Peter Beauclerk Dewar presents his family history as a straightforward tale of unremarkable, hard-working, responsible Highlanders. They made few headlines but, over the centuries, built on their skills and experience and went on to exploit the opportunities arising from the union with England and the development of trade and industry. However there is much more to it than that. Several members of his family made notable contributions in their time to civic, sporting and military life. Meanwhile, through his mother, Peter is a direct descendant of Charles II and his famed mistress Nell Gwyn - hardly unremarkable.

There are also some colourful-sounding conundrums in Peter's family's past. How did it arise that a relatively modest family of shoemakers should have had a family crest and arms? What did John Dewar and his apprentice Andrew Yuill get up to in 1710 to be fined £50 each - an enormous sum in those days - for "blood and riot"? Why did John grant a 'Charter of Alienation and Sasine' to his brother Patrick in 1714, leading the latter to obtain his house and lands? And what were the circumstances that later led Patrick to be on the receiving end of another episode of "blood and riot", this time initiated by a certain John Glen whom Patrick sued, receiving damages of some £3?

Regrettably a dearth of information in the records means the stories behind these events may never be known.

Peter Beauclerk-Dewar explains that his interest in his family history was aroused almost by chance when, on his twenty-first birthday, he was given a signet ring handed down through generations of his family. "My father, who was so punctilious in so many things, seemed to know remarkably little about it, so I took up the challenge to find out more. First I approached the College of Arms in London. There I was told that the crest belonged to the family of Dewars of Vogrie. My quest then led me to Scotland and to Stirling where I visited Cambuskenneth and the Church of Holy Rude where there is an early family tomb dated 1705. From there I was able gradually to put together the different pieces of the family jigsaw.

"I subsequently discovered that my family is probably the largest family of Dewars on record - with branches on all five continents of the world. Through my research I identified, made contact with, and in some cases met, a great many different cousins worldwide that I never knew I had. It has put me in touch with literally hundreds of people, which I have enjoyed tremendously.

"Although there were Dewars in Stirling from 1483, our earliest known direct ancestor was a Patrick or Peter Dewar (the two names are interchangeable). In 1671 he lived as a tenant in the village or hamlet of Cambuskenneth, on the opposite side of the River Forth from Stirling.

"Cambuskenneth Abbey is well known and a site of considerable historical interest. Founded in 1140 by King David I, it was one of the great Augustinian Monasteries. Some two centuries later King David's great-great-great-grandson, King Robert the Bruce, convened several parliaments in the abbey, notably in 1314 after the Battle of Bannockburn. In 1488 King Robert's great-great-great grandson, King James III, was buried there, alongside his wife Queen Margaret, following his death at the battle of Sauchieburn nearby. Sadly, today only the Abbey bell-tower remains.

"Returning to my family, we know that Patrick Dewar had two sons, John and Patrick (the latter being my direct ancestor), both of whom were cordiners or shoemakers, as also were a number of their descendants. As qualified craftsmen, these Dewars were members of the Royal Incorporation of Shoemakers of Stirling, one of the craftsmen's guilds of the time.

"By 1713 Patrick, the younger of the two, was well established enough to have been able to lend 200 merks to the Incorporation of Fleshers of Stirling. Intriguingly, while presumably an upstanding member of the Royal Incorporation of Shoemakers of Stirling, he is also described in Burke's Landed Gentry as having 'defied the Deacon, Dean of Guild and Bailie of the Royal Incorporation of Shoemakers of Stirling as to buying of new shoe leather'.

"It was Patrick who, in 1705, had erected the family tombstone at the Church of Holy Rude in Stirling, inscribing it with the arms of Dewar. Perhaps the seeming mystery of why a modest family of shoemakers should have had a family crest and arms may be explained by the considerable variations in wealth and status which could (and still can) exist within one family in countries such as Scotland where primogeniture prevails. When the eldest sons inherit all, junior branches frequently need to fend for themselves; but they remain entitled to matriculate an individual variation of their family arms."

Over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the Dewars made the transition from their trade as cordiners to become successful farmers and grain merchants. Patrick junior's grandson and namesake was the first to do so, becoming a farmer at Cornton outside Stirling in the mid-eighteenth century. He was nominated a Burgess of Stirling, a position of some standing in the community, and he and his descendants went on to farm no fewer than ten farms encircling Stirling. Patrick's son Peter, also a Burgess of Stirling as were several other family members, was a prominent farmer and Crown tenant of King's Park.

"Several separate branches of the family then, quite independently, took up grain merchanting," notes Peter. "The most successful of these was my great-grandfather, James Dewar, the youngest son of Peter Dewar of Craigniven and King's Park. James was the youngest son and would not inherit the family business, so he left Stirling for London to seek his fortune. There, building on his knowledge and experience of cereal farming, he co-founded a firm called Dewar & Webb in 1872. The company soon also had branches in Portland, Oregon and the American Press of the day rather charmingly dubbed him 'King Corn'.

"James was a member of the Baltic Exchange, a Freeman of the City of London and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Bakers (he became Master in 1906). In his spare time, he was a keen oarsman and a member of the London Rowing Club, an interest he shared with his two sons, Peter and James Evan (known as Evan). They in their turn went on to become leading lights in London rowing circles. Peter represented Great Britain in the Olympic Games in 1908 and Evan rowed in the Diamond Sculls in 1910 and 1911.

"Peter, the elder son, eventually took over Dewar & Webb which he subsequently sold. He then went out to Kenya where he lived for the rest of his life. His son by his second marriage, David, served as a captain in the Kenya Regiment during the Mau Mau uprisings of the 1950s, and is now a farmer in Ayrshire where he is factor of Lord Inchcape's Glenapp estate. David is the current head of our branch of the family."

Read part 2