dating from the middle
ages. Soon after the dissolution of Furness Abbey, Richerde Ruskyn and
his family were land-owners at Dalton-in-Furness. One branch, and that
with which we are especially concerned, settled in Edinburgh.

John Ruskin--our subject's grandfather--when he ran away with Catherine
Tweddale in 1781, was a handsome lad of twenty. His portrait as a child
proves his looks, and he evidently had some charm of character or
promise of power, for the escapade did not lose him the friendship of
the lady's family. Major Ross, her uncle and guardian, remained a good
friend to the young couple. She herself was only sixteen at her
marriage--a bright and animated brunette, as her miniature shows, in
later years ripening to a woman of uncommon strength, with old-fashioned
piety of a robust, practical type, and a spirit which the trials of her
after-life--and they were many--could not subdue. Her husband set up in
the wine trade in Edinburgh. For many years they lived in the Old Town,
then a respectable neighbourhood, among a cultivated and well-bred
society, in which they moved as equals, entertaining, with others, such
a man as Dr. Thomas Brown, the professor of philosophy, a great light in
his own day, and still conspicuous in the constellation of Scotch
metaphysicians.

JOHN ADAIR, = MARY, cousin of Sir Andrew Agnew, of Lochnaw,
of Little Genoch. | hereditary Sheriff of Wigtownshire.
|
|
Capt. Thomas Adair, = Jean Ross, of Balsarroch, great-aunt of Sir
of Little Genoch. | John Ross, the Arctic explorer,
| of Sir Hew Dalrymple, and of Sir
| Hew Dalrymple Ross.
|
+-----------------------+============+
| | | |
Rev. = Isobel Dr. Mrs. Cath. = Rev. John
Andrew McDouall, Adair, Maitland Adair | James Ruskin
Adair, of of grand- | Twaddle, (1732-
Minister Logan Quebec mother | of 1780)
of and of | Glen- |
Whithorn London J.E. | luce |
Maitland | |
of | |
Kenmure | |
Castle |