ATHOL, ATHOLL,
or ATHOLE,
earls of, an ancient title, formerly possessed by the royal family
of Scotland, subsequently in right of marriage by Thomas de
Galloway and his son, and after him by David de Hastings,
afterwards by the Strathbogie family, then after being held by a
Campbell and a Douglas, it was conferred on a scion of the royal
house of Stewart, and through a second creation in the house of
Stewart, it came latterly to be possessed by a branch of the noble
family of Murray. It is the name of a mountainous and romantic
district in the north of Perthshire, which, from a remote period,
has preserved its boundaries unaltered. It was the original
patrimony of the family which gave kings to Scotland from Duncan
to Alexander the Third; and it is the earliest district in
Scotland mentioned in history. The name signifies ‘pleasant land,’
and Blair of Athol, its principal valley, ‘the field or vale of
Athol.’ "Its chief interest, says Skene, "arises from the strong
presumption which exists that the family which gave a long line of
kings to Scotland, from the eleventh to the fourteenth century,
took their origin from this district, to which they can be traced
before the marriage of their ancestor with the daughter of Malcolm
the Second raised them to the throne." (History of the
Highlanders, vol. II. p. 127.) When Thorfinn, the Norwegian
earl of Orkney, conquered the north of Scotland, in the early part
of the eleventh century, the only portion of the territory of the
Northern Picts which remained unsubdued was the district of Athol
and part of Argyle. The lord of the Isles had been slain in an
unsuccessful attempt to preserve his insular dominions, and the
king of the Scots, with the whole of his nobility, had also fallen
in the short but bloody campaign which preceded the Norwegian
conquest. In their disastrous condition the Scots had recourse to
Duncan, the son of Crinan, abbot of Dunkeld, by Beatrice, the
daughter of Malcolm the Second, the last Scottish king. Duncan
came to the vacant throne in 1034, but after a reign of six years,
he was slain in an attempt to recover the northern districts from
the Norwegians, and his sons were driven out by Macbeth, who for a
time ruled over the south, whilst the Norwegians possessed the
north of Scotland. After the overthrow of Macbeth, 6th December,
1056, and the establishment of Malcolm Canmore on the throne, the
Lowlands of Scotland were, according to the Saxon polity, divided
into earldoms, all of which were granted to the different members
of the royal family. These earldoms consisted of the country
inhabited by the Scots, with the addition of the district of
Athol; and from this circumstance it has, not unreasonably, been
presumed that Athol was the original possession of this royal
race. This is further confirmed by the designation which early
Scottish historians apply to Crinan, the father of l)uncan.
Besides being abbot of Dunkeld, he is styled by Fordun, "Abthanus
de Dull ac Seneschallus Insularum” (Abthane of Dull and steward of
the Isles). Pinkerton has denied that such a title as Abthane was
ever known or heard of; but Mr. Skene has most conclusively shown,
not only that there was such a title as Abthane in Scotland, but
that the very title of Abthane of Dull, which is the name of a
district in Athol, existed until comparatively a late period. (Skene’s
History of the Highlanders, vol. ii. part 2, chap. 5.)
By King
Edgar, the whole of Athol, except Breadalbane, was erected into an
earldom, and conferred upon his cousin Madach, the son of King
Donald Bane. Madach married a daughter of Haco, earl of Orkney. He
was a witness to the foundation charter of Alexander the First, of
the monastery of Scone, in 1114, and he was himself afterwards a
benefactor to the abbey. On the death of Madach towards the end of
the reign of David the First, the earldom of Athol was obtained by
Malcolm the son of Duncan, the eldest son of Malcolm Canmore, by
Ingioborge, the widow of Thorflnn, earl of Orkney, whose
descendants were excluded from the throne by that king’s younger
sons. The earldom was thus bestowed on Malcolm, “either,” Skene
says, “because the exclusion of that family from the throne could
not deprive them of the original property of the family, to which
they were entitled to succeed, or as a compensation for the loss
of the crown.” (Hist. of Highlanders, vol. ii. p. 139.) His son
Malcolm, the third earl of Athol, gave in pure alms to the monks
of Scone the church of Logen Mabed, with four chapels there-unto
belonging, and to the abbey of Dunfermline the tithes of the
church of Moulin. He also made a donation to the priory of St.
Andrews of the patronage of the church of Dull. His son Henry
succeeded to the earldom, and on his death, in the beginning of
the thirteenth century, his granddaughters, by his eldest son who
predeceased him, carried it into the families of Galloway and
Hastings.
