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DARNLEY,
(anciently Dernely,) earl of, a secondary title of the duke of Lennox.
(See LENNOX, duke of.) It is taken from the lands of Darnley in the parish
of Eastwood or Pollock, Renfrewshire, which for ages belonged to a branch
of the house of Stewart. For Lord Darnley, so conspicuous in Scottish
history as the unfortunate husband of Queen Mary, see LENNOX, earl of, and
the article MARY STUART, queen of Scots. In the beginning of the
eighteenth century the duke of Lennox and Richmond sold his estates in
Scotland, including Darnley, to the marquis afterwards duke of Montrose;
and about the year 1757 the estate of Darnley was purchased by Sir John
Maxwell of Nether Pollock, baronet, and it has since continued in that
family.
In the Irish
peerage there is an earldom of Darnley (created in 1725) possessed by a
family named Stuart Bligh. The first peer having married the heiress of
the baroness Clifton, (in the English peerage, created in 1608) descended
by the female side, from the house of Lennox in Scotland, was ennobled
under that title in the Irish peerage in 1721, and in 1723 was created
Viscount Darnley; and, two years afterward, was advanced to the dignity of
earl of Darnley. The fourth earl claimed the dukedom of Lennox as heir of
line to the sixth duke, to whom Charles the Second was served heir. The
house of Lords, however, came to no decision. |
