CRAWFORD,
CRAUFURD, or CRAUFORD,
a surname derived from the barony of Crawford in Lanarkshire, of
which the origin is unknown.
The family
of Crawford is of undoubted Norman origin. The site of the ruins of
Crawford castle is still called Norman Gill, and the early names of
this family are all pure Norman. The account of their descent from
an Anglo-Danish chief, as given by George Crawfurd, and adopted by
Robertson in his Ayrshire Families, is altogether erroneous. Burke,
[History of the Commoners, vols. ii. and iii.,] conjectures
that they are descended from that old and distinguished race, the
earlier earls of Richmond, with whose armorial bearings theirs
nearly correspond, being Gules, a fesse ermine in the
former, and a bend on the latter. According to his
hypothesis, Reginald, youngest son of Alan, fourth earl of Richmond,
who died in 1146, and great grandson of Galfridus, duke of Brittany,
who died in 1008, obtained large grants of land from King David the
First in Clydesdale, being one of the thousand Norman knights whom
he established in his dominions. These grants may have originated in
his (Reginald’s) connection with the royal family of Scotland, as
his brother Conan le Petit, fifth earl of Richmond, married a
grand-daughter of David, namely, Margaret, daughter of Prince Henry,
and sister of King William. In connection with this relationship and
settlement of Reginald in Scotland, Theobaldus the Fleming, the
reputed ancestor of the Douglases, who held lands in Yorkshire under
the earls of Richmond, appears to have followed his fortunes into
that kingdom, as also Baldwin of Biggar, formerly of Multon in
Yorkshire, under that family, who afterwards married the widow of
Reginald. He is presumed to be the party who assumed the surname of
Crawford, according to the practice of that age, from his barony of
Crawford in Clydesdale. He is alluded to, in a charter of William de
Lindsey, afterward confirmed by King William, early in that prince’s
reign, wherein mention is made of Johannis de Craufurd, filius
Reginaldi. In 1127 there were two brothers of this name, knights,
sons must probably of this Reginald, namely, Sir John Crawford and
Sir Gregan Crawford, both in the service of King David the First. On
the foundation of the abbey of Holyrood by that monarch, Sir
Gregan’s arms were placed therein, as he was instrumental in saving
his majesty’s life from a stag that had unhorsed him whilst hunting
on that spot on Holyrood day, in 1127. [Nisbet’s System of
Heraldry, vol. i. p. 334.] The old stones on which his arms were
emblazoned, taken from the ruins of Holyrood Abbey, were built over
the lintels of the Canongate church porch; this church having been a
dependency of the Abbey. He carried in his armorial bearings,
argent, a stag’s head erazed, with a cross crosslet, between his
attires, gules, laying aside his paternal bearing; gules, a fesse
ermine, carried by some branches of the Crawfords. On the abbey of
Holyrood are the arms of Archibald Crawford, treasurer to James IV.,
and brother of Crawford of Henning, as shown in the subjoined cut,
viz., a fesse ermine with a star in chief, and the shield adorned on
the top with a mitre. Sir Gregan had a grant of lands from King
David in Galloway, called after him, Dalmagregan. This appellation
is most probably a corruption of “De la Mag Gregan,” and implies
“the lands of the chief Gregan,” and is an instance of the adoption
of the prefix Mac in connection with the Romanesque Dal, as well as
in reference to a Norman knight.
[arms of Archibald Crawford]
Galfridus, styled Dominus Galfridus de Crawford, frequently
occurs among the magnates Scotiae, as a witness to the
charters of King William inter 1170 et 1190. He married the sister
of John le Scot, earl of Chester, and niece of the king. She was the
daughter of David earl of Huntingdon, second son of David the First
of Scotland by his queen Maud. He is termed kinsman by John le Scot
earl of Chester, nephew of the king, in a charter quoted by George
Crawford, along with John le Scot’s two natural brothers,
where they are all styled fratribus, in accordance with the
practice of that age in the use of this term.
Reginald de Crawford, probably the son of Galfridus above
mentioned, is witness in 1228, to a charter of Richard le Bard (the
original of the name of Baird) to the monastery of Kelso. Reginald
was succeeded by his second son, Sir John de Crawford, designed
dominus de eodem, miles, in several donations to the monasteries of
Kelso and Newbottle. He died, without male issue, in 1248, and was
buried in Melrose Abbey. He is said to have had two daughters, the
elder of whom, Margaret, married Archibald de Douglas, ancestor of
the dukes of Douglas, and the younger became, about 1230, the wife
of David de Lindsay of Wauchopedale, ancestor of the earls of
Crawford. There is, however, no proof of this latter marriage, and
William de Lindsay of Ercildun possessed the barony of Crawford long
before the date assigned to it. (See LINDSAY, name of.) The
Lindsays held it till the year 1488, when David duke of Montrose was
deprived of it, and it was given to Archibald Bell the Cat, earl of
Angus. Others say that the duke exchanged it with Earl Archibald for
lands in Forfarshire.
Contemporary with the above Galfridus de Crawford was
Gualterus de Crawford, witness to a charter of Roger, bishop of St.
Andrews, sometime between 1189 and 1202. From him came Sir Reginald
de Crawford, who, about 1200, married Margaret de Loudoun, the
heiress of the extensive barony of Loudoun in Ayrshire. He was the
first vice-comes or high sheriff of the county of Ayr, an office
hereditary in his family. In consequence of this marriage he
quartered the arms of Loudoun with his own. He witnessed a donation
of David de Lindsay to the monastery of Newbottle, confirmed by
Alexander the Second in 1220. It was under this Sir Reginald, as
hereditary sheriff principal of Ayrshire, that the three bailiwicks
of Carrick, Kyle, and Cunningham were first formed into a county, in
1221. [See Chalmers’ Caledonia, vol. iii. p. 452.]
His son, Hugh Crawford of Loudoun, sheriff of yr, in a charter
of Walter, son of Alan, high steward of Scotland, of a donation to
the monastery of Paisley, of the lands of Dalmullin (De la Mouline)
in 1226, is designed Hugo, filius Reginaldi. By a grant of Allan,
son of Roland of Galloway, he had, pro homagio et servitio suo,
the lands of Monoch, which is ratified by a charter of King
Alexander the Second at Cadihou (Cadzow) the last day of March,
1226. He had another charter from the great constable his superior,
de tota terra de Crosby, afterwards enjoyed by his
descendants the Crawfords of Auchinames. He was one of the
magnates et barones Scotiae, who put themselves into the
protection of the king of England, in the commotions that happened
in 1255. He died in the end of the reign of Alexander the Second.
His son Sir Hugh Crawford, sheriff of Ayr, had a letter of
safe-conduct to go to England in the year last mentioned. He settled
a contest with the abbot of Kelso, cum consensu Alicie spousae
suae. He had two sons and a daughter; the latter, Margaret,
married Sir Malcolm Wallace, of Elderslie, knight, and became the
mother of Sir William Wallace, the hero of Scotland. As old Wintoun
says:
“His father was a manly knight,
His mother was a lady bright.”
Sir Hugh was succeeded by his son, Sir Reginald Crawford of Loudoun,
sheriff of Ayr, who, in 1288, witnessed a charter of donation of
James, high steward of Scotland, to the monastery of Paisley. In
1292, he was one of the nominees on the part of Robert Bruce in his
competition for the crown of Scotland with Baliol; and in 1296, with
many others, he swore fealty to King Edward the First of England,
when he overrun Scotland with his armies. In the Ragman Roll occurs
the name of Radolphus de Crawforde (Nisbet’s Heraldry, App.
vol. ii. p. 10. ed. 1742), on which Nisbet remarks, “This is the
same person with Reginaldus de Crawford, in the same record entitled
vice-comes de Air.” Believing that the oath to Edward, as it had
been exacted by force, was not binding on him, he joined with the
first of the Scottish patriots who rose in arms against Edward. He,
with other Scottish knights, is described by Blind Harry as having
lost his life at the mysterious transaction called the conference of
Ayr in 1297, a deed avenged shortly afterward by his nephew Sir
William Wallace. By Cecilia his wife, he had a son, Sir Reginald or
Raynauld (otherwise Ronald) Crawford, of Loudoun, sheriff of yr, who
was among the first of the Scottish barons to join Wallace his
cousin, and was with h im in all his struggles and dangers. He was
also among the first to join Robert the Bruce. In 1306, he
accompanied Thomas and Alexander, the brothers of Bruce, in their
descent on Galloway, with seven hundred men; when, being attacked on
their landing at Loch Ryan by Duncan M’Dowal, or MacDougall (Magnus
du Gall, or chief of the Gall or Wallense), a powerful chieftain,
their little army was totally defeated, 9th February
1306-7, and the two brothers, with Sir Reginald Crawford, were
grievously wounded and made prisoners. M’Dowall carried them to the
English king at Carlisle, where they were ordered to instant
execution, their heads being placed on the castle and gates of that
town. He left an only child, Susanna Crawford of Loudoun, his sole
heiress, who married Sir Duncan Campbell of Lochawe, ancestor of the
earls of Loudoun (See LOUDOUN, earl of).
In the Ragman Roll the surname of Crawford occurs no less than
eight times as that of Scottish barons who swore fealty to Edward
the First in 1292, 1296, 1297, &c. Nisbet remarks that this surname
was then so frequent that it is difficult to distinguish them from
one another.