The
eldest of these granddaughters (erroneously stated by Douglas in
his Peerage to have been the daughters of Earl Henry) married Alan
de Lundin, Ostiarius Regis, who in her right became fifth earl of
Athol, and who died without issue. Her next sister, Isabel,
married Thomas de Gallovidia, the brother of Alan lord of
Galloway, and in her right became sixth earl of Athol. He died in
1231. His son Patrick, seventh earl of Athol, was the youth who
overthrew W. Bisset at a tournament oh the English borders, and
was murdered at Haddington in 1242 (see ante, life of Alexander
II., p. 75). Fernelith, the youngest of Earl Henry’s
granddaughters, succeeded her nephew, Earl Patrick, as countess of
Athol. She married David de Hastings, an Anglo-Norman, descended
from the steward of William the Conqueror, and he, in her right,
became the eighth earl. He was one of the guarantees of the treaty
of peace between Alexander the Second and Henry the Third in 1244.
ee ante, p. 77.] In 1268 he accompanied other Scottish barons in
an expedition to the Holy Land, and died at Tunis the following
year. His daughter Adda married John de Strathbogie, who in her
right became ninth earl of Athol. The grandfather of this John of
Strathbogie, Duncan earl of Fife, had obtained the lands of
Strathbogie, in Aberdeenshire, from King William the Lion. He
settled them on his third. son, David, who assumed his name from
these lands, and was the father of the eighth earl of Athol. The
son of the latter, David de Strathbogie, became the tenth earl of
Athol, and was the father of John, eleventh earl, who was one of
the chief associates of Robert the Bruce, and assisted at his
coronation at Scone, 27th March, 1306. He fought on Bruce’s side
at Methven, and on his discomfiture accompanied him during his
disastrous flight. After the surrender of the castle of Kildrummy
the same year, he was seized by the forces of Edward in
attempting to escape by sea, and conducted to London. Being
condemned to death in Westminster Hall, 7th November 1306, he was
executed the same day, on a gallows thirty feet higher than
ordinary, in consequence of his royal descent.
The
earldom of Athol was then forfeited and bestowed on Ralph de
Monthermer, styled earl of Gloucester, who, however, relinquished
his title to it for 5,000 merks, in favour of David de
Strathbogie, son of the deceased earl. This David, the twelfth
earl, had from King Robert the Bruce, the office of high constable
of Scotland, as appears from a charter of that monarch 26th
February 1312, where he is so designated. Two years after,
however, he revolted against Bruce, whereupon his office of high
constable was given to Gilbert de Ia Haye, and Athol’s estates in
Scotland were forfeited. He married Joan, daughter of John Cumyn
of Badenoch, killed by Bruce at Dumfries in 1306, with whom he got
great estates in England. He died in 1327, leaving a son, David,
who was styled thirteenth earl of Athol.
Along
with other forfeited Scottish barons this David accompanied Edward
Baliol into Scotland in 1332, and had a considerable share in
achieving the victory over the Scots at Dupplin, 12th August of
that year. He was now restored to his paternal inheritance and
title. In 1334 Edward Baliol bestowed on him the whole estates of
the steward of Scotland; but the same year, the earl of Moray,
regent of Scotland, compelled him to surrender, when he swore
allegiance to David the Second, the lawful king. Being in
consequence denounced as a rebel by Edward the Third, he was fain,
on the invasion of Scotland by that monarch in July 1335, to agree
to a treaty of peace, and make his submission to Edward, on which
he was again received into favour with the English king, and had
the office of governor of Scotland conferred upon him under
Baliol, when he acted very insolently and tyrannically towards all
the adherents of the family of Bruce. Having been appointed
commander of the English forces in the north, with three thousand
men he proceeded to lay siege to the castle of Kildrummy, the
asylum of the royalists; but was surprised in the forest of
Kilblane by the earl of March, Sir William Douglas of Liddesdale,
and Sir Andrew Moray of Bothwell, at the head of eleven hundred
men. Athol’s troops, panic-struck, fled and dispersed; the earl,
finding himself abandoned, disdained quarter, and was slain 30th
November, 1335, in the 28th year of his age. He left a son, David,
styled fourteenth earl of Athol, who was only three years of age
at the time of his father’s death. He accompanied Edward the Black
Prince into France in 1356, and was in the subsequent expeditions
into Gascony. He died 10th October 1375, leaving two daughters.
When the
Celtic earls of Athol became extinct, says Skene, and, in
consequence, the subordinate clans in the district of Athol
assumed independence, the principal part of that district was in
the possession of the clan Donnachie or the Robertsons. (History
of the Highlanders, vol. ii. pp 139, 140.) Skene states in a note
that the peerage writers have been more than usually inaccurate in
their account of the earldom of Athol. From its origin down to the
fourteenth century, “there is,” he says, “scarcely a single step
in the genealogy correctly given.”
