Sir John Lauder, 1st Baronet, of Newington and Fountainhall was a notable Scottish baillie and Treasurer of the City of Edinburgh, who was raised to a Nova Scotia baronetcy in 1688.
Background
Lauder was born at Melville Mill and baptised 17 August 1595 at Lasswade church, the son of Andrew Lauder of Melville Mill, Lasswade (dJune 1658) and his first wife, Janet (d April 1617), daughter of David Ramsay of Polton and Hillhead. He gives the 1st baronet"s father as Andrew Lauder, and his father as William Lauder, a "second brother of Lauder of that Ilk", sons of Richard Lauder, younger, of that Ilk (k June 1567).
Career
As John Lauder of Newington he matriculated Arms with the Lord Lyon King of Arms c. 1672 as descended of a second son of Lauder of that Ilk. Lauder, mentioned in his mother’s Testament, became a highly successful merchant-burgess in Edinburgh, being admitted as a Burgess on 23 November 1636.
He served as Treasurer of the City of Edinburgh in 1652, and as bailie from 1657 to 1661.
He purchased (before 1672) the estate of Newington, Edinburgh, and subsequently (10 June 1681) the lands of Woodhead and Templehall, which along with others in Edinburghshire and Haddingtonshire, were erected by Crown charter into the feudal barony of Fountainhall on 13 August 1681. This patent was successfully contested and "reduced" (cancelled)
on 19 February 1692 having been replaced on 25January 1690 with a new Letters Patent altering the succession to include his eldest surviving son from any marriage.
He died on 2 April 1692, in his 97th year and was interred in the Lauder vault within Greyfriars Kirk.