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The Crawfords of Kerse in the district of Kyle, Ayrshire, a
branch of the Crawfords of Loudoun, ultimately became the
representatives of the Dalmagregan Crawfords, and, in consequence,
carried in their armorial bearings a stag’s head, as did also the
Crawfords of Drumsoy and the Crawfords of Comlarg. The first of the
Kerse family was Reginald, son of Hugh Crawford of Loudoun, He got a
grant of the lands from his brother Hugh in the reign of King
Alexander the Third. Notices of various individuals of this family
occur in the reigns of James the First and Fourth, Esplin being at
that period a favourite Christian name with them. In 1508, David
Crawford of Kerse, David his son, John Crawford, ‘proctour,’ Esplane
Crawford, and seven others, came in the king’s will, for hindering
the sitting of the bailliary court of Carrick, when the laird of
Kerse was americated in five pounds, and each of the others in forth
shillings. This case arose out of one of the numerous feuds for
which the district of Carrick was at one time notorious. On October
5th, 1527, Bartholomew Crawford of Kerse; David and
Duncan his brothers; George Crawford of Lochnorris, and William his
brother; John Crawford of Drougan, John and William his sons, with a
great number of others, found caution to underlie the law for
assisting Hugh Campbell of Loudoun, sheriff of Ayr, in the cruel
slaughter of Gilbert earl of Cassillis. The grandson of this
Bartholomew, David Crawford of Kerse, in consequence of having only
female issue, entailed the estate in 1585, and on his death in 1600,
he was succeeded by Alexander Crawford of Balgregan in Galloway, the
next remaining heir male, descended from a son of David, the brother
of Bartholomew, and designed of Culnorris and Balgregan. The
original lands of Kerse appear subsequently to have gone to the next
heir of entail, who seems to have been of the Comlarg family. IN
1680, Alexander Crawford of Kerse is infeft in the lands of Nether
Skeldon, as heir of his father Alexander Crawford of Kerse. This
Alexander Crawford appears to have been the last male proprietor of
Kerse of the name of Crawford. His only daughter, Christian Crawford
of Kerse, married Mr. Moodie of Meicester, and having no succession,
she disponed the lands of Kerse to William Ross of Shandwick, writer
in Edinburgh, who was, soon after, drowned on his passage to Orkney,
when the estate of Kerse devolved on his heirs; who afterwards sold
it to Mr. Oswald of Auchencruive, in whose family it still remains.
The Crawfords of Kerse were famed for their feuds with the
Kennedies, and a characteristic poem, called ‘Skeldon Haughs, or the
Sow is Flitted,’ by the late Sir Alexander Boswell of Auchinleck,
baronet, one of whose ancestors married a daughter of the laird of
Kerse, founded on a traditional story current in Carrick, and the
date of which Sir Alexander assigns to the fifteenth century, was
printed at the celebrated Auchinleck press, and will be found in the
appendix to the Account of the Kennedies. Edin. 1830, 4to.
_____
The Craufurdland branch of the Craufurds, one of the oldest of
the name, descend from Sir Reginald de Crawford, sheriff of Ayr, who
married the heiress of Loudoun. His third don, John, obtained from
him several lands in Clydesdale, and in right of his wife, Alicia de
Dalsalloch, became chief proprietor of that barony. This John
conferred Ardoch, to which he gave the name of Craufurdland, in
Ayrshire, upon his second son, John Craufurd, who lived in the time
of Alexander the Second. His grandson, James Craufurd of
Craufurdland, fought under his cousin, Sir William Wallace, and a
descendant of his, John Craufurd of Giffordland, living in 1480, was
ancestor of the Crawfords of Birkheid.
Sir William Craufurd of Craufurdland, of this family, one of
the bravest warriors of his day, was knighted by James the First. He
was one of the Scottish auxiliaries in the service of Charles the
Seventh of France, and in 1423 he received a severe wound at the
siege of Crevelt in Burgundy, where a bloody battle was fought
between the French and Scots and the English, when the Scots, under
James Stewart, Lord Darnley, being basely deserted by the French,
were defeated, with a loss of three thousand killed, and two
thousand taken prisoners. Douglas (in his Baronage, p. 432) states
that Craufurd was among the slain, but this is a mistake, as in the
following year, he was amongst the prisoners released, with James
the First.
Robert Craufurd, the youngest son of Robert Craufurd of
Auchencairn, a son of the laird of Craufurdland, died in 1487, of a
wound received at the Wylielee in Ayrshire, in defending James Boyd,
earl of Arran, when that nobleman was attacked and slain by the earl
of Eglinton, with whom he was at feud. His father, Archibald
Craufurd of Craufurdland, had two other sons, namely, Thomas,
ancestor of the Craufurds of Classlogie and Powmill in
Kinross-shire, and William, secretary to the earl of Morton, and
progenitor of the Craufurds who settled in Tweeddale. Betwixt the
lairds of Craufurdland and the lairds of Rowallan, the superiors of
the lands of Ardoch, there had been a long feud, in the course of
which the title deeds of both families were destroyed. In 1476, in a
justice-eyre, holden at Ayr, by John Lord Carlyle, chief justice of
Scotland, on the south side of the Forth, Robert Muir of Rowallan
and John Muir his son, and diverse others their accomplices, were
indicted for breaking the king’s peace against Archibald Craufurd of
Craufurdland. By means of the sister of the second wife of the
latter, dame Margaret Boyd, who had been mistress to King James the
Fourth, and married Muir of Rowallan, this feud was at length
extinguished, and a new charter, upon resignation, granted to the
lair of Craufurdland of the lands of Ardoch.
His grandson, John Craufurd of Craufurdland, by his prudent
conduct, reconciled the Boyds and Montgomeries, and obtained in
marriage Janet Montgomery, daughter of the laird of Giffin, and with
a daughter, Renee, had two sons, John his successor, and Archibald,
born after his father’s death.
This Archibald Craufurd was bred to the church, and became
parson of Eaglesham, in the shire of Renfrew, and as such had a
manse in the Drygate of Glasgow, which he conveyed, in free
property, to his chief the laird of Craufurdland. He was secretary
and almoner to Queen Mary of Guise, regent of Scotland, with whose
corpse he was sent to France in 1560, to see it deposited in the
Benedictine monastery of St. Peter at Rheims, where his own sister
Renee was then abbess. When in France, he got a commission from the
unfortunate Mary queen of Scots, renewing to him his office of
secretary and almoner, and expressive of her obligations for his
great services rendered to her late mother, which commission was
dated at Joinville in France, 17th April 1561. After
Mary’s return to Scotland, in consequence of the attacks that were
sometimes made on the chapel of Holyroodhouse, where the popish
worship was allowed to be performed for the queen’s household, and
the danger of its being pillaged at any time when she might be
absent from Edinburgh, the queen, on January 11, 1561-2, directed
Sir James Paterson, the sacristan or keeper of the sacred utensils,
to deliver to her valet de chambre, Servais de Conde, the furniture
of her chapel to be kept by her almoner, Mr. Archibald Craufurd, in
the wardrobe of her palace at Edinburgh, from whence it could easily
be conveyed as often as was necessary. On the restoration of the
jurisdiction of the archbishop of St. Andrews in 1563, Mr. Archibald
Craufurd was one of the judges deputed by that prelate to exercise
it. In March of that year, he was cited before the justice court,
for celebrating mass, but the result is not stated. [Pitcairn’s
Criminal Trials, vol. i. p. 29.] He was appointed by Queen Mary,
a lord of session on the spiritual side, on the death of the bishop
of Brechin, and took his seat on 26th April 1566. After
the queen had been sent a prisoner to Lochleven, in June 1567, an
inventory was taken of all her plate, jewels, &c., at Holyroodhouse,
and the specie thereof was, by the confederated lords, melted and
converted into coin. It appears, however, that her majesty found
means to put into the hands of Mr. Archibald Craufurd, her almoner,
certain pieces of plate, for the service of her table, which he
faithfully kept in his possession till the following November, at
which time they were demanded from him by the treasurer, Mr. Robert
Richardson, and, on the 13th of that money, were
delivered by the said treasurer to the regent Murray, who granted
his acquittance for the same to Mr. Archibald Craufurd. On June 2d,
1568, his place on the bench of the court of session was given to
the prior of Coldinghame, “as being vacand through his inhabilitie,
and divers offences committed be him, quhilk merit his deprivatioun.”
His attachment to the queen was most likely his principal offence.
Among other public acts, he erected the west church of Glasgow, and
built the bridge of Eaglesham.
His elder brother, John Craufurd of Craufurdland, accompanied
James the Fourth to the fatal field of Flodden, where he fell in the
flower of his age. The eldest son of the said John, also John
Craufurd of Craufurdland, in his father’s lifetime, got from Mary
queen of Scots, a gift of the ward of the lands of Redhall in
Annandale. The deed of gift, having the queen’s signature, is dated
at Edinburgh 26th December 1561. Hugh, his second son,
portioner of Rutherglen, had several sons, who all went to Germany,
and settled there. John Craufurd of Craufurdland, who died in 1686,
had several sons. Of these, John, the eldest, who succeeded him, was
imprisoned in 1684, on suspicion of being concerned in the rising of
Bothwell Bridge; Alexander, the second son, was designed of
Fergushill; and William, the third, a merchant and burgess of
Glasgow, was the father of Matthew Craufurd, designed of Scotstoun,
author of the Ecclesiastical History deposited in the Advocates’
Library, Edinburgh, in manuscript. The grandson of John, also named
John Craufurd of Craufurdland, succeeded, on his father’s death in
1744. He was twice married, and in right of his first wife, a
daughter and heiress of John Walkinshaw of Walkinshaw, assumed the
additional surname and arms of that family.