On the
forfeiture of David, the twelfth earl, his estates were granted to
Sir Niel Campbell of Locbow, and Mary his spouse, sister to King
Robert the Bruce, and Sir John Campbell of Moulin, their second
son; and the latter was created earl of Athol. This appears from a
charter of King David the Second to Robert Lord Erskine, of the
customs of Dundee and third part of Pettarache in Forfarshire,
which some time pertained to John Campbell, earl of Athol, as well
as from a charter granted by the latter to Roger de Mortimer of
the lands of Billandre. He was killed in the battle of
Halidon-hill, 19th July 1333, without issue, whereby the title
reverted to the crown.
The next
possessor of the title of earl of Athol was William Douglas,
eldest son of Sir James Douglas of Laudon, ancestor of the earls
of Morton. Not long after the death of the above-mentioned John
Campbell he had the earldom conferred upon him, but the precise
date is unknown. On the 16th February 1341 he resigned his title
by charter in favour of Robert, great steward of Scotland, and on
the latter’s accession, to the throne in February 1371, under the
name of Robert the Second, it became vested in the royal family.
Walter Stewart, the second son of that monarch by his second wife,
Euphemia Ross, was the next earl, lie was at first earl of
Caithness, but afterwards had the earldom of Athol, being so
designed, 5th June, 1403, in letters of safe-conduct by King Henry
the Fonrth, allowing him to pass into his do-minions as far as St.
Thomas of Canterbury, with a retinue of a hundred persons. He had
a charter from his brother Robert duke of Albany, governor of
Scotland, of the barony of Cortachy in Forfarshire 22d September
1409. On the 10th April 1421 he obtained a safe-conduct to
England, to arrange as to the restoration to liberty of his nephew
James the First, which he was very instrumental in accomplishing.
He sat as one of the jury on the trial of his nephew Murdoch, duke
of Albany, and his sons, in 1424. (See ante, p. 41.) The king
conferred upon him the office of great justiciary of Scotland, and
also gave him the county palatine of Strathern for his life, 22d
July 1427. Nearly ten years after this he engaged in the
conspiracy of his kinsman Sir Robert Graham against James the
First, one of the objects of which was the placing of the crown on
the head of Sir Robert Stewart of Athol, the earl’s grandson. The
king was cruelly assassinated in the Blackfriars monastery at
Perth by the three conspirators, 20th February 1437. The murderers
were apprehended, and put to death at Edinburgh with horrible
tortures, in the following April. Before being beheaded, Athol was
set upon the pillory, and his head encircled with a red-hot iron
crown, on which was inscribed “The king of traitors.” His titles
and extensive estates were forfeited.
The
title of earl of Athol was conferred, about 1457, on Sir John
Stewart of Balveny, the eldest son of Sir James Stewart, the Black
Knight of Lorn, and the queen Joanna, dowager of James the First,
who had chosen him for her second husband. The earl of Athol’s
father, the Black Knight of Lorn, was the third son of Sir John
Stewart of Lorn and Innermeath, descended from Sir James Stewart,
fourth son of Sir John Stewart of Bonkill, who was second son of
Alexander, high steward of Scotland. This earl of Athol was, with
the earl of Crawford, appointed in 1475 to the command of the
armament employed in suppressing the rebellion of the earl of
Ross, on which occasion lie assumed the motto, still borne by the
Athol family, of “Furth fortune and fill the fetters,” and had a
grant of many lands that had belonged to that nobleman, on his
resignation Of the earldom of Ross and the lands of Kintre and
Knapdnle. He also acted a prominent part in the attempt made in
1480 to reduce to obedience Angus of the Isles, the illegitimate
son of the Lord of the Isles, the new title of the earl of Ross.
Some time after the battle of the Bloody Bay, fought in that year
in the Isle of Mull between the Island factions, in which Angus
was victorious, occurred the event known in history as the ‘Raid
of Athol.’ The earl crossing privately to Islay had carried off
the infant son of Angus, called Donald Dubh, or the Black, whom he
placed in the hands of his maternal grandfather the earl of
Argyle. Angus immediately summoned his adherents and sailed to the
neighbourhood of Inverlochy, where he left his galleys, and with a
chosen body of Island warriors made a rapid and secret march into
time district of Athol, which lie ravaged with fire and sword. The
earl and his countess took refuge in the chapel of St. Bride, to
which sanctuary many of the country people likewise fled with
their most valuable effects. The chapel, however, was violated by
Angus and his followers, who, loaded with plunder, returned to
Lochaber, carrying with them the earl and countess of Athol as
prisoners. In the voyage from Lochaber many of his galleys sunk,
and much of his plunder was lost in a dreadful storm which he
encountered. Believing this to be a judgment from heaven for the
violation of the chapel of St. Bride, he was touched with fear and
remorse, and voluntarily liberated his prisoners, without
procuring what seems to have been the principal object of his raid
into Athol, the recovery of his son. He even performed an
ignominious penance in the chapel which he had so lately
desecrated.
