ghadafi’s connection with Scotland was payment on the terrorist Lockerbie bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on 21 December 1988 when the wreckage fell on the town of Lockerbie in the Dumfries and Galloway region of south-western Scotland. Two Pan Am crews and all passengers, mostly Americans, and eleven Scots on the ground, died, including 35 students from Syracuse University of Syracuse, New York, returning home for Christmas. Apparently the bomb(s) went off prematurely, as they would have been planned for an over the ocean blast leaving few clues. As it happened, all the pieces fell on the Scots, who meticulously gathered the bits, and by forensic study were able to trace the bomb parts back to Libyan elements.

Carsphairn Parish Church, Galloway, of 1815 built to replace church of 1636 damaged by fire.

The Millers were ministers in Galloway in the 17th and 18th century, and would have traveled through the area often. Lockerbie, as a border town, would also be home to many raids and raiders. In the United Kingdom the event is often referred to as the Lockerbie disaster, the Lockerbie bombing, or simply Lockerbie. Eleven residents of the town were killed in Sherwood Crescent, where the plane’s wings and fuel tanks plummeted in a fiery explosion, destroying several houses and leaving a huge crater, with debris causing damage to a number of other buildings nearby. The 270 victims (259 on the plane and eleven in Lockerbie) were citizens of twenty-one different nations.

Back story. Circa 1988. Pan Am, based in New York City, and with several hundred destinations world wide, was under the regulatory authority of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Eastern Region, located at JFK International Airport in Queens Long Island. Every six months on so, the FAA flight safety inspectors would ride a flight, in the ‘jump seat’ in the flight deck of a commercial flight, reviewing the proficiency of the air transport pilot certificated crew. By the fall of 1988, the Headquarters of the FAA, in Washington D.C., was advised that an American International airline was to be the target of a terrorist bombing alert coming out of West Germany. The source of the information was not disclosed to the field FAA safety inspector, out of JF Kennedy Aviation Safety Field Office, Queens New York, who would in fact be in the plane’s flight operations, and the extent of the details were not known, such as the specific airport in Germany, the specific flight number, or air line. Otherwise, the specific flight would have possibly been cancelled, or more thoroughly inspected. Major bombings, with the smuggling of plastic explosives, and blasting caps, and radio controlled electronics, and bomb making skills, are costly, and usually take teams. Then there is the difficulty of getting close enough to attack the plane, either getting the bomb on board, or having a ‘mule’ [a terrorist’s name for an unsuspecting person who will be sacrificed in the bombing, by carrying the bomb aboard] carry it on ignorant of the danger.   If it is state sponsored, as 103 would be, wires, phone calls, codes and communications, passports, travel would be involved. Probably the messages were intercepted and decoded for the alert. Or, a ‘mole’ [a word to describe a person who has infiltrated the enemy hoping to gather information] was trying to help and pass on the information known.

At the time, in 1988, Pan Am was the largest, oldest, and best known world wide, of the American flag air carriers. Pan Am 103 originated at the Frankfurt airport in West Germany. Apparently more warning details were available, as the time for the certification flight came up, and the FAA Manager for Pan Am’s certification, at the JFK airport on Long Island, rather than take the review flight himself, and knowing of the alert, assigned the flight to a subordinate safety inspector in the Jamaica Plains office of the Eastern Region. The flights had the prestige associated with the airline, and Pan Am was at the top of the prestige list. The safety inspector was not so warned, and knew nothing of the alert.

The problem with these alerts, was that it kept people off airplanes, and the cost of safety inspections was substantial. A threat, which disrupted schedules, and revenues, was almost as good as a bombing, for effectiveness. So, rather than scare people, the practice was to study the problem, until absolute certainty was obtained. And absolute certainty was, in this case, too late to be of any help to prevent the deaths of hundreds.

The New York City FAA aviation safety inspector rode over with the Pan Am 103 crews to Germany, and would normally have turned around after a brief rest, 12 hours, and made the return flight. However something interrupted his return, to check on a complaint at another Frankfurt based airline or aircraft, and he missed the return flight. Flight 103 left Germany, for London, took on passengers there, and about a half hour into the flight, still over Scotland, was destroyed at 31,000 feet. After the bombing, the details of the alerts, and assignment dribbled out. The safety inspector who reviewed the 103 crew was noticeably rattled, relating the story 3 and a half years later, trying to wait it out [stay with the US Government and FAA] to vest his pension, but refusing to ever work with or for the FAA manager [who knew an dlied] again.