His son, John Craufurd of Craufurdland, entered the army at an
early age, and attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He was
present at the victory of Dettingen, and distinguished himself in
the hard-fought field of Fontenoy. He was the intimate and faithful
friend of the ill-fated earl of Kilmarnock, who was beheaded on
Towerhill for his share in the rebellion of 1745, and attended that
unhappy nobleman to the scaffold; for which act of trying friendship
his name, it is said, was placed at the bottom of the army list.
Nevertheless, in 1761 he was appointed falconer to the king for
Scotland. Colonel Craufurd died at Edinburgh, unmarried, in February
1793, aged seventy-two. He settled his estate, by deed made on his
deathbed, on Thomas Coutts, Esq., the eminent London banker. This
deed was, however, disputed by his aunt and next heir, Elizabeth
Craufurd, and after a protracted litigation, carried on by herself
and her successor, it was eventually reduced by a decree of the
House of Lords in 1806, and the ancient estates came back to the
rightful heir. This Elizabeth Craufurd was twice married; first to
William Fairlie of that ilk, by whom she had one daughter, who died
in infancy; and, secondly, on 3d June, 1744, to John Howison, Esq.
of Braehead, in the parish of Cramond, Mid Lothian. She died in
1802, aged ninety-seven, and was succeeded by her only surviving
child, Elizabeth Howison-Craufurd of Braehead and Craufurdland. This
lady married, in 1777, the Rev. James Moodie, who assumed the
additional surnames of Howison and Craufurd. He died in 1831. On the
death of his wife, 1st April 1823, she was succeeded by
her only surviving son, William Howison-Craufurd of Craufurdland and
Braehead, born 29th November 1781, married 14th
June 1808, Jane Esther, only daughter of James Whyte, Esq. of
Newmains, by his wife, Esther Craufurd, with issue.
The Howisons possessed Braehead in Mid Lothian since the reign
of James the First. According to a tradition, which is embodied in
the popular drama of ‘Cramond Brig,’ part of the estate was
conferred by James the Second or Third, as a reward to one of their
ancestors for having gone to the rescue of the king, then wandering
about in disguise, when attacked by a gang of gipsies, and with no
other weapon than his flail, with which he had been thrashing corn
in his barn, delivering him from his assailants. The tenure by which
this land is held, is the presenting of a basin of water and a
napkin to the king of Scotland, to wash his hands, King James, on
entering Howison’s cottage, before partaking of refreshment, having
asked for water and a cloth to wipe the marks of the scuffle from
his clothes. This service was performed by Mr. Howison-Crawfurd,
then younger of Crawfurdland, in right of the lairdship of Braehead,
to King George the Fourth, at the banquet given to his majesty by
the city of Edinburgh, 24th August, 1822, when he was
attended by masters Charles and Walter Scott, the one a son, the
other a nephew of the author of Waverley, as pages, attired in
splendid dresses of scarlet and white satin. The rose-water then
used has ever since been hermetically sealed up, and the towel which
dried the hands of his majesty on that occasion has never been used
for any other purpose. All the documents mentioned as granted to the
above-named Archibald Craufurd, almoner to Queen Mary, are likewise
carefully preserved by the Craufurdland family.
_____
The Crawfords of Drumsoy, in Ayrshire, are descended from
Duncan Crawford of Comlarg, who lived in the reign of James the
Fourth, and was the third son of David Crawford of Kerse. His
daughter, Margaret, married John Crawford of Drongan, and their
youngest son, William, became the founder of this branch of the
family. John Crawford of Comlarg having a feud with the Kennedys,
was, on the last day of July 1564, attacked in the sheriff-court of
Ayr, while the court was sitting, by Barnard Fergusson of Kilkerran,
and fifty-three others, of the Kennedy faction, and defended by this
William Crawford of ‘Drummishoy,’ David his brother, David Crawford
of Kerse, and several others. For this offence both parties were
subsequently tried. [See Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, under
date December 12, 14, and 15, 1564.] His grandson, Sir Robert
Crawford, in his father’s lifetime, married Agnes, only daughter of
David Fairlie of that ilk, and in consequence assumed the additional
surname of Fairlie. His eldest daughter Agnes, heiress of Drumsoy,
married her cousin, Robert Crawford, a descendant of whom, in the
fourth generation, was David Crawford of Drumsoy, historiographer to
Queen Anne, a biographical notice of whom is given below in its
place. On his death in 1710, he left an only daughter, Emilia
Crawford of Drumsoy, who died, unmarried, in 1731. At her instance
the estate was sold, when it was purchased by her grand-uncle,
Patrick Crawford, merchant in Edinburgh, third son of David
Crawford, sixth laird of Drumsoy. He had previously become the
proprietor of the estate of Auchinames at a judicial sale, 25th
February, 1715. This Patrick Crawford was twice married; first to a
daughter of Gordon of Turnberry, by whom he had two sons. Thomas,
the elder, after being secretary to the embassy of the earl of Stair
to the French court, became himself envoy extraordinary to the same
court, and died in Paris in 1724.
Robert, the poet, usually but erroneously designed of
Auchinames, was the younger. He is also sometimes called William
instead of Robert. He was author of the beautiful pastoral ballad of
‘Tweedside,’ ‘The Bush aboon Traquair,’ and other popular Scottish
songs, first contributed to Ramsay’s ‘Tea-Table Miscellany.’ He
resided long in France. He died, or according to the information
obtained by Burns was drowned on his return to Scotland in 1733. A
notice in a manuscript obituary kept by Charles Mackie, professor of
civil history in the university of Edinburgh, states the time of his
death to have been in May 1733, in which month and year his father
also died. Robert’s body appears to have been recovered, and brought
to Scotland for interment. He was never married. According to Sir
Walter Scott, the lady celebrated in Crawford’s song of ‘Tweedside’
was a Miss Mary Lillias Scott, one of the daughters of Walter Scott,
Esq. of Harden, an estate delightfully situated on the north side of
the Tweed, about four miles below Melrose. She was the descendant of
another celebrated beauty, Mary Scott, daughter of Mr. Scott of
Dryhope, in Selkirkshire, known by the name of ‘The Flower of
Yarrow.’
By his second wife, Jean, daughter of Archibald Crawford of
Auchinames in Renfrewshire, Patrick Crawford had as his eldest son,
Patrick, who succeeded his mother on her death in 1740, in the
estate of Auchinames. He was M.P. for Ayrshire from 1741 till 1754,
and for Renfrewshire from 1761 till 1768. He died 10th
January 1778. The second son, George, was lieutenant-colonel of the
53d regiment, and died in 1758.
Patrick Crawford, M.P., above mentioned, had two sons; John,
his heir, and James, colonel in the guards, one of the equeries to
Queen Charlotte, and governor of Bermuda, who died in 1811. The
elder son, John Crawford of Drumsoy, Auchinames, &c., was the
associate and friend of Charles James Fox; member for Old Sarum in
the parliament of 1768, and afterwards for the county of Renfrew. He
died, unmarried, in 1814, when he was succeeded by his cousin, John
Crawford, grandson of Colonel Crawford, third son of the above
mentioned Patrick Crawford, who purchased the estates of Drumsoy and
Auchinames. He is designed of Auchinames and Crosby. Born 4th
January 1780, he married, 16th August 1814, Sophia
Marianna, daughter of Major-general Horace Churchill, and
great-granddaughter of Sir Robert Walpole.
The laird of Auchinames is the sole representative of the
family of Drumsoy, and therefore the designation of Drumsoy is still
retained, as is also that of Kerse, the original property. He is
also considered the sole representative of the Dalmagregan Crawfords,
as those of Comlarg, Balgregan, Drongan, &c., all merged in the
house of Drumsoy. The estate of Ardneil (or Arnele) is of modern
acquisition, having been purchased in 1746 by Patrick Craufurd of
Auchinames from the Boyds of Kilmarnock, to whom it was granted by
King Robert the Bruce. Many royal charters are dated from Ardneil.
_____
The Crawfurds of Auchinames were descended from Hugh Crawfurd,
second son of Sir Reginald Crawford of Loudoun, sheriff of Ayr in
1296. This Hugh appears to have inherited the lands of Monoch or
Manoch, and also Crosby near Kilbride in Ayrshire. His son, Reginald
Crawfurd of Crosby, in 1320 obtained a grant of the lands of
Auchinames in Renfrewshire for his services to Robert the Bruce, as
well as an augmentation to his arms, of two lances in saltire,
commemorative of his exploits at the battle of Bannockburn.
Auchinames, being the larger possession, became the designation of
the family, though in a different county and a less ancient estate.
His grandson, Thomas Crawford of Auchinames, mortified several lands
to the church of Kilbarchan, in 1401, for a monk to say mass for the
salvation of his soul, and his wife’s, and his father’s and
mother’s, and for the soul of Reginald Crawford his grandfather. His
son Archibald had two sons; the younger, Thomas, was ancestor of the
Crawfords of Thridpart, while the elder, Robert Crawford of
Auchinames, must have been a person of some consideration in his
day, as he had for his first wife Isabel Douglas, youngest daughter
of George master of Angus, sister of Archibald, sixth earl of Angus,
who married the widowed queen of James the Fourth. His son, who was
also Robert Crawford of Auchinames, was slain at Flodden in 1513. A
subsequent laird, John Crawford of Auchinames, fell at the battle of
Pinkie in 1547. His grandniece Jane, on whom were settled the lands
of Crosby, married, about 1606, Patrick Crawfurd, the then laird of
Auchinames, and thus the ancient estates of the family were again
united. Their grandson, Archibald Crawford, the sixteenth baron of
this family, was the last laird of Auchinames in a direct male line.