In 1488
the earl of Athol had a principal command in the army of James
III. against his son and the rebel lords, for which, on the death
of that monarch, he was imprisoned in the castle of Dunbar. He
died 19th September 1512. By his first wife, Lady Margaret
Douglas, only daughter of Archibald, fifth earl of Douglas, duke
of Touraine, the widow of the eighth earl of Douglas and the wife
of the ninth earl, her marriage with whom after his rebellion in
1455 was annulled, he had two daughters. By his second wife, Lady
Eleonora Sinclair, daughter of William earl of Orkney and
Caithness, he had two sons and nine daughters. John, the elder
son, second earl of Athol, of this new creation, did not enjoy the
title one year, being killed at Flodden 9th September, 1513. His
son John, the third earl, was famous for his great hospitality and
princely style of living. Pitscottie minutely describes a grand
hunting match and sumptuous entertainment given by him to King
James the Fifth and his mother and the French ambassador, in 1529.
He died in 1542, and was succeeded by his son John, fourth earl of
Athol. In the parliament of 1560, with the Lords Borthwick and
Somerville he strongly opposed the Reformation, saying they would
believe as their fathers had done before them. Being afterwards
constituted lord high chancellor of Scotland, he was sworn into
office at Stirling, 29th March 1 577. He opposed the measures of
the regent Morton, and took up arms to rescue the king from his
power, but by the mediation of Bowes the English ambassador, an
accommodation took place, in August 1578. At a grand entertainment
given by Morton, at Stirling, to the leaders of the opposite
party, in token of reconcilement, 20th April 1579, Athol, the
chancellor, was taken ill, and died four days afterwards, not
without strong suspicions of his having been poisoned. He was
twice married; the second time to Margaret, third daughter of
Malcolm, third lord Fleming, great chamberlain of Scotland, widow
of Robert master of Montrose, killed at Pinkie, 1547, and of
Thomas master of Erskine, son of John earl of Mar. During her
lifetime it was the general belief that this countess of Athol
possessed the powers of sorcery, and it is said that when Queen
Mary was confined with James the Sixth, the countess cast all the
pains of childbirth upon Lady Rires. If so, it must have been by
some unknown species of mesmerism. Their son, John, fifth earl of
Athol, was sworn a privy councillor in 1590, and died at Perth,
28th August 1595, without issue male, when the title reverted to
the crown. He married Lady Mary Ruthven, second daughter of
William first earl of Gowrie, by whom he had four daughters. His
countess afterwards became the second wife of John lord
Innermeath, created earl of Athol by James the Sixth, in 1596.
Lady Dorothea Stewart, the eldest daughter of John the fifth earl
and this lady, married William, second earl of Tullibardine, and
was the mother of John, created earl of Athol, the first of the
Murray family who possessed that title, as afterwards mentioned.
Lady Mary, the second daughter, married James, earl of Athol, the
son of her stepfather, Lord Innermeath, and he dying without male
issue, the esrldom again reverted to the crown. (See INNERMEATH,
Lord.)
ATHOL, duke
of,
a title possessed by a branch of the ancient family of Murray. The
progenitor of the Murray family in Scotland was a Flemish settler
in the reign of David the First, of the name of Freskin, who
obtained the lands of Strathbrock in Linlithgowshire, now called
Brocks or Broxburn. A rebellion having broken out in Moray in the
year 1130, he is supposed to have assisted in quelling it, and was
rewarded with a large tract of laud in the lowlands of Moray,
where his descendants settled, and in consequence assumed the name
of de Moravia. From Walter de Moravia descended the Morays, lords
of Bothwell, the Morays of Abercairney (see MURRAY, surname of),
and Sir William de Moravia, who acquired the lands of
Tullibardine, an estate in the lower part of Perthshire, with his
wife Adda, daughter of Malise, seneschal of Strathern, as appears
by charters dated in 1282 and 1284.
His son,
Sir Andrew Murray of Tullibardine, who succeeded him, was an
adherent of Edward Baliol, and contributed greatly to the decisive
victory gained by the latter at Dupplin in August 1332, by fixing
a stake in a ford in the river Earn, through which his army
marched and attacked the Scots. He was taken prisoner at Perth
about two months afterwards, and immediately put to death for his
adherence to Baliol. His descendant, Sir William Murray of
Tullibardine, succeeded to the estates of his family in 1446. He
was sheriff of Perthshire, and in 1458, one of the lords named for
the administration of justice, who were of the king’s daily
council. He married Margaret, daughter of Sir John Colquhoun of
Luss, great chamberlain of Scotland, by whom he had a numerous
issue. According to tradition they had seventeen sons, from whom a
great many families of the name of Murray are descended. In a
curious document entitled "The Declaration of George Halley, in
Ochterarder, concerning the Laird of Tullibardine’s seventeen
sons—1710," it is stated that they "lived all to be men, and that
they waited all one day upon their father at Stirling, to attend
the king, with each of them one servant, and their father two.
