Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wauchope, John
WAUCHOPE, Sir JOHN (d. 1682), of Niddrie, covenanter, was descended from the old family of Wauchope of Wauchope in Dumfriesshire, who became proprietors of the lands of Culter, Aberdeenshire, and from the thirteenth century were hereditary baillies in Mid Lothian to the keith marischal of Scotland, afterwards earl marischal, from whom they obtained the lands of Niddrie Marischal in that county. Robert Wauchope, great-grandfather of Sir John, and his son and heir-apparent Archibald were forfeited in 1587 for aiding and abetting the turbulent fifth Earl of Bothwell [see Hepburn, Francis Stewart]; but they continued to defy justice, the son, after being captured in 1589, escaping from the Tolbooth during his trial, and living thereafter a wandering and lawless life. The father also, after taking part in the raid of Falkland in 1590, was captured at Lesmahagow by Lord Hamilton, and placed in the castle of Drephan, but made his escape with the connivance of Sir John Hamilton, the commander of the castle.
Sir John Wauchope was the son of Francis Wauchope of Wauchope by Janet Sandilands, said to have been the daughter of Lord Torphichen. He was knighted on 22 June by Charles I on his visit to Scotland in 1633. In 1642 he joined in a petition of several noblemen, burgesses, and ministers to the Scottish privy council, praying that nothing should be enacted prejudicial to the work of the Reformation and the preservation of peace between the two kingdoms (Spalding, Memorials, ii. 148; Guthry, Memoirs, p. 96). A zealous covenanter, he was present with Argyll at Inverlochy against Montrose in 1645, but did not take part in the battle, having the previous evening gone with Argyll aboard Argyll's galley (Spalding, ii. 444; Guthry, p. 129). Wauchope died in January 1682. By his wife Anne, daughter of Sir Andrew Hamilton of Redhouse, brother of Thomas, earl of Haddington, he had two sons—Andrew, who succeeded him; and John, who, marrying Anna, daughter and heiress of James Rait of Edmondstone, became the founder of the Wauchopes of Edmondstone. By his second wife, Jean, widow of Sir John Ker, he had a son James, who served under Dundee at Killiecrankie.
[Sir James Balfour's Annals; Bishop Guthry's Memoirs; Calderwood's Hist. of the Kirk of Scotland; Spalding's Memorials in the Spalding Club; Burke's Landed Gentry; Anderson's Scottish Nation.]