Robert Crawfurd of Nethermains, Ayrshire, third son of Patrick
Crawfurd of Auchinames and his spouse Jane Crawford of Crosby,
continued the representation of the original family of Auchinames
(See Crawfords of Drumsoy), and was the progenitor of the Crawfords
of Newfield. His eldest son, Robert Crawfurd, M.D. of Nethermains,
married a daughter of the Rev. George Crawford, minister of West
Kilbride about 1640, of whom the following characteristic anecdote
is preserved in Crawfurd’s ‘Genealogical Collections,’ in the
Advocates’ Library: “Mr. George Crawfurd, a son of Thirdpart, was
minister at Kilbride. He was deposed in the strict times of the
Covenant for warldly-mindedness and selling a horse on the Sabbath
day, as old Portincross (Robert Boyd of Portincross, who dyed very
aged, near 100 years of age, in 1721) told me, who knew him minister
of Kilbryde, and was a witness against him at the presbytery.”
Dr. Crawfurd’s next brother, Patrick Crawfurd of Nethermains,
had an only daughter, Agnes, who sold that estate. On the death of
her father without male issue, the representation devolved on his
younger brother, Moses Crawfurd, who died in 1723. His grandson,
Moses Crawfurd, went to India about 1765, and there attained the
rank of major in the military service of the East India Company. He
was second in command at the capture of Beechigar, a strong hill
fort on the Ganges, and was left in command of that place with a
garrison of two thousand men. He returned home in 1783, and
purchased the estate of Newfield in Ayrshire. He died in 1794, and
was succeeded by his eldest son, Robert Crawfurd, Esq. of Newfield,
formerly a captain in the 7th Hussars, with which
regiment he served in the Peninsula. A second son, John, major of
the 44th foot, was present at the battles of Salamanca
and Orthes, and was wounded and taken prisoner in the latter
engagement. Robert Crawfurd, Esq. of Newfield, an officer in the
Rifle Brigade, the son of the last-mentioned Robert, succeeded in
1843, and is the representative of the original Crawfords of
Crawford.
_____
The firs Craufurd mentioned as laird of Fergushill is
Alexander Craufurd, whose name appears in the rolls of the
Convention parliament among those of the commissioners for ordering
out the militia of Ayrshire. He was a commissioner of supply for
that county in 1695, and lastly in 1704. His eldest son, John
Crawford, married Anna, the younger sister of Major Daniel Ker of
Kersland, a celebrated covenanter, who was killed in 1692, at the
battle of Steinkirk, where nearly the whole of his regiment, the
Cameronians (now the 26th), was cut to pieces; and by an
arrangement with his wife’s eldest sister, Jean, he became
proprietor of Kersland, and assumed the name of Ker. He was the
well-known John Ker of Kersland, who wrote the ‘Memoirs, containing
his secret transactions and negotiations in Scotland, England, the
courts of Vienna, Hanover, &c.” (London, 1726, 8vo); and was
otherwise remarkable for his political tergiversations in the reigns
of King William and Queen Anne. The property of Fergushill was
alienated from the Craufurd family in 1728.
_____
Of the Giffordland Crawfords, the third laird was killed at
the battle of Flodden, and the fifth fell at Pinkie. They were both
named John Crawford. The latter had three daughters, the youngest of
whom, Margaret, married Thomas Craufurd, a younger son of the laird
of Craufurdland, to whom she had two daughters, Grizel and Isabel.
The elder married John Blair of Windyedge, and Giffordland became
inherited by their descendants, under the name of Blair.
_____
The Craufuirds of Baidland, now of Ardmillan, in Ayrshire, are
lineally descended from a younger brother (whose name has not been
preserved) of Sir Reginald Craufurd, sheriff of Ayr in 1296. The
name in the ancient Titles is spelled sometimes Craufurd and
sometimes Craufuird. By the marriage of James Craufuird of Baidland,
not many years after the Restoration, with a daughter of Hugh
Kennedy of Ardmillan, he ultimately succeeded to that estate, which
from that time became the title of the family. This gentleman made a
conspicuous figure on the government or persecuting side, in the
civil and religious troubles towards the end of the reign of Charles
the Second. On the 20th March 1683, James Craufuird of
Ardmillan was, by the privy council, appointed commissioner for the
bailliary of Carrick, and on the 28th July, the same
year, he was included in the royal commission for the county of Ayr,
along with John Boyle of Kelburn, Colonel White, and Captain Inglis.
According to Wodrow (vol. ii. p. 225), in the transfer of heritable
jurisdiction from many of the leading nobility which took place in
those unsettled times, Graham of Claverhouse and he were the only
untitled persons on whom these honours were conferred, the regality
of Tongland and sheriffdom of Wigton being taken from the families
of Kenmuir and Lochnaw, and given to “the laird of Claverhouse,” and
the bailliary of Carrick and regality of Crossraguel from the earl
of Cassillis and given to “the laird of Ardmillan.” He had a large
family, some of whom settled in Ireland, where several branches
still remain. His daughter became the wife of David Crawford of
Drumsoy, and the mother of David Crawford, historiographer to Queen
Anne for Scotland. His eldest son, William Craufuird, was
distinguished for his defence of the fortress of the Bass, the
prison of the Covenanters, against King William’s government in
1691. He predeceased his father, who, in 1698, executed a settlement
in favour of a younger son, John, but it was set aside by the court
of session, and ultimately by the House of Lords, in 1712. This John
settled in England, and was the ancestor of the Crawfurds of Sussex.
Archibald Craufuird, eldest son of the above William Craufuird, in
consequence of the above decision, succeeded to Ardmillan, but the
original estate of Raidland had been sold to Hugh Macbride, merchant
in Glasgow. This Archibald Craufuird was a keen Jacobite, and after
the rebellion of 1745, was compelled to reside for some time under
surveillance in Edinburgh. He died in 1748. his elder son,
Archibald Craufuird of Ardmillan, who died in 1784, was deeply
involved in the unfortunate banking copartnery of Douglas, Heron,
and Co., in consequence of which the estate of Ardmillan was brought
to a judicial sale, during the minority of his son, Archibald
Craufuird, writer to the signet, and bought by his uncle, Thomas
Craufuird, who had been long in the army, and having for his
military services been rewarded with a lucrative office under
government at Bristol, he was thereby enabled to preserve the estate
fro going out of the family. He had a son,
Archibald-Clifford-Blackwell Craufurd, major in the army, and two
daughters, Margaret, married to her cousin, Archibald Craufurd,
writer to the signet, above mentioned, and Anne, the wife of
MacMiken of Grange. The said Archibald Craufurd, W.S., died 16th
May 1824, leaving, with other children, a son, Thomas MacMiken
Craufurd of Grange.
James Craufurd, a judge of the court of session by the title
of Lord Ardmillan, son of Major Archibald C.B. Craufurd of Ardmillan,
born at Havant, Hants, in 1805, was educated at the Ayr Academy, and
afterwards studied for the bar at Glasgow college and at the
university of Edinburgh. Passed advocate in 1829, in February 1849
he was appointed sheriff of Perthshire. In November 1853 he became
solicitor-general for Scotland. In January 1855 he was appointed a
lord of session, and in June of the same year a judge of the high
court of justiciary. Subjoined are the arms of the family.
The motto is, “Durum Patientia Frango.”
[arms of
Craufurd family]
A branch of the Baidland family possessed the estate of
Haining in Stirlingshire. Archibald Craufurd, lord high treasurer of
Scotland, a younger son of William Craufurd of Haining, was in 1457
nominated abbot of Holyrood, and appointed a lord of council in
1458. He was ambassador to England, and negotiated, with others, a
treaty of marriage betwixt James III. and Edward IV. in 1482, in
which it was contracted that James duke of Rothesay, afterwards
James IV., should marry the princess Cicely, second daughter of
Edward IV., and a great part of the portion was delivered, though
the marriage did not take place. He died in 1483, and his arms
were beautifully cut on the fly buttresses on the north side of the
nave of the abbey of Holyrood: – a fesse ermine, with a star
of five points in chief, Or, surmounted with an abbot’s mitre.
_____
The immediate ancestor of the Crawfurds of Jordanhill in
Renfrewshire, was Lawrence Craufurd of Kilbirnie in Ayrshire,
progenitor of the viscounts of Garnock (merged in the earldom of
Crawford in 1749, see CRAWFORD, earl of, below), and the eleventh
generation of that illustrious family in a direct male line. The
lands of Kilbirnie anciently belonged to a branch of the potent
family of Barclay. John Barclay of Kilbirnie, the last male heir of
that house, died in 1470, and his only daughter, Marjory, married
Malcolm Crawfurd of Easter Greenock (which barony he possessed in
right of his mother, a Galbraith), a descendant of the house of
Crawfurd of Loudoun. The above Lawrence Craufurd of Kilbirnie
flourished in the reign of James the Fifth. He exchanged the barony
of Crawfordjohn, the ancient inheritance of his ancestors, with Sir
James Hamilton of Fynnart for the lands of Drumry, in the county of
Dumbarton, for which he got a charter under the great seal, dated 5th
April 1529. About the year 1546, he endowed a chapel at Drumry, with
the lands of Jordanhill, for the support of a chaplain, and died 4th
June 1547. By his wife, Helen, daughter of Sir Hugh Campbell,
ancestor of the earls of Loudoun, he had six sons. From the eldest,
Hew, his successor, who fought on Queen Mary’s side at the battle of
Langside, was lineally descended Sir John Craufurd of Kilbirnie,
created a baronet by Charles the First in 1642, the grandfather of
John Craufurd of Kilbirnie, created by Queen Anne, in 1703, viscount
of Garnock (see GARNOCK, viscount of), the son of Margaret, second
daughter of the said Sir John Craufurd, and her husband, the Hon.