This happening shortly after an act was made by King James the
Fifth, discharging any persons to travel with great numbers of
attendants besides their own family, and having challenged the
laird of Tullibardine for breaking the said set, he answered he
brought only his own sons, with their necessary attendants; with
which the king was so well pleased that he gave them small lands
in heritage." The ancient Scottish song, "Cromlet’s Lilt," was
written on the supposed inconstancy of Miss Helen Murray, commonly
called "Fair Helen of Ardoch," granddaughter of Murray of Strewan,
one of the seventeen sons of Tullibardine. She was courted by
young Chisholm of Cromleck who, during his absence in France,
imposed upon by the false representations of a treacherous friend,
believed that she was faithless to him, and wrote the affecting
ballad called Cromlet’s or Cromleck’s lilt. The lady’s father,
Stirling of Ardoch, had by his wife, Margaret Murray, a family of
no less than thirty-one children, of whom fair Helen was one. It
is said that James the Sixth, when passing from Perth to Stirling
in 1617, paid a visit to Helen’s mother, the Lady Ardoch, who was
then a widow. Her children were all dressed and drawn up on the
lawn to receive his majesty. On seeing them the king said, ‘Madam,
how many are there of them?’ ‘Sire,’ she jocosely answered, ‘I
only want your help to make out the two chalders!’ a
chalder contains sixteen bolls. The king laughed heartily at the
joke, and afterwards ate a collop sitting on a stone in the close.
The youngest son of this extraordinary family, commonly called the
Tutor of Ardoch, died, in 1715, at the advanced age of one
hundred and eleven.
The
eldest of Tullibardine’s seventeen sons, Sir William Murray of
Tullibardine, had, with other issue, William, his successor, and
Sir Andrew Murray, ancestor of the viscounts Stormont (see
STORMONT). His great-grandson, Sir William Murray of Tullibardine,
was a zealous promoter of the Reformation in Scotland; and in
1567, at Carberry-hill, he accepted the gauntlet of defiance to
single combat thrown down by the earl of Bothwell, but the latter
objected to him as being of inferior rank, as he did also to
Tullibardine’s brother, James Murray of Purdorvis, for the same
reason. His sister Annabella married the earl of Mar, afterwards
regent, and was the governess of the infant king, James the Sixth.
He himself married in 1547 Lady Agnes Graham, third daughter of
William second earl of Montrose. On the death of his
brother-in-law, the earl of Mar, in 1572, he and Sir Alexander
Erskine of Gogar were appointed governors of the young king and
joint keepers of the castle of Stirling, where his majesty
resided, and he discharged the office with the applause of the
whole kingdom till 1578. George Halley, in the curious document
already quoted, says that "Sir William Murray of Tullibardine
having broke Argyle’s face with the hilt of his sword, in king
James the Sixth’s presence, was obliged to leave the kingdom.
Afterwards, the king’s mails and slaughter cows were not paid,
neither could any subject in the realm be able to compel those who
were bound to pay them; upon which the king cried out—’ O if I had
Will. Murray again, he would soon get my mails and slaughter
cows;’ to which one standing by replied—’ That if his majesty
would not take Sir William Murray’s life, he might return
shortly.’ The king answered, ‘He would be loath to take his life,
for he had not another subject like him!’ Upon which promise Sir
William Murray returned, and got a commission from the king to go
to the north, and lift up the mails sod the cows, which he
speedily did, to the great satisfaction of the king, so that
immediately after he was made lord comptroller." This office he
obtained in 1565.
His
eldest son, Sir John Murray, the twelfth feudal baron of
Tullibardine, was brought up with King James, who, in 1592,
constituted him his master of the household. He was afterwards
sworn a member of his privy council, and knighted, and on 25th
April 1604 King James raised him to the peerage by the title of
Lord Murray of Tullibardine. On 10th July 1606 he was created earl
of Tullibardine. His lordship married Catherine, fourth daughter
of David second lord Drummond, and died in 1609.
