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INTRODUCTION.
page 4
The most interesting of all the dormant or extinct titles are the peerages
forfeited in connection with the 'Fifteen' and the 'Forty-five,' when the last
desperate efforts were made to bring 'the auld Stewarts back again,' and gallant
gentlemen and noblemen not a few perilled and lost their lives and estates in
the Jacobite cause. One of the most noted of the noblemen who were 'spoiled of
their goods' and their hereditary honours in 1715 for their adherence to the old
Scottish dynasty was the eccentric Earl of Wintoun, the head of the ancient and
powerful house of Seton, immortalised by Sir Walter Scott for their fidelity to
the unfortunate Queen Mary. The earldom was revived in 1859 as a British peerage
in favour of the Earl of Eglinton, but the extensive
estates of the Setons have passed into other hands. The Kingston peerage, which
was held by a cadet of the Seton family, was also forfeited in 1715, and has not
been restored. Viscount Kenmure, the chief of the Gordons of Galloway, whose
gallantry is commemorated in the well-known ballad 'Kenmure's on and awa',
Willie,' was closely associated with the Earl of Wintoun in the Jacobite
insurrection, but, less fortunate than that nobleman, he forfeited his life as
well as his titles and lands for the sake of the Stewart cause. The estate was
bought. back by his widow, and the family titles were restored in 1826, but
became extinct on the death of the eleventh viscount in 1847. The Earl of
Nithsdale, the chief of the powerful Border house of Maxwell, was to have
suffered along with Viscount Kenmure, but escaped from the Tower through the
agency of his heroic wife. His estates were regained, but the earldom has not
been recovered. The titles and estates of the Keiths, hereditary Grand
Mareschals of Scotland from the twelfth century downwards, were also lost in the
fatal rising of 1715. A similar fate befell the Livingstons, descended from the
Chancellor of James II., who possessed the earldoms of Callendar and Linlithgow.
The gallant Seaforth, 'High Lord of Kintail,' chief of the powerful clan of the
Mackenzies, was exiled and forfeited for his share in 'the Fifteen.' The titles
and estates, however, were recovered, but the former became extinct on the death
of the last Earl of Seaforth in very painful circumstances in 1815. Another
great Jacobite noble who took part in that rebellion was the Earl of Panmure,
who was wounded and taken prisoner at the battle of Sheriffmuir, but was rescued
by his brother Harry Maule, worthy descendants both of that brave Sir Thomas
Maule, who in the War of Independence gallantly held out his castle of Brechin
against a powerful English army and lost his life in its defence. The earldom
has not been restored, but the Panmure estates were purchased from the York
Building Company by the earl's nephew, and are now in the possession of the Earl
of Dalhousie, the representative of the Maules in the female line.
THE SETONS.
INTRODUCTION.
page 133
ROBERT, first Earl of Wintoun, was a prudent manager, and freed his ancestral
estates from the heavy encumbrances in which they were involved by his
adventurous father. He married the heiress of the illustrious family of the
Montgomeries of Eglintoun, and his sixth son, Alexander, was adopted into that
family, and became sixth Earl of Eglinton. Lord Wintoun
was a great favourite of James VI., who met the funeral procession of the Earl,
5th April, 1603, when on his journey to take possession of the English Crown,
and remarked as he halted at the south-west corner of Seton orchard until it
passed, that he had lost a good, faithful, and loyal subject. There is not much
deserving of special notice in the lives and characters of the next three Earls.
They fought, of course, on the royal side in the Great Civil War, and suffered
severely in fines and imprisonment for their loyalty.
page 136
The Earl fought with great gallantry at the barricades of Preston, but was at
last obliged to surrender along with the other insurgents, and was carried a
prisoner to London, and confined in the Tower. He was brought to trial before
the House of Lords, 15th March, 1716, and defended himself with considerable
ingenuity. The High Steward, Lord Cowper, having overruled his objections to the
indictment with some harshness, 'I hope,' was the Earl's rejoinder, 'you will do
me justice, and not make use of "Cowperlaw," as we used to say in our
country—hang a man first and then judge him.' On the refusal of his entreaty
to be heard by counsel, he replied— 'Since your lordship will not allow me
counsel, I don't know nothing.' He was of course found guilty, and condemned to
be beheaded on Tower Hill. 'When waiting his fate in the Tower,' says Sir Walter
Scott, 'he made good use of his mechanical skill, sawing through with great
ingenuity the bars of the windows of his prison, through which he made his
escape' See ADDENDA, vol. ii., p. 426.* He ended his motley life at Rome, in
1749, aged seventy, and with him terminated the main branch of the long and
illustrious line of the Setons. Male cadets of this family, however, came by
intermarriage to represent the great historic families of Huntly and Eglinton,
besides the ducal house of Gordon, now extinct, and the Earls of Sutherland,
whose heiress married the Marquis of Stafford, afterwards created Duke of
Sutherland. The earldoms of Wintoun and Dunfermline, the viscounty of Kingston,
and the other Seton titles were forfeited for the adherence of their possessors
to the Stewart dynasty, and have never been restored; but the late Earl of Eglinton
was, in 1840, served heir-male general of the family, and, in 1859, was created
Earl of Wintoun in the peerage of the United Kingdom.