Patrick Lindsay, (second son of John, the fifteenth earl of Crawford
and first earl of Lindsay,) on whose heirs, male and female, he
entailed his estate of Kilbirnie, on their assuming the surname and
arms of Craufurd.
The sixth son of the above Lawrence Craufurd of Kilbirnie was
the celebrated Captain Thomas Craufurd of Jordanhill, whose daring
exploit of surprising and carrying by escalade, in April 1571, the
almost impregnable castle of Dumbarton, which had long held out for
Queen Mary, is familiar to every one acquainted with the history of
Scotland during the minority of James the Sixth. Of this bold
enterprize, an interesting account, written by himself to John Knox,
is inserted in Bannatyne’s Journal. He appears to have commenced his
military career at a very early age, as he was taken prisoner at the
disastrous battle of Pinkie in 1547, but after some time obtained
his liberty by paying ransom. In 1550 he retired to France, and
entered into the military service of Henry the Second, under the
command of James earl of Arran; and in 1561, he returned with Queen
Mary to Scotland. Previously to this, he had, with consent of his
eldest brother, Hew Craufuird of Kilbirnie, received from Sir
Bartholomew Montgomery, chaplain of Drumry, the lands of Jordanhill,
which had been bestowed by his father on that chaplainry, and the
grant was confirmed by a charter under the great seal, dated 8th
March, 1565-6. He was long attached to the Lennox family, and was
one of the gentlemen of Lord Darnley, the husband of the queen. On
her unexpected visit, in January 1567, to her sick husband at
Glasgow, Darnley sent Craufurd to meet her majesty, with a message
excusing himself from waiting on her in person, on account of his
illness. After Mary had left him, Darnley called Craufurd, and
informing him fully of all that had passed between the queen and
himself, bade him communicate it to his father the earl of Lennox.
He then asked what he thought of the queen’s proposal to remove him
to Craigmillar. “She treats your majesty,” replied Craufurd, “too
like a prisoner. Why should you not be taken to one of your own
houses in Edinburgh?” “It struck me,” said Darnley, “much in the
same way, and I have fears enough, but may God judge between us, I
have her promise only to trust to.” On the murder of Darnley, soon
after, he joined in the association with the earls of Argyle,
Morton, Athol, Glencairn, &c., for the defence of the young king’s
person, and the bringing the murderer to trial. He was examined on
oath before the commissioners at York, December 9, 1568, when he
produced a paper which he had written immediately after the
conversations between himself, and the queen and Darnley. His
deposition, indorsed by Cecil, is quoted by Tytler, in his History
of Scotland (vol. vii. p. 78). He afterwards accused Lethington of
participation in the king’s murder.
For his capture of the castle of Dumbarton, Captain Craufurd
obtained from James the Sixth, the lands of Blackstone, Barns,
Bishopsmeadow, and others, in the neighbourhood of Glasgow, with an
annuity of two hundred pounds Scots, during his life, payable out of
the priory of St. Andrews. He commanded in several expeditions
against the queen’s party, and was captain of the king’s forces all
the time of the calamitous civil war which raged during the
regencies of Lennox, Mar, and Morton. In September 1571, when a body
of Kirkaldy’s troops from the castle of Edinburgh, surprised the
town of Stirling, and the regent Lennox was killed, Captain Crawfurd,
with the assistance of a party from Stirling castle and some of the
citizens, chased the attacking faction out of the town. In the
following year, he had some skirmishes in the wood of Hamilton with
the Hamiltons. Previous to the surrender of the castle of Edinburgh,
in 1573, the regent Morton appointed him and Captain Hume to keep
the trenches, and at the head of their respective companies and a
band of English, on the morning of the 26th May, they
advanced to storm the Spur, an outwork of the castle of great
strength, in the form of a half-moon. A dull old ballad, entitled
the ‘Sege of the Castell,’ (Scots Poems of the Sixteenth Century,)
says:
“That Hume and Craford to the lave were gyde,
With certain sojours of the garysoune,
Four captains followit at their back to byde,
Semphill and Hector, Ramsay and Robesoune.”
The attempt proved successful. After a desperate conflict which
lasted for three hours, the ravelin was stormed, and the standard of
James the Sixth immediately displayed upon it. The surrender of
Edinburgh castle put an end to the civil war, and during his latter
years, Captain Crawfurd resided at Kersland, in the parish of Dalry,
Ayrshire, the heiress of which, Janet Ker, was his second wife. On
the 15th September 1575, the king wrote him the following
characteristic letter: “Captain Crawfurd, I have heard sic report of
your guid service done to me from the beginning of the warrs against
my onfriends, as I shall sum day remember the sam, God willing, to
your greit contentment; in the mean quhyle be of guid comfort, and
reserve you to that time with patince, being assured of my favour.
Fareweel. Your guid friend, James Rex.” He afterwards got a charter
under the great seal “acras terrarum ecclesiasticarum viccariae
pensionaris de Dalry.” &c., in Ayrshire, dated 20th
March 1578; and another charter to himself and Janet Ker his spouse,
of the lands of Blackstone &c., in the shire of Renfrew, dated 24th
October, 1581. The latest notice we have of him is in the same
year, when the king, by a gift, dated at Holyrood, grants him a
hundred pounds Scots, yearly, “out of the superflue of the third of
the benefices not assignat to the maintenance of the ministrie.” He
died 3d January 1603, and was buried in the old churchyard of
Kilbirnie. On his monument, which was erected in his lifetime, in
1594, to himself and his spouse, is inscribed “God schaw the Richt,”
a motto given him by Morton, in memory of his bravery in the fight
of the Gallowlee, between Leith and Edinburgh, in which, however, he
had been repulsed.
His eldest son, David, succeeded to his mother’s estate of
Kersland, and assumed the name of Ker, but his male line has long
been extinct. The second son, Hew, carried on the Jordanhill family.
This Hew had, with two daughters, five sons; namely, 1. Cornelius,
his heir, whose second son, Thomas, was progenitor of the Crawfurds
of Cartsburn; 2. Thomas, a colonel in the Russian service; 3. John,
rector of Halden in the county of Kent; 4. Laurence, a major-general
in the Scots army, in the reign of Charles the First, killed at the
siege of Hereford, in September 1645; and 5. Daniel, a
lieutenant-general in the army of the czar of Muscovy, at one time
governor of Smolensko, and at his death in 1674 governor of Moscow.
Hew Crawfurd of Jordanhill, the seventh laird, only son of
Hew, the sixth laird, was on 19th July, 1765, served heir
male to the above-mentioned Sir John Crawfurd of Kilbirnie, baronet,
ancestor of the families of Kilbirnie and Jordanhill. He married
Robina, only child of Captain John Pollok of Balgray, third son of
Sir Robert Pollok of Pollok, baronet, and in her right became Sir
Hew Crawfurd Pollok, baronet. He had a large family, several of whom
died when young. The eldest daughter, Mary, was married in 1775 to
General Fletcher of Saltoun (then Campbell of Boquhan), and
afterwards to Colonel John Hamilton of Bardowie in Stirlingshire;
and the third, Lucken, to General John Gordon Skene of Pitlurg,
Aberdeenshire, by whom she had ten children. Another of his
daughters, and one of his sons, Captain Hew Crawfurd, form the
subject of two caricatures by Kay, and some curious notices of them
will be found in Kay’s Edinburgh Portraits. The eldest son Sir
Robert Crawfurd Pollok, baronet, died, unmarried, in August 1845,
and was succeeded by his nephew, Sir Hew Crawfurd of Pollok and
Kilbirnie, baronet, now the representative of the family.
The estate of Jordanhill continued in the possession of the
Crawfurds till 1750, when it was sold to Alexander Houston, merchant
in Glasgow, whose son, Andrew Houston, sold it, in 1800, to
Archibald Smith, youngest son of Andrew Smith of Craigend, in
Stirlingshire, and it afterwards became the property of his eldest
son, James Smith, Esq. of Jordanhill.
_____
the family of Craufurd of Kilbirney, Stirlingshire, on whom a
baronetcy was conferred, 8 June 1781, are descended from the
Crawfurds of Kilbirnie in Ayrshire. The first baronet was Sir
Alexander Craufurd, son of Quentin Craufurd, Esq. of Newark, in
Ayrshire, one of his majesty’s justiciary baillies of the west seas
of Scotland. Sir Alexander had three sons, James, second baronet;
Sir charles, G.C.B., a lieutenant-general in the army, and colonel
of the second dragoon guards, and Robert, the celebrated General
Craufurd, who was killed at Ciudad Rodrigo in 1812, and of whom a
biographical notice is given below. Sir James, the second baronet,
born 20th October 1762, succeeded in 1801, and in 1812
assumed the additional name of Gregan. His eldest son, Thomas, was
killed at Waterloo. His second son, Alexander Charles,
lieutenant-colonel in the army, died 12th march 1838. On
his own death in 1839 he was succeeded by his third son, the Rev.
Sir George William Craufurd, of Kilbirney, Stirlingshire, and Burgh
Hall, Lincolnshire, third baronet. Twice married, issue, two sons by
first wife.