The lawsuits, with claims in the billions, against Pan Am ruined the company, which went out of business and disappeared within a decade. The name Pan Am was rumoured to have continued in an insurance company in the midwest, Ohio.

Lockerby is mentioned in Scott’s Tales of A Grandfather – 1585 (Miller ancestors include both Creichton and Maxwell).

” So well was this known to be the case, that when, (37-281)in 1585, the Lord Maxwell was declared to be a   rebel, a commission was given to the Laird of   Johnstone to pursue and apprehend him *** Creichton Lord (37-282) Sanquhar, Grierson of Lagg, and Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, all of them independent barons of high birth and great power. The injured parties pursued the depredators with forces hastily assembled, *** Closeburn, the Creichtons, and others, (37-283) invaded Annandale with the royal banner displayed,   and a force of upwards of two thousand men.   Johnstone, unequal in numbers, stood on the defensive,   and kept possession of the woods and strong   ground; waiting an opportunity of fighting to   advantage; while Maxwell, in contempt of him,   formed the siege of the castle or tower of Lockerby,   the fortress of a Johnstone, who was then in   arms with his chief. His wife, a woman of a   masculine disposition, the sister or daughter of the laird who had died in Maxwell’s prison, defended   his place of residence. While Maxwell endeavoured to storm the castle, and while it was bravely defended by its female captain, the chief received [TG37-284, Tales of a Grandfather, Chap. 37, p. 284] information that the Laird of Johnstone was advancing to its relief. He drew off from the siege, marched towards his feudal enemy, and caused it to be published through his little army that he would give a “ten-pound land,” that is, land rated in the cess-books at that yearly amount, “to any one who would bring him the head or hand of the   Laird of Johnstone.” When this was reported to   Johnstone, he said he had not ten-pound lands to offer, but that he would bestow a five-merk land upon the man who should bring him the head or   hand of Lord Maxwell.”” “”. The Maxwells and the confederated (37-285)barons suffered grievously in the retreat – many were overtaken in the streets of Lockerby, and cut down or slashed in the face by the pursuers; and kind of blow, which to this day is called in that country a “Lockerby lick.”

” Maxwell himself, an elderly man and heavily armed, was borne down from his horse in the beginning of the conflict; and, as he named his name and offered to surrender, his right hand, which he stretched out for mercy, was cut from his body. Thus far history; but family tradition adds the following circumstance: The Lady of Lockerby, who was besieged in her tower as already mentioned, had witnessed from the battlements the approach of the Laird of Johnstone, and as soon as the enemy withdrew from the blockade of the fortress, had sent to the assistance of her chief the few servants who had assisted in the defence. After this she heard the tumult of battle, but as   she could not from the tower see the place where it was fought, she remained in an agony of   suspense, until, as the noise seemed to pass away in [TG37-286, Tales of a Grandfather, Chap. 37, p. 286] a westerly direction, she could endure the uncertainty no longer, but sallied out from the tower, with only one female attendant, to see how the day had gone. As a measure of precaution, she locked the strong oaken door and the iron-grate with which a Border fortress was commonly secured, and knitting the large keys on a thong, took them with her, hanging on her arm.   When the Lady of Lockerby entered on the field of battle, she found all the relics of a bloody fight; the little valley was covered with slain men and horses, and broken armour, besides many wounded, who were incapable of further effort for saving themselves. Amongst others, she saw lying beneath a thorn-tree a tall, grey-haired, noble looking man, arrayed in bright armour, but bare headed, and bleeding to death from the loss of his right hand. He asked her for mercy and help with a faltering voice; but the idea of deadly feud in that time and country closed all access to compassion even in the female bosom. She saw before her on the enemy of her clan, and the cause of her father’s captivity and death; and raising the ponderous keys which she bore along with her, the Lady of Lockerby is commonly reported to have   dashed out the brains of the vanquished Lord   Maxwell.

Maxwell Crest: A stag Proper, attired Argent, couchant before a Holly bush proper. Motto: REVIRESCO. 
[“I grow strong again”].

 

 

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