LINLITHGOW, earl of,
a title, (attainted in 1716,) in the Scottish peerage, conferred in
1600, on Alexander 7th Lord Livingstone, descended from
Sir William Livingstone, who in 1346, obtained from King David II. a
grant of the barony of Callendar in Stirlingshire. (See LIVINGSTONE,
surname of.) When master of Livingstone, he was among those who were
taken prisoners in Dumbarton castle, on that fortress being
surprised by Captain Thomas Crawford, in May 1571. Among other
charters he had one of the office of hereditary constable and keeper
of the castle of Blackness, with certain lands thereto annexed, Feb.
28, 1598. The charge of the princess Elizabeth, daughter of James
VI., and afterwards electress palatine, with other children of the
king, was committed to him and his wife, Lady Eleanor Hay, only
daughter of 7th earl of Errol, and in a charter of
novo damus, dated March 13, 1600, granted by James VI. in his
favour, of the barony of Callendar, in which the town of Falkirk was
erected into a free burgh of barony, honourable mention is made of
the great care and fidelity with which they attended to the
education of the king’s children, and of the expense incurred in
maintaining them and their servants. This charter also contained a
grant of regality, but which it was provided should evacuate on
payment of £10,000, said to be due by the crown to Lord Livingstone.
He was created earl of Linlithgow, Lord Livingstone and Callendar,
Dec. 25, 1600. According to Sir James Balfour, this took place at
the baptism of Prince Charles, afterwards Charles I. When the
princess Elizabeth was restored to her father at Windsor in 1603,
the earl and his countess had discharged their trust so much to the
satisfaction of James that they obtained an act of approval from the
king and council. In 1604 he was one of the commissioners appointed
by parliament to treat of a union with England, a favourite project
of King James. He died in 1622. He had, with two daughters, three
sons, viz., John, master of Livingstone, who predeceased his father,
unmarried, in 1614; Alexander, 2d earl of Linlithgow, and James, 1st
earl of Callendar. (See CALLENDAR, earl of.)
Alexander, 2d earl of Linlithgow, was in his father’s lifetime
appointed an extraordinary lord of session, January 13, 1610, but
was removed from the bench in 1626. In the following year he was
appointed by charter hereditary constable and keeper of the palace
of Linlithgow. In 1634 he granted the barony of Callendar to his
brother, Sir James Livingstone, who was created by Charles I.
successively Lord Almond and Falkirk, and earl of Callendar. The 2d
earl of Linlithgow married, first, Lady Elizabeth Gordon, 2d
daughter of George 1st Marquis of Huntly, and had one
son, George, 3d earl of Linlithgow; and 2dly, Lady Mary Douglas,
eldest daughter of the 10th earl of Angus, by whom he
had, with two daughters, another son, Alexander, 2d earl of
Callendar.
George, 3d earl of Linlithgow, born in July 1616, suffered
much on account of his loyalty to the king during the civil wars.
After the battle of Kilsyth, Aug. 15, 1645, he was one of the first
to wait upon the victorious Montrose, during his stay at Bothwell.
At the Restoration he was appointed colonel of the royal regiment of
horse guards, and sworn a privy councillor. In 1681 he resigned his
command in the army, and was constituted justice-general of
Scotland, of which office he was deprived at the Revolution. He was
implicated in Sir James Montgomery’s plot for the restoration of the
abdicated family, and died Feb. 1, 1690, aged 74. He had married
Lady Elizabeth Maule, 2d daughter of 1st earl of Panmure,
the widowed countess of Kinghorn, and had by her, with one daughter,
two sons, George, 4th earl of Linlithgow; and Alexander,
3d earl of Callendar.
George, 4th earl of Linlithgow, was sworn a privy
councillor in 1692. He was also one of the commissioners of the
treasury. He died Aug. 7, 1695, without issue, when the title
devolved on his nephew, James, 4th earl of Callendar and
5th earl of Linlithgow, who, engaging in the rebellion of
1715, was attainted of high treason. By his countess, Lady Margaret
Hay, second daughter of 12th earl of Errol, he had a son,
James, Lord Livingstone, who died April 30, 1715, and a daughter,
Lady Anne Livingstone, countess of Kilmarnock. Her eldest son,
James, Lord Boyd, succeeded, in her right, to the earldom of Errol.