_____
The Crawfurds of Cartsburn, in Renfrewshire, are descended
from Thomas Crawfurd, second son, by his wife, Mary, daughter of Sir
James Lockhart of Lee, of Cornelius Crawfurd, who succeeded to the
estate of Jordanhill in 1624. Cartsburn was an ancient possession of
the Kilbirnie family. It was included in the barony of Easter
Creenock, which was acquired by Crawfurd of Kilbirnie through his
marriage with the heiress, about the end of the fourteenth century.
In the reign of Queen Mary, it became the patrimony of a younger
brother of the Kilbirnie family. this branch ended in the person of
David Crawfurd, in the reign of Charles the First. The lands of
Cartsburn next went to Malcolm Crawfurd of Newton, also a descendant
of the house of Kilbirnie, from whose heirs they were acquired by
Sir John Campbell of Kilbirnie in 1657. In 1669, Sir John’s daughter
and heiress, Margaret, wife of the Hon. Patrick Lindsay, conveyed
these lands to her cousin, the said Thomas Craufurd, second son of
Cornelius Crawfurd of Jordanhill. His eldest son succeeded to
Cartsburn. His second son was Hew Crawfurd of Woodside, a small but
pleasant property in the vicinity of Paisley, which continued in his
family till 1755, when it was sold. The third son, George, was the
genealogist and historian; author of the ‘Genealogical History of
the Royal and Illustrious Family of the Stewarts, from the year 1034
to the year 1710; to which are added, The Acts of Sederunt and
Articles of Regulation relating to them; to which is prefixed, A
General Description of the Shire of Renfrew,’ Edin. 1710, fol.; ‘The
Peerage of Scotland, containing an Historical and Genealogical
Account of the Nobility of that Kingdom,’ Edin. 1716, fol.; ‘Lives
and Character of the Crown Officers of Scotland, from the Reign of
King David I. to the Union of the two Kingdoms, with an Appendix of
original papers. 1st vol., all that was published; Edin.
1726, fol. He married Margaret, daughter of James Anderson, the
eminent antiquary, compiler of the ‘Diplomata Scotiae,’ whose life
is given in this work, by his wife, a daughter of John Ellis of
Ellisland, advocate in Edinburgh. Thomas Crawfurd, the first of
Cartsburn of this line, died in 1695. In 1669, the year in which he
acquired the property, he obtained a crown charter in confirmation
of one which had been granted by Charles the First in 1633, whereby
the lands of Cartsburn were erected into a free burgh of barony. The
village which arose, called Craufurdsdyke or Cartsdyke, from a dyke
or quay he built there, adjoins the town of Greenock, from which it
is separated by the Cart’s burn, and is included within the
parliamentary boundaries of that burgh.
Thomas Craufurd, the sixth laird of Cartsburn, died in 1791,
and was succeeded by his aunt, Christian Crawfurd,
great-granddaughter of the first Thomas. She married Mr. Robert
Arthur, and died in 1796. She had a son, Thomas, who predeceased
her, and a daughter, Christian Arthur Crawfurd, who succeeded her in
Cartsburn, and married Thomas Macknight of Ratho, son of Rev.
William Macknight, who died in 1750, minister of Irvine, and had a
son, and two daughters, The eldest daughter, Christian, married Rev.
Thomas Macknight, of Dalbeath, D.D., one of the ministers of
Edinburgh. The son, William Macknight, assumed the surname of
Crawfurd under an entail, on succeeding to Cartsburn. He married
Jean, daughter of James Crawford of Broadford.
_____
CRAWFORD,
earl of, a title in the peerage of Scotland, first conferred, in
1398, on Sir David Lindsay of Glenesk, whose ancestor, William de
Lindsay of Ercildun, in the reign of Malcolm the Fourth, was the
first of the family who possessed the barony of Crawford in
Clydesdale. That line terminated, in 1249, in an heiress, Alice de
Lindsay, the wife of Sir Henry Pinkeney, a great baron of
Northamptonshire, whose grandson, Sir Robert Pinkeney, claimed the
crown of Scotland at the competition in 1292, as descended from the
princess Marjory through his grandmother Alice de Lindsay. The
barony of Crawford was afterwards forfeited, and bestowed on Sir
Alexander Lindsay of Luffness, the ancestor of the more recent house
of Crawford [see ante, and LINDSAY, surname of].
Sir David Lindsay, the first earl of Crawford, is supposed to
h ave been born in 1366. He succeeded his father, Sir Alexander
Lindsay, in Glenesk (which had belonged to his mother, Catherine,
daughter of Sir John Stirling of Glenesk), in 1382, and his cousin
Sir James Lindsay of Crawford in 1397. Having married the princess
Catherine, fifth daughter of King Robert the Second, he received
with her the barony of Strathnairn in Inverness-shire. In his
twenty-fifth year, he proved the victor in the celebrated tournament
with John Lord Welles at London-bridge in May 1390. That nobleman
had been sent ambassador to Scotland by Richard the Second, and at a
banquet with the Scottish nobles, where the conversation turned on
deeds of arms, on Sir David Lindsay extolling the prowess of his
countrymen, Welles exclaimed, “Let words have no place; if you now
not the chivalry and valiant deeds of Englishmen, assail ye me, day
and place where ye list, and ye shall soon have experience.” Then
said Sir David, :I will assail ye!” Lord Welles naming London Bridge
for the place, Sir David appointed the festival of St. George for
the day of combat. For this tourney he obtained a safe-conduct for
himself and his retinue of twenty-eight persons, including two
knights, squires, valets, &c. He was received with high honour by
King Richard, and on the appointed day, in presence of the king and
court, and after the usual preliminary ceremonies, at the sound of
the trumpet the two champions encountered each other, upon their
barbed horses, with spears sharply ground. Both spears were broken,
but in this adventure the Scottish knight sat so strong that
although Lord Welles’ spear was shivered to pieces upon his helmet
and visor, he stirred not, and the spectators cried out that,
contrary to the law of arms, he was bound to the saddle; whereupon
he vaulted lightly off his horse, and leapt back again into his
seat, without touching the stirrup. In the third course he threw
Lord Welles out of his saddle to the ground. He then dismounted, and
a desperate foot combat with their daggers ensued, when Sir David,
fastening his dagger between the joints of his antagonist’s armour,
lifted him off his feet, and hurled him to the ground, where he lay
at his mercy. Instead of putting an end to his life, as the laws of
these combats permitted, he raised his opponent, and after
presenting him to the queen, who gave him his liberty, he supported
him in the lists till assistance came, and afterwards visited him
every day till he recovered. A full description of this famous
tourney is given in Wyntoun’s Cronykil. Two years after, Sir
David nearly lost his life in an affray with some of the clan
Donachie, who, with Duncan Stewart, natural son of the Wolf of
Badenoch, were ravaging Glenisla, the north-west of Angus; and were
encountered at Glenbrerith, about eleven miles north of Gaskclune,
by the Lindsays and Ogilvies. Armed at all points, and on horseback,
Sir David made great slaughter among the catarans, but having
pierced one of them with his lance, and pinned h im to the ground,
the latter writhed his body upward on the spear, and collecting all
his force, with a last dying effort, fetched a sweeping blow with
his broadsword, which cut through the knight’s stirrup-leather and
steel boot.
Three ply or four above the foot,
to the very bone, –
‘That man na straik gave but that ane,
For there be delt; yet nevertheless
That guid Lord there wounded wes,
And had deit there that day
Had not his men had him away,
Agane his will, out of that press.’
[Wyntoun’s Cronykil, tom. ii. p. 367.]
On the 21st April 1398, Sir David Lindsay was, by King Robert
the Third, created earl of Crawford. The barony of Crawford was at
the same time regranted with a regality, conferring privileges on
him and his posterity, akin to those of the earls palatine of
England and the Continent. He had frequently safe-conducts granted
him to England, being charged with negociations with the English
court, and sometimes he sought for adventure and honour in foreign
wars. “Between a visit to England in October 1398 and the 29th
of December 1404, – the date of his safe-conduct for entering
England with one hundred persons, horse and foot, in his train, and
passing through to Scotland, (being then one of the commissioners to
treat of peace with England,) – his name is not once mentioned in
the Rotuli Scotiae, and it is merely from foreign sources
that we learn that he gave a letter of service and homage, under his
seal of arms, to Louis duke of Orleans, on the 1st of
January 1401-2, and that in May that year he was hovering with a
fleet on the coast of Corunna in Spain, probably as a partisan of
France.” [Lives of the Lindsays, vol. i. p. 99.] In December
1406, he was again and for the last time one of the ambassadors to
the English court to treat of peace. He died in February 1407 at his
castle of Finhaven, and was buried in the family vault in the
Greyfriars church at Dundee. The following is the seal of David,
first earl of Crawford:
[seal of
David first earl of Crawford]
A letter in French from the first earl of Crawford to Henry
the Fourth of England, in February 1405, inserted in the first
volume of the Lives of the Lindsays (p. 105), on the occasion of a
merchant-ship of St. Andrews having been seized and confiscated by
the English, in violation of the truce, is interesting as showing
that the merchants and town of St. Andrews were under his
protection, and also that at that period French or Latin was the
language used by the Scottish nobles in their intercourse with the
court of England, so much so that the celebrated earl of March,
writing to Henry five years before, apologizes for his letter being
in English, as it was “mare clere” to his understanding “than Latyne
or Fraunche.” With three sons, Alexander, second earl; David, of
Newdosk, and Gerard; he had three daughters, Lady Margaret or
Matilda, married to her cousin, Archibald, fifth earl of Douglas,
duke of Touraine; Lady Marjory, to Sir William Douglas of Lochleven;
and Lady Elizabeth, to Sir Robert Keith, great marishal of Scotland.
