DUNDEE, Earl of,
a title in the peerage of Scotland (now extinct) conferred in 1660 on
John Scrimgeour, third Viscount Dudhope, constable of Dundee, descended
from Alexander Scrymseour, standard-bearer of Scotland, one of the
heroic associates of Sir William Wallace, and the first on whom the
title of constable of Dundee was bestowed, an office which, with that of
standard-bearer, became hereditary in his family (see SCRIMGEOUR,
surname of). The earl’s grandfather, Sir John Scrimgeour of Dudhope, the
eleventh constable of Dundee in succession, was created a peer by
patent, dated at Holyroodhouse, 15th November 1641, as
viscount of Dudhope and Lord Scrimgeour, “for the good and faithful
service done by him and his progenitors to his majesty and his
predecessors, for which they were honoured with the heritable title of
the king’s standard-bearers.” Lord Dudhope died 7th March
1643. By his wife, Margaret Seton, of the family of Parbroath, he had a
son and two daughters.
The son,
James, second viscount of Dudhope, had a command in the Scots forces
sent, in 1644, to the assistance of the parliament of England against
Charles the First, and at the battle of Marston-moor, 2d July of that
year, received a wound, of which he died on the 23d of the same month.
He married Lady Isabel Ker, third daughter of the first earl of Roxburgh,
and had two sons and two daughters. The second son, a captain in the
army, was killed in a duel at London, by Lord Cranston, in 1661.
The elder son,
John, third Viscount of Dudhope, was a colonel of horse in the
“Engagement,” under the duke of Hamilton, in 1648, and adhering to the
fortunes of Charles the Second, accompanied him to the battle of
Worcester in 1650. Escaping from thence, he joined General Middleton in
the Highlands of Scotland, and was taken, with a party of Middleton’s
troops, in the braes of Angus, by an English force, in November 1654. At
the Restoration, in consideration of his services and sufferings in the
royal cause, he was sworn a privy councillor, and created earl of
Dundee, viscount of Dudhope, and Lord Scrimgeour and Innerkeithing, by
patent dated 8th September 1660. He died 23d June 1668,
without issue. His countess, Lady Anne Ramsay, second daughter of the
first earl of Dalhousie, took for her second husband, Sir Henry Bruce of
Clackmannan. On the earl’s death, without immediate heirs, the duke of
Lauderdale obtained from the crown a gift of his estates in favour of
his brother, Maitland of Hatton, depute lord treasurer. In 1686 they
were bestowed by James the Seventh on John Graham of Claverhouse,
subsequently viscount of Dundee, and after his death and forfeiture,
they became the property of the earl of Angus, and eventually of Lord
Douglas. Under the act of parliament for abolishing heritable
jurisdictions in Scotland, the duke of Douglas, as constable of Dundee,
received £907 7s. 3-3/4d. instead of £6,000, which he claimed, as the
value of the constabulary rights.
The
representation of the family of the earl of Dundee devolved on the
Scrimgeours of Birkhill, whose male heir is Mr. Scrymseoure Wedderburne
of Wedderburne, hereditary royal standard-bearer of Scotland. The
heritable standard-bearer bore the great standard of Scotland in all
wars, where it was ordered to be unfurled. The 4th and last
Lord Douglas, who died in 1857, was titular constable of Dundee.
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DUNDEE, Viscount of,
a title in the Scottish peerage, conferred by James the Seventh, 12th
November 1688, eight days after the landing of the Prince of Orange in
England, on John Graham of Claverhouse, renowned for his rigorous
proceedings against the Covenanters, descended from John, second son of
Sir Robert Graham of Strathcarron and Fintry, eldest son of William Lord
Graham of Kincardine, (of the same family as the great marquis of
Montrose,) by his second wife, Lady Mary Stewart, second daughter of
King Robert the Third. The eldest son, Robert Graham of Fintry, was
ancestor of the Grahams of Fintry and Garvock, and of the gallant Sir
Thomas Graham of Balgowan, Lord Lynedoch.
John Graham,
the second son, had a charter of the lands of Balargus in Forfarshire.
By his wife Matilda, daughter of Sir James Scrimgeour, constable of
Dundee, he had a son, John, also of Balargus, who acquired, in 1530, the
lands of Claverhouse, which became the designation of the family. On 8th
October 1527, he brought himself under the notice of the law, in having,
with George Ramsay of Clatty, John Bethune of Balfour, whose daughter,
Margaret, he had married, James Bethune of Melgum, and others, at the
head of about eighty persons, in warlike manner invaded Lord Lindsay,
sheriff of Fife, in the execution of his office, in his own court,
within the Tolbooth of Cupar, for which he and the others mentioned were
obliged to find caution. His son, John Graham of Claverhouse, at his
death, about 1580, left two sons, William, his successor, and John, who
obtained a remission for being art and part in the slaughter of Isabella
Chalmers, 29th April 1592. Sir William, the elder son, died
in October 1642. He married Marion, daughter of Thomas Fotheringhame of
Powrie, Forfarshire, and had two sons. The elder, George, died in April
1645. Walter, the younger, was ancestor of the Grahams of Duntroon, who
ultimately became the representatives of the Claverhouse family. George
had two sons, Sir William, his heir, and Thomas.
The elder son,
Sir William, greatly improved the family estates, and married Lady Jean
Carnegie, fourth daughter of John, first earl of Northesk, by whom he
had, with two daughters, two sons, John, styled “the bloody Claver’se,”
first Viscount Dundee, of whom a memoir is given below, under the name
of GRAHAM, JOHN; and David, third Viscount Dundee. The first viscount
married Jean, third and youngest daughter of William Lord Cochrane,
eldest son of the first earl of Dundonald, and had a son, James, second
viscount, who died an infant in December 1689, six months after his
father was killed at Killiecrankie. His mother took for her second
husband William, second Viscount Kilsyth.
His uncle,
David, third Viscount Dundee, was with his brother at the battle of
Killiecrankie, and was in consequence outlawed in 1690, on which he
retired to the court of St. Germains, and in 1692, was by King James,
the exiled monarch, invested with the order of the Thistle. He died,
without issue, in 1700, when the representation of the family devolved
on David Graham of Duntroon, who died in January 1706. His son, William
Graham of Duntroon, assumed the title of Viscount Dundee, and engaging
in the rebellion of 1715, was attainted and forfeited by act of
parliament. The last of the family, James Graham of Duntroon, styling
himself viscount of Dundee, was forfeited for his adherence to the
Pretender in 1746. He afterwards had a company in Lord Ogilvy’s regiment
in the French service, and died at Dunkirk in 1759.
