of that Ilk, a member of Parliament and
Privy Councilor, was made Lord Kinnaird in 1682 and died in 1689. The castle of Kinnaird
was built in the fourteenth or fifteenth century.
The Lacys (de Leis) originally came over to
England from Normandy with William the Conqueror in 1066. The first of the family in
Ireland was the famous Hugh de Lacy, who was granted the whole of the kingdom of Meath,
which included what is now Meath, Westemeath, Dublin, etc., and which was, before the
invasion, in the hands of the Southern Ui NeiIl, under the O’Melaghlins
(O’Melaghlin had Hugh de Lacy assassinated by an axman in 1186, for reneging on an
agreement). Hugh de Lacy married as his second wife the daughter of the Irish High-King
Roderick O’Connor. Owing to the failure of the male line, this territory passed out
of the family, although cadets of the house remained in the area. A distinguished branch
of the de Lacys, claiming descent from the O’Connor marriage, settled in Limerick,
where they had castles at Ballingarry, Bruree, Bruff, and elsewhere. Pierce Lacy of Bruff
was a famous captain in the wars against Elizabeth I in the late sixteenth century. Hugh
Lacy, Bishop of Limerick from 1557—1581, was removed from his post by Queen Elizabeth
and died in prison ten years later. Col. John Lacy was a member of the Supreme Council of
the Confederate Catholics in 1647, and was specifically excluded from amnesty after the
fall of Limerick in 1651. Count de Lacy, of the Ballingarry family, left Ireland with
Patrick Sarsfield after the second siege of Limerick (in which he took a prominent part
though only thirteen years of age at the time), and distinguished himself in the service
of Peter the Great of Russia. His son became an Austrian field-marshal, while others of
the family rose to fame in the service of Russia and Spain.
The Lindsays take their name from the
district of that name south of the Humber in England, which they held as Anglo-Norman
knights as early as 1086. Sir Walter de Lindsay, who appears in Scotland before 1120, was
a friend and supporter of David I, who had been Earl of Huntingdon in England before his
accession to the throne of the Scots.
The Lindsays acquired land in the hill
district of Clydesdale, the estate called Crawford, which they held under the Ruthvens.
William de Lindsay of Crawford was also Baron of Luffness, and his son by his first wife
founded a Lowland baronial house of the name. William de Lindsay, his son by his second
marriage, was Steward to the Steward (or Stewart) of Scotland, and adopted as his arms a
differenced version of the arms of the Stewarts, significant to that office. Sir Alexander
de Lindsay, though knighted by Edward l of England, nonetheless fought for Wallace and
Bruce in the Scottish wars of independence, forfeiting his vast English estates for the
Scottish cause. His wife was a sister of the Stewart of Scotland (House of Stewart), and
their son, Sir David de Lindsay, Lord of Crawford, married in 1324 the co-heiress of the
great Abernethy family of the Clan MacDuff. These great marriages are aptly reflected in
the Lindsay arms. The family acquired the Highland district |