Ingelram Lindsay, bishop of Aberdeen from 1442 to 1458, is also said
to have been a son of the first earl of Crawford, but, says Lord
Lindsay, strict proof of his filiation is wanting.
Alexander, second earl, the year after his father’s death, had
a safe-conduct to go to France. In 1416, with the earls of Douglas
and Mar, he had letters of safe-conduct to England, to negociate the
temporary release of the captive king, James the First, on his
leaving hostages for his return, but the negociation was suddenly
broken off. In 1421, however, it was renewed for the entire
liberation of the king, when the earl was again one of the
commissioners. On James’ return in 1423, Crawford was among the
nobles who met him at Durham and escorted him to Scone, where he was
crowned on the last day of May. After receiving the accolade of
knighthood from his majesty’s hand, Crawford departed for England,
being one of the twenty-eight hostages pledged for his sovereign,
his kinsman, Sir John Lindsay of the Byres, being another. In the
treaty for James’ release, the annual income of the hostages is
stated – the earl of Crawford being rated at one thousand merks, and
Lindsay of the Byres at five hundred. The latter obtained his
liberty in 1425, but the earl was detained in England till November
1427, when he had leave to return on giving an equivalent. He is
said to have been active in the capture of the assassins of James
the First, and died in 1438, the year after.
His son, David, third earl, entered into a league of
association and friendship with the powerful earl of Douglas,
lieutenant-general of the kingdom, with the object of drawing to
their party the other great feudal families, and, thus united, to
rule paramount in the state. [Lives of the Lindsays, vol. i.
p. 126.] On the discovery of this league, Kennedy, bishop of St.
Andrews and primate of Scotland, joined with Crichton, the
chancellor, to oppose their machinations. In resentment, the earl of
Crawford, assisted by his kinsman Alexander Ogilvie of Inverquharity,
and other allies, invaded the bishop’s lands in Fife, burning his
granges and tenements, and carrying off an immense booty. After
fruitlessly remonstrating against this outrage, Kennedy formally
excommunicated the earl, for a year, and before it expired he
received his death-wound in a desperate conflict at Arbroath on the
13th January 1445-6, between the Lindsays and Ogilvies,
which arose from the following cause: The Benedictines of the abbey
of Arbroath had appointed his eldest son, Alexander, master of
Crawford, their chief justiciar, or supreme judge in civil affairs
throughout their regality; but he proved so expensive to the monks,
by his retinue of followers and manner of living, that they formally
deposed him, and appointed in his place Alexander Ogilvy of
Inverquharity, nephew of John Ogilvy of Airlie, who had a hereditary
claim to the office. As, however, the master of Crawford had taken
forcible possession of the town and abbey, an appeal to the sword
was rendered necessary. Both parties assembled their forces. Douglas
sent one hundred Clydesdale men to the aid of Lindsay, and the
Hamiltons also assisted him with some of their vassals. The Ogilvies
on their part found an unexpected auxiliary in Sir Alexander Seton
of Gordon, afterwards earl of Huntly, who, as he returned from
court, happened to arrive the night before the battle at the castle
of Ogilvy, on his road to Strathbogie; and although in no way
personally interested in the dispute, found himself compelled to
assist the Ogilvies by a rude law of ancient Scottish hospitality,
which bound the guest to take part with his host, in any quarrel or
danger, so long as the food eaten under his roof remained in his
stomach. With the small train of attendants and friends who
accompanied him, he marched with the Ogilvies to Arbroath, where
they found the Lindsays, in great force, drawn up in battle array
before the gates. As the battle was about to commence, the earl of
Crawford, anxious to avert bloodshed, suddenly galloped into the
field from Dundee, where he had heard of the approaching conflict,
but before he could interfere, one of the Ogilvies’ men darted his
spear through his mouth and neck, and mortally wounded him. The
Lindsays instantly attacked the Ogilvies and their allies with great
fury, and they were driven from the field with the loss of five
hundred men, while that of the Lindsays did not exceed a hundred.
Earl David expired after a week of lingering torture, and his body
lay for four days unburied, until Bishop Kennedy sent the prior of
St. Andrews to take off the excommunication. The superstitious
feeling of the times did not fail to notice that the battle of
Arbroath was fought on that day twelvemonth that the slain earl of
Crawford had ravaged “St. Andrew’s land” in Fife. Ogilvy of
Inverquharity, sorely wounded, was taken prisoner and carried to the
castle of Finhaven, where he died. According to the tradition of the
district, the countess of Crawford, who was his own cousin-german,
in the agony of finding that her husband had been mortally wounded
in the affray, rushed to Inverquharity’s chamber, and smothered him
with a down pillow. The Lindsays afterwards burnt and wasted the
lands and houses of the Ogilvies, and from this time the feud
between the two clans raged incessantly until the accession of James
the Sixth to the English throne. By his wife, Marjory, daughter of
Alexander Ogilvie of Auchterhouse, hereditary sheriff of Angus, the
earl had five sons; Alexander, fourth earl of Crawford; Walter
Lindsay of Beaufort and Edzell; William Lindsay of Lekoquhy,
ancestor of the Lindsays of Evelick in Perthshire and their various
cadets; Sir John Lindsay of Brechin and Pitcairlie, killed at the
battle of Brechin in 1452, ancestor of the house of Pitcairlie in
Forfarshire, and their junior branch of Cairnie; and James, who,
accompanying the princess Eleanor, daughter of James the First, to
Germany, when she went to be married to Sigismund of Austria,
espoused an heiress near Augsburg, where his descendants, the
Crafters, were reported to be residing in the last century.
Alexander, fourth earl, the victor at Arbroath, was styled
“the tiger,” or “earl Beardie,” from the ferocity of his character
and the length of his beard or rather, as one writer suggests, from
the little reverence in which he held the king’s courtiers, and his
readiness to ‘beard the best of them.” [Lives of the Lindsays,
vol. i. page 134.] In 1446, he had the office of heritable
sheriff of Aberdeen, and besides being justiciary of the abbey of
Arbroath, as already mentioned, was also justiciary of the abbey of
Scone. He was one of the guarantees of a treaty of peace with
England, one of the wardens of the marches, and ambassador to the
English court in 1451. With the earl of Douglas and Macdonald of the
Isles, titular earl of Ross, he entered into a league of mutual
alliance, offensive and defensive, against all men, not excepting
the king himself; on hearing of which, the king – James the Second,
then in his seventeenth year – sent for Douglas to Stirling castle,
and after vainly urging him to break it, on his refusal, drew his
dagger, and stabbed him to the heart. Crawford immediately flew to
arms, and assembling all his forces encamped at Brechin, with the
intention of intercepting the earl of Huntly, his old antagonist at
Arbroath, now appointed lieutenant-general of the kingdom, who was
hastening with an army to his sovereign’s assistance. The contending
parties met on the 18th May 1452, on a level moor, about
two miles north-east of Brechin. The forces of Huntly far
outnumbered those of Crawford, but the victory, which had long
remained doubtful, was at last inclining to the latter, when John
Collace of Balnamoon, one of his most trusted vassals, who commanded
a division of three hundred men, stationed in the left wing,
deserted to Huntly. Before the battle he had requested Crawford
that, in the event of their victory, his son might be put in fee of
the lands of Ferne, which lay near his house. “The time is short,”
replied the earl, “stand bravely by me to-day, and prove yourself a
valiant man, and you shall have all and more than your desire.” His
defection was fatal to the earl, whose troops, weakened by the
departure of Balnamoon’s division, and furiously attacked by
Huntly’s forces, took to flight in every direction. Among the slain
were the earl’s brother, and nearly sixty gentlemen, with numerous
persons of inferior rank, while on Huntly’s side the loss did not
exceed five barons, and a small number of yeomen, but he had to
lament the loss of two brothers. Earl Beardie fled to Finhaven, and
on alighting from his horse he called for a cup of wine, and was
heard to exclaim that he would “willingly pass seven years in hell,
to gain the honour of such a victory as had that day fallen to
Huntly.” He had already been denounced a rebel, and his lands, life,
and goods, were declared forfeited to the state, his coat of arms
being torn, and his bearings abolished. The lordship of Brechin,
with the hereditary sheriffship of Aberdeenshire, was also taken
from him, and given to Huntly, his victorious opponent. His power,
however, was little weakened by this defeat, and as soon as he had
recruited his forces, he took a terrible revenge on all who had
either refused to join his banner, or, like Balnamoon, had deserted
him in the battle, ravaging their lands, and destroying their
castles and houses. But after the submission of the Douglases, being
abandoned by many of his allies, he took an opportunity of the king
passing through Forfarshire, in April 1453, on his way to the north,
to appear before his majesty, in a mean habit, bareheaded and
barefooted, and with tears in his eyes he made a speech, in which he
acknowledged his offence, and craved mercy for his adherents, being
more concerned for their safety than for his own. “When the earl had
endit,” says Pitscottie, “the noble and gentle men of Angus, that
came in his company to seek remission, held up their hands to the
king maist dolorously, crying, ‘Mercy!’ till their sobbing and
signing cuttit the words that almaist their prayers could not be
understood.” At the intercession of Huntly and Kennedy, bishop of
St. Andrews, with whom he had been privately reconciled, and by
whose advice he had thus acted, he was pardoned, and afterwards
entertained James magnificently in his castle of Finhaven. As,
however, the king had sworn, in his wrath, “to make the highest
stone of Finhaven the lowest,’ his majesty went up to the roof of
the castle, and threw down to the ground a stone which was lying
loose on one of the battlements, thus keeping his oath strictly to
the letter. Earl Beardie became a loyal subject, but in six months
afterwards, he was seized with a fever, of which he died in 1454. By
his wife, Elizabeth Dunbar, he had two sons, minors, David, fifth
earl of Crawford, created duke of Montrose by James the Third, and
Sir Alexander Lindsay of Auchtermonzie, who long after succeeded as
seventh earl. He had also a daughter, Lady Elizabeth Lindsay wife of
John, first lord Drummond.
