University staff in link to Arbroath signings

DESCENDANTS of signatories of the 700-year-old Declaration of Arbroath have been discovered at a university.

Relatives included a current student and lecturer at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.

The Declaration of Arbroath, signed on April 6, 1320, was written by Scottish barons and addressed to Pope John XXII, proclaiming Scotland’s sovereignty during the First War of Scottish Independence.

Among the descendants is Dr Julie Mcfarlane, director of learning at Strathclyde’s Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship. She is descended, through her mother, from Walter Stewart, a signatory who served as the sixth High Steward of Scotland and whose son went on to become King Robert II.

The descendants also include Philip Stead, a postgraduate student at the university, whose ancestor, Alexander Seton, was steward of the King’s household and placed his seal on the declaration.

The work was carried out by genealogy researchers at the university, as part of the Declaration of Arbroath Family History Project.

Findings have been made possible by advances in the genealogy sequencing and analysis of Y-chromosome data and improved Next Generation Sequencing. .