THE LESLIES OF LEVEN.
INTRODUCTION.
page 304
General Leslie had two sons, both of whom predeceased him. The elder, Alexander,
Lord Balgonie, left by his wife—a sister of the Duke of Rothes—a son, also
named ALEXANDER, and a daughter. The former succeeded his grandfather as second
Earl of Leven; the latter married the first Earl of Melville, and their son
became the third Earl of Leven. The second Earl of Leven, who died in 1664, left
two daughters, who were successively Countesses of Leven in their own right. The
elder—Margaret, who married the second son of the seventh Earl of Eglinton—died
without issue. Catherine, the younger, died unmarried. Her aunt, the Countess of
Melville, was served heir to her in 1706, and the title devolved upon her son—
THE DRUMMONDS.
page 98
As showing the grandeur of the Drummond family, Mr. Henry Drummond says that
they have furnished Dukes of Roxburgh, Perth, and Melfort; a Marquis of Forth;
Earls of Mar, Perth, and Ker; Viscounts Strathallan; Barons Drummond, Inchaffray,
Madderty, Cromlix, and Stobhall; Knights of the Garter, St. Louis, Golden
Fleece, and Thistle; Ambassadors, Queens of Scotland, Duchesses of Albany and
Athole; Countesses of Monteith, Montrose, Eglinton,
Mar, Rothes, Tullibardine, Dunfermline, [p.98] Roxburgh, Winton, Sutherland,
Balcarres, Crawford, Arran, Errol, Marischal, Kinnoul, Hyndford, Effingham;
Macquary in France, and Castle Blanche in Spain; Baronesses Fleming, Elphinstone,
Livingstone, Willoughby, Hervey, Oliphant, Rollo, and Kinclaven.
THE SCOTTS OF BUCCLEUCH.
page 214
The tutors of the young heiress of the Buccleuch estates did not cooperate
cordially in promoting herinterests. Sir Gideon Scott of Highchester, one of
them, was jealous of the Earl of Tweeddale, who had married her aunt, and
expressed his belief that the Earl entertained sinister designs, which made him
bent on wresting the infant Countess and her sister from the guardianship of
their mother. In conjunction with that lady, he presented a petition to the
Protector, entreating that the children should remain in the custody of the
Countess of Wemyss until they had attained the age of eleven or twelve years.
Cromwell returned a favourable answer to this request, and the tutors decided
unanimously that the children should remain with their mother until they were
ten years of age, which was afterwards extended to twelve. The story of the
scandalous intrigues of which the Countess was the object, as narrated at length
in the 'Scotts of Buccleuch,' is a very melancholy one. There seems to have been
no end to the selfish schemes for her disposal in marriage. Attempts were made to
obtain her hand for her cousin, a son of the Earl of Tweeddale, and for a son of
the Earl of Lothian. High-chester alleged that Scott of Scotstarvit, one of her
tutors, had a design to marry her to his son, or one of his grandchildren; and
when this scheme failed he professed to have the complete disposal of [p.214]
the heiress, and offered her to the son of Mr. Scott of Scottshall, in Kent.
John Scott, ofGorrinberrie, a natural son of Earl Walter, and one of the tutors
of the Countess, made overtures to hermother to promote her marriage to his son.
It appears from a letter of Robert Baillie that there was at one time an
expectation that the son and heir of the Earl of Eglinton
would carry off the prize; but 'he runns away without any advyce, and marries a
daughter of my Lord Dumfries, who is a broken man, when he was sure of my Lady
Balclough's marriage—the greatest match in Brittain. This unexpected prank is
worse to all his kinn than his death would have been.' Baillie's Letters, iii.
366.* Even Mr. Desborough, one of the English Commissioners of the Commonwealth,
is said to have attempted to gain the hand of the Countess for his own son.
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