His
eldest son, William, second earl of Tullibardine, was the means of
rescuing James the Sixth from the earl of Gowrie and his brother
at Perth on the 5th August 1600, for which service the hereditary
sheriffship of Perth, which had belonged to the earl of Gowrie,
was bestowed on him. He married, as has been stated, the lady
Dorothea Stewart, daughter of the 5th earl of Athol of the Stewart
family, who died in 1595, and on the death in 1625 of James,
second earl of Athol, son of John sixth lord Innermeath, created
earl of Athol by James the Sixth, he petitioned King Charles the
First for the earldom of Athol, as his countess was the eldest
daughter and heir of line of Earl John, of the family of
Innermeath, which had become extinct in the male line. The king
received the petition graciously, and gave his royal word that it
should be done,—thereby a recognition on the part of the Crown of
the right of the heir female to an ancient peerage, of which the
constitution was unknown. The earl accordingly surrendered the
title of earl of Tullibardine into the king’s hands, 1st April
1626, to be conferred on his brother Sir Patrick Murray, as a
separate dignity, but before the patents could be expected, his
lordship died the same year. His son John, however, obtained in
February 1629 the title of earl of Athol, and thus became the
first earl of the Murray branch, and the earldom of Tullibardine
was at the same time granted to Sir Patrick. This earl of Athol
was a zealous royalist, and joined the association formed by the
earl of Montrose for the king, at Cumbernauld, in January 1641. He
died in June 1642. His eldest son John, second earl of Athol of
the Murray family, also faithfully adhered to Charles the First,
and was excepted by Cromwell out of his act of grace and
indemnity, 12th April 1654, when he was only about nineteen years
of age. At the restoration, he was sworn a privy councillor,
obtained a charter of the hereditary office of sheriff of Fife,
and in 1663 was appointed justice— general of Scotland. In 1670 he
was constituted captain of the king’s guards, in 1672 keeper of
the privy seal, and 14th January 1673, an extraordinary lord of
session. In 1670 he succeeded to the earldom of Tullibardine on
the death of James fourth earl of the new creation, and was
created marquis of Athol in 1676. He increased the power of his
family by his marriage with Lady Amelia Sophia Stanley, third
daughter of the seventh earl of Derby, beheaded for his loyalty
15th October 1651. Through her mother, Charlotte de la Tremouille,
daughter of Claude de la Tremouilie, duke of Thouars and prince of
Palmont, she was related in blood to the emperor of Germany, the
kings of France and Spain, the prince of Orange, the duke of
Savoy, and most of the principal families of Europe; and by her
the family of Athol acquired the seignory of the Isle of Man, and
also large property in that island.
In 1678,
on the irruption into the western shires of the Highland host, the
marquis of Athol joined the duke of Hamilton in opposition to the
duke of Lauderdale, in consequence of which he was deprived of his
office of justice - general, but retained his other places. He was
instrumental in suppressing Argyle’s invasion in 1685.
Notwithstanding his conspicuous loyalty in the reigns of Charles
the Second and his brother James, he promoted the Revolution, and
went to London in 1689, to wait on the prince of Orange, but was
disappointed in his expectations of preferment under the new
government. William, though related to the marchioness, did not
receive him cordially, and in consequence he joined the Jacobite
party. At the convention of the Scottish estates, 14th March 1689,
he was put in nomination as president by the adherents of King
James. The Whigs on the other hand proposed the duke of Hamilton,
and the latter was elected by a majority of fifteen votes. When
the viscount of Dundee proceeded into the Highlands for the
purpose of trying the chance of a battle, the defence of the
castle of Blair Athol, belonging to the marquis, was the means of
occasioning the battle of Killiecrankie, in the same year. This
strong fortress, which commands the most important pass in the
Northern Highlands, had already been the scene of remarkable
events in the previous rivil wars. In 1644 the marquis of Montrose
had possessed himself of it, and was here joined by a large body
of the Athol Highlanders, to whose bravery he was indebted for the
victory at Tippermuir. In the troubles of 1653 it was taken by
storm by Colonel Daniel, one of Cromwell’s officers, who, unable
to remove a magazine of provisions lodged there, destroyed it by
powder. In 1689 it had been taken possession of by Stewart of
Ballechan, the marquis of Athol’s chamberlain, who refused to
deliver it up to Lord Murray, the marquis’s son, as he was
supposed to favour the Revolution party, Stewart declaring that he
held it for King James, by order of his lieutenant-general. Lord
Murray had summoned his father’s vassals to join him, and about
twelve hundred assembled, but no entreaties could prevail on them
to declare in favour of the government of King William. They
intimated that if he would join Dundee they would follow him to a
man, but if he refused they all would leave him. His lordship
remonstrated with them, and even threatened them with his
vengeance if they abandoned him, when, setting his threats at
defiance, they ran to the river Banovy in the neighbourhood of
Blair castle, and filling their bonnets with water, drank King
James’s health, and left his standard. Dundee knew the importance
of preserving Blair castle, and with his usual expedition he
joined the garrison. A few days afterwards, however, the battle of
Killiecrankie took place, when he was slain in the moment of
victory. At right is a view of Blair castle.
