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The Scottish Nation
Linlithgow


LINLITHGOW, earl of, a title, (attainted in 1716,) in the Scottish peerage, conferred in 1600, on Alexander 7th Lord Livingstone, descended from Sir William Livingstone, who in 1346, obtained from King David II. a grant of the barony of Callendar in Stirlingshire. (See LIVINGSTONE, surname of.) When master of Livingstone, he was among those who were taken prisoners in Dumbarton castle, on that fortress being surprised by Captain Thomas Crawford, in May 1571. Among other charters he had one of the office of hereditary constable and keeper of the castle of Blackness, with certain lands thereto annexed, Feb. 28, 1598. The charge of the princess Elizabeth, daughter of James VI., and afterwards electress palatine, with other children of the king, was committed to him and his wife, Lady Eleanor Hay, only daughter of 7th earl of Errol, and in a charter of novo damus, dated March 13, 1600, granted by James VI. in his favour, of the barony of Callendar, in which the town of Falkirk was erected into a free burgh of barony, honourable mention is made of the great care and fidelity with which they attended to the education of the king’s children, and of the expense incurred in maintaining them and their servants. This charter also contained a grant of regality, but which it was provided should evacuate on payment of £10,000, said to be due by the crown to Lord Livingstone. He was created earl of Linlithgow, Lord Livingstone and Callendar, Dec. 25, 1600. According to Sir James Balfour, this took place at the baptism of Prince Charles, afterwards Charles I. When the princess Elizabeth was restored to her father at Windsor in 1603, the earl and his countess had discharged their trust so much to the satisfaction of James that they obtained an act of approval from the king and council. In 1604 he was one of the commissioners appointed by parliament to treat of a union with England, a favourite project of King James. He died in 1622. He had, with two daughters, three sons, viz., John, master of Livingstone, who predeceased his father, unmarried, in 1614; Alexander, 2d earl of Linlithgow, and James, 1st earl of Callendar. (See CALLENDAR, earl of.)

      Alexander, 2d earl of Linlithgow, was in his father’s lifetime appointed an extraordinary lord of session, January 13, 1610, but was removed from the bench in 1626. In the following year he was appointed by charter hereditary constable and keeper of the palace of Linlithgow. In 1634 he granted the barony of Callendar to his brother, Sir James Livingstone, who was created by Charles I. successively Lord Almond and Falkirk, and earl of Callendar. The 2d earl of Linlithgow married, first, Lady Elizabeth Gordon, 2d daughter of George 1st Marquis of Huntly, and had one son, George, 3d earl of Linlithgow; and 2dly, Lady Mary Douglas, eldest daughter of the 10th earl of Angus, by whom he had, with two daughters, another son, Alexander, 2d earl of Callendar.

      George, 3d earl of Linlithgow, born in July 1616, suffered much on account of his loyalty to the king during the civil wars. After the battle of Kilsyth, Aug. 15, 1645, he was one of the first to wait upon the victorious Montrose, during his stay at Bothwell. At the Restoration he was appointed colonel of the royal regiment of horse guards, and sworn a privy councillor. In 1681 he resigned his command in the army, and was constituted justice-general of Scotland, of which office he was deprived at the Revolution. He was implicated in Sir James Montgomery’s plot for the restoration of the abdicated family, and died Feb. 1, 1690, aged 74. He had married Lady Elizabeth Maule, 2d daughter of 1st earl of Panmure, the widowed countess of Kinghorn, and had by her, with one daughter, two sons, George, 4th earl of Linlithgow; and Alexander, 3d earl of Callendar.

      George, 4th earl of Linlithgow, was sworn a privy councillor in 1692. He was also one of the commissioners of the treasury. He died Aug. 7, 1695, without issue, when the title devolved on his nephew, James, 4th earl of Callendar and 5th earl of Linlithgow, who, engaging in the rebellion of 1715, was attainted of high treason. By his countess, Lady Margaret Hay, second daughter of 12th earl of Errol, he had a son, James, Lord Livingstone, who died April 30, 1715, and a daughter, Lady Anne Livingstone, countess of Kilmarnock. Her eldest son, James, Lord Boyd, succeeded, in her right, to the earldom of Errol.


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