In the time of this earl a noble Spanish chestnut tree, nearly
forth-three feet in circumference, ornamented the court of the
castle of Finhaven, and, according to tradition, a gillie or
messenger-lad having cut a walking-stick from it, the earl was so
enraged that he hanged him on one of its branches, and from that
moment the tree began to decay. The ghost of the gillie, it is
locally said, has ever since walked between Finhaven and Carriston,
under the name of Jock Barefoot.
David, fifth earl, appears, soon after his accession to the
title, to have been a prisoner to James earl of Douglas, on a second
rebellion of that nobleman, speedily suppressed, in March 1454, as
in a charter, dated 27th February 1458-9, he grants
Herbert Johnstone of Dalibank, ancestor of the house of Westerhall,
the lands of Gleneybank, with the office of baillie of the regality
of Kirkmichael in Dumfries-shire, “for his faithful service at the
time when he was held a captive by the late James earl of Douglas,
and chiefly for the liberation and abduction of his person from
captivity, and from the hands of the said earl.” [Lives of the
Lindsays, vol. i. p. 145.] His lordship had a charter of the
office of sheriff of Forfar, 19th October 1466, on the
resignation of James Stewart, afterwards earl of Buchan. On the
downfall of the Boyds, he rose daily in power and influence, and for
twenty years, – from 1465 to 1485, – was employed in almost every
embassy or public negociation with England. On 9th March
1472-3 he obtained a grant from King James the Third of the
lordships of Brechin and Navar for life; in July 1473 he was
appointed keeper of Berwick for three years; on the 26th
October 1474, he appeared as procurator for King James on the
betrothment of the princess Cecilia, youngest daughter of Edward the
Fourth of England, and the prince royal of Scotland, which took
place in presence of various English commissioners and gentlemen, in
the Low Greyfriars’ church at Edinburgh, and a description of which
is given in Tytler’s History of Scotland, vol. iv. p. 242;
and in May, 1476, he was constituted high admiral of Scotland, for
the suppression of the rebellion of the earl of Ross, (MacDonald of
the Isles,) who, alarmed at the formidable preparations against him,
speedily submitted.
In 1474, this earl made a new entail of the family estates,
settling them on his heirs-male for ever, a document which regulated
the succession for many generations afterwards. In 1480, he was
appointed master of the king’s household, and after the raid of
Lauder in 1482, he became lord chamberlain. Although one of the
purifiers of the royal council, as they termed themselves, and
present at the famous secret meeting of the nobility, where
Archibald earl of Angus acquired the name of Bell-the-Cat, and
wherein it was resolved to put to death Cochrane and the other
favourites of the king., he would not be a party to the plot for
deposing his sovereign, and on being made aware of such a design, he
abandoned the factious nobles, and gave his whole support to the
throne. In 1487 he was appointed justiciary of the north, along with
the earl of Huntly, After the disbanding of the royal forces at
Blackness, and the hollow pacification that then took place, the
earl of Crawford was created duke of Montrose, by royal charter,
dated 18th May, 1488, to himself and his heirs, being the
first instance of the title of duke having been conferred on a
Scottish subject, not of the royal family. The grant conveyed to his
grace the castle and borough of Montrose, with its customs and
fisheries, and the lordship of Kincleven in Perthshire, to be held
in free regality for ever, with courts of justiciary,
chamberlainship, &c., on the tenure of rendering therefrom a red
rose yearly on the day of St. John the Baptist. On this creation the
duke added to his arms an escutcheon argent, charged with a
rose, gules, which he carried by was of a surtout over his
arms. Subjoined is an engraving of his seal and his autograph, from
the first volume of Lord Lindsay’s Lives of the Lindsays
[seal of Crawford, Duke of Montrose]
A
new royal or public herald was also created on this occasion under
the name of ‘Montrose,’ as appears by the Exchequer Rolls. At the
battle of Sauchieburn, soon after, (112th June 1488), the
duke eminently distinguished himself, on the side of his unfortunate
sovereign, James the Third, but was severely wounded, and being
taken prisoner, was compelled to ransom himself and his followers,
and was deprived of all his public offices. The act rescissory
which, on the 17th October following, was passed in the
Estates, annulling all grants of lands, and creations of dignities,
conferred by the late king since the 2d of February preceding, was
conceived not to affect the original patent of this ducal title, as
the young king, James the Fourth, had previously directed a free
pardon, by letters patent, to be issued under his privy seal, to the
duke of Montrose, which he placed in the hands of Andrew Lord Gray,
to remain in his possession until the duke should resign to that
nobleman the hereditary sheriffship of Forfarshire. This was
accordingly done on the 6th November 1488, in his grace’s
name by procurators appointed by him for the purpose, he having
previously protested against the whole proceeding as illegal and
unjust. On the 19th September 1489, he received a new
patent or charter, under the great seal, of the dukedom of Montrose,
and in February following, he was appointed a member of the secret
council, but subsequently to the battle of Sauchieburn he took
little part in public affairs. He died at Finhaven, at Christmas
1495, in his fifty-fifth year.
The dukedom of Montrose, it has been decided by the House of
Peers, ended with him; as having been by the renewed patent
conferred for life only; In 1848, the earl of Crawford and Balcarres
presented a petition to the queen, claiming the title of duke of
Montrose, on the ground of its being vested in the heir male. This
petition, in accordance with the rule and practice in contested
peerage cases, was referred to the House of Lords, and the claim was
opposed both by the duke of Montrose, of the noble house of Graham,
and by the Crown;. After a lapse of nearly five years the House of
Lords gave their decision on 5th August 1853, by adopting
a resolution to the effect that the earl of Crawford and Balcarres
had not made out his right to the dignity. (See MONTROSE, Duke of.)
By his wife, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of James, first Lord
Hamilton, the duke had 2 sons, Alexander, Lord Lindsay, and John,
styled master of Crawford, who became 6th earl. His elder
son, Alexander, Lord Lindsay, when a mere stripling, had revived an
old feud with the Glammis family, and that with such violence as to
require the interference of parliament, March 6, 1478. On the 22d
April 1479, he was committed to the castle of Blackness for chasing
two monks. In the autumn of 1489 he quarrelled and fought with his
younger brother John, by whom he was wounded, and died shortly after
at his castle of Inverqueich. He had married Lady Janet Gordon
(afterwards the wife of Patrick, son of Lord Gray), whom popular
rumour accused of having smothered her first husband with a down
pillow while lying ill of his wound.
John, the second son, became the sixth earl of Crawford. In
1504, on the abortive rebellion of the Hevrideans and Western
Islanders, in support of Donald Dhu, grandson and heir of John, Lord
of the Isles, he was appointed, conjointy with Huntly, Argyle,
Marischal, Lord Lovat, and other powerful barons, to lead the array
of the whole kingdom north of Forth and Clyde, against them. [Gregory’s
History of the Western Highlands, p. 98.] Lord Lindsay says that
this earl’s extravagance was great. Besides alienating lands held
in capite of the crown, and thus incurring the displeasure of
the king, he was reduced to resign the hereditary sheriffdom of
Aberdeenshire to William, earl of Errol, 10th February
1510, and it was not regained for many years after his death. [Lives
of the Lindsays, vol. i. p. 180.] On 23d April, 1512,
twenty-three years after his brother’s death, letters “to search
John, earl of Crawford, for the slaughter of Alexander, his
brother,” were issued by Lord Gray, sheriff of Angus, charging the
earl, his cousins, Sir David and Alexander Lindsay, and others their
accomplices, to give surety to appear before the king’s justiciary,
on the third day of the next justice-eyre at Dundee to “underlie the
law” for the said crime; and not appearing they were denounced
rebels, 24th July 1513. Two months afterwards, the earl
was killed at Flodden, where he had a chief command, His children
all died in infancy, but a natural son, John Lindsay of Downie, in
Forfarshire, was father of Patrick Lindsay, archbishop of Glasgow.
Alexander, seventh earl, the younger son of Earl Beardie, and
previously styled Sir Alexander Lindsay of Auchtermonzie (a barony
inherited from his mother), succeeded his nephew, as collateral heir
male. He was one of the four noblemen appointed by parliament, 1st
December 1513 continually to remain with the queen-mother, to give
her counsel and assistance as regent of the kingdom. For the
suppression of the deadly feuds that then raged both in the
Highlands and on the borders, he was appointed high-justiciary north
of the Forth, while Lord Home received the same office south of that
river. Crawford, however, died shortly afterwards, at a great age,
in May 1517. By his wife, Margaret, daughter of Campbell of
Ardkinglass, he had David, his successor, another son. Alexander, of
Rathillet, who died without issue, and a daughter, married to Sir
Archibald Douglas of Kilspindie, high treasurer of Scotland.
David, eighth earl, took part with the queen-mother and Angus
against the regent duke of Albany, and on the departure of the
latter for France in 1524, he was one of the nobility who attended
her majesty when she brought the young king, then only thirteen
years of age, from Stirling to Edinburgh, and, on 30th
July of that year, made him assume the government. The earl was
subsequently deprived by James of large estates in the Lowlands, and
of his lands in the Hebrides, which so incensed him against the king
that it was believed he might easily have been induce