[view of Blair Castle]
The last siege which Blair castle sustained was in March
1746, when it was gallantly defended by Sir Andrew Agnew against a
party of the Pretender’s forces, who retired from before it a few
weeks preceding the battle of Culloden. As soon as peace was
restored, a considerable part of the castle was reduced in height,
and the inside most magnificently furnished. The marquis continued
in the opposition for the remainder of his life. He died 6th May
1703. His second son, Lord Charles, was created first earl of
Dunmore, and his fourth son, Lord William, was created first Lord
Nairn.
His eldest son John, the second marquis, and first duke, of
Athol, designated Lord John Murray, was one of the commissioners
for inquiring into the massacre of Glencoe in 1693. By King
William he was appointed in 1695 one of the principal secretaries
of state for Scotland. He was created a peer in his father’s
lifetime, by the title of earl of Tullibardine, viscount of
Glenalmond, and Lord Murray, for life, by patent dated 27th July
1696, and in April 1703 he was appointed lord privy seal. On the
30th July of that year, immediately after his father’s death, he
was created duke of Athol, by Queen Anne, and invested with the
order of the Thistle. Having, the same year, introduced the act of
security into the Scottish parliament, the duke of Queensberry and
the other ministers, greatly displeased, formed a plan to ruin
him, by means of Simon Fraser of Beaufort. Fraser had fled to
France some years before, to elude a sentence of death pronounced
against him in absence, by the court of justiciary, for an alleged
rape on the person of Lady Amelia Murray, dowager Lady Lovat, and
sister of the duke of Athol, but returning to Scotland in 1703, as
the agent of the exiled family, he, after intriguing with the duke
of Queensberry, then at the head of the government party in
Scotland, revealed the existence of a Jacobite conspiracy, in
which the dukes of Hamilton and Athol, as well as others, were
deeply involved. Fraser was Athol’s bitter enemy (see FRASER,
SIMON, twelfth Lord Lovat), and the whole pretended plot having
been brought to light by Ferguson, celebrated as the plotter (see
FERGUSON, Robert), with whom Fraser had had some communication in
London, he immediately acquainted the duke with tbe discovery he
had made. Athol at once laid the matter before the queen, who had
been previously apprised of the alleged conspiracy by the duke of
Queensberry. The latter being called upon for an explanation,
excused himself by saying that when Fra ser came to Scotland he
had received a written communication from him, to the effect that
he could make important discoveries, relative to designs against
the queen’s government, in proof of which he delivered him a
letter from the queen dowager, the widow of James the Seventh, at
St. Germains, addressed to L— M—, which initials Fraser stated
were meant for Lord Murray, the former title of the duke of Athol,
and that, after seeing him, he (Queensberry) had given him a
protection in Scotland, and procured a pass for him in England, to
enable him to follow out further discoveries. The English house of
peers took the subject up warmly, and passed strong resolutions
regarding the supposed conspiracy, for the purpose of clearing
Queensberry; but nothing farther was done in the matter. The
effect, however, was to incense Athol against the government, and
so zealous was he against the Union that he is said to have had
six thousand Highland followers ready to oppose it. This did not
prevent him, however, from pocketing one thousand pounds of the
equivalent money sent down, nominally to satisfy such claims of
damage as might arise out of the Union, but in reality given in
many instances as a bribe. At the beginning of the session of the
Scots parliament in which the Union was carried, the duke was
appointed commissioner, as Lockart informs us, in place of the
duke of Queensberry, the latter wishing to ascertain the state of
public feeling before he ventured himself to face the difficulties
of the time, "and therefore he sent the duke of Athol down as
commissioner; using him as the monkey did the cat, in pulling out
the hot roasted chestnuts." (Lockhart's Memoirs, p. 139.)
His grace died 14th November, 1724. He was twice married; first to
Catherine, daughter of the duke of Hamilton, by whom he had six
sons and a daughter, and secondly to Mary, daughter of William
lord Ross, by whom he had three sons and a daughter. His eldest
son, John marquis of Tullibardine, died in 1709. His second son
William, who succeeded his brother, was the marquis of
Tullibardine who acted the prominent part in both the Scottish
rebellions of last century, which is recorded in history. He was
one of the first that joined the earl of Mar in 1715, for which he
was attainted for high treason, and the family honours were
settled by parliament on his next brother James. Another brother,
Lord Charles Murray, a cornet of horse, also engaged in the
rebellion of 1715, and had the command of a regiment. Upon the
march into England be kept at the head of his men on foot in the
Highland dress. After the surrender of Preston, his lordship being
amongst the prisoners, was tried by a court martial as a deserter,
and sentenced to be shot, but received a pardon through the
interest of his friends, and died in 1720. The marquis of
Tullibardine had escaped to the continent, but returned to
Scotland with the Spanish forces, in 1719, and with a younger
brother, Lord George Murray, afterwards commander-in-chief of the
Pretender’s army, was in the battle of the pass of Glenshiel, in
the district of Kintail, Ross-shire, in June of that year, where
Lord George was wounded. After the defeat at Glenshiel, the
marquis escaped a second time to the continent, and lived
twenty-aix years in exile. In 1745 he accompanied Prince Charles
Edward to Scotland, and landed with him at Borodaile 25th July. He
was styled duke of Athol by the Jacobites. On the 19th August he
unfurled the prince’s standard at Glenfinnan, and supported by a
man on each side, held the staff whlle he proclaimed the Chevalier
de St. George as king, and read the commission appointing his son
Charles prince regent. After the battle of Culloden he fled to the
westward, intending to embark for the isle of Mull, but being
unable, from the bad state of his health, to bear the fatigue of
travelling under concealment, he surrendered, on the 27th April,
1746, to Mr. Buchanan of Drummakill, a Stirlingshire gentleman.
Being conveyed to London, he was committed to the Tower, where he
died on the 9th July following.
James the second duke of Athol was the third son of the
first duke. He succeeded to the dukedom on the death of his
father, in November 1724, in the lifetime of his elder brother
William, attainted by parliament. Being maternal great-grandson of
James seventh earl of Derby, upon the death of the tenth earl of
that line, he claimed and was allowed the English barony of
Strange, which had been conferred on Lord Derby, by writ of
summons, in 1628. His grace was married, first to Jean, sister of
Sir John Frederick, bart. by whom he had a son and two daughters;
secondly to Jane, daughter of John Drummond of Megginch, who had
no issue. The latter was the heroine of Dr. Ansten’s song of ‘For
lack of gold she’s left me, O!’ She was betrothed to that
gentleman, a physician in Edinburgh, when the Duke of Athol saw
her, and falling in love with her made proposals of marriage,
which were accepted; and, as Burns says, she jilted the doctor.
Having survived her first husband, she married a second time, Lord
Adam Gordon. Dr. Austen, on his part, although in his song he
says, ADVANCE \d 5
"No cruel fair shall ever moveMy injured heart again to love,"
married, in 1754, the Hon. Anne Sempill, by whom he had a numerous
family.
The son and the eldest daughter of the second duke of Athol
died young. Charlotte, his youngest daughter, succeeded on his
death, which took place in 1764, to the barony of Strange and the
sovereignty of the Isle of Man. She married her cousin, John
Murray, Esq., eldest son of Lord George Murray, fifth son of the
first duke, and the celebrated generalissimo of the forces of the
Pretender in 1745, (see MURRAY, Lord George.) Though Lord George
was attainted by parliament for his share in the rebellion, his
son was allowed to succeed his uncle and father-in-law as third
duke, and in 1765 he and his duchess disposed of their sovereignty
of the Isle of Man to the British government, for seventy thousand
pounds, reserving, however, their landed interest in the island,
with the patronage of the bishopric and other ecclesiastical
benefices, on payment of the annual sum of one hundred and one
pounds fifteen shillings and eleven pence, and rendering two
falcons to the kings and queens of England upon the days of their
coronation. His grace, who had five sons and two daughters, died
5th November, 1774, and was succeeded by his eldest son John,
fourth duke, who in 1786 was created Earl Strange and Baron Murray
of Stanley, in the peerage of the United kingdom. He died in 1830.
His second son, Lord George Murray, was bishop of St. David’s,
whose eldest son became bishop of Rochester. His fifth son, Lord
Charles Murray, dean of Bocking in Essex, having married Alice,
daughter of George Mitford, Esq., and heiress of her great uncle,
Gawen Aynsley, assumed the surname of Aynsley. The fourth duke was
succeeded by his eldest son John, who was for many years a
recluse, and died single 14th September, 1846. His next brother
James, a major-general in the army, was created a peer of the
United Kingdom, as baron Glenlyon of Glenlyon, in the county of
Perth, 9th July, 1821. He married, in May 1810, Emily Frances,
second daughter of the duke of Northumberland, and by her he had
two sons and two daughters. He died in 1837. His eldest son,
George Augustus Frederick John, Lord Glenlyon, became, on the
death of his uncle in 1846, sixth duke of Athol. In 1853, knight
of the Thistle; married, with issue.
