ANGUS, a very ancient name in Scotland; the first on record who bore it being the brother of Loarn and Fergus, the earliest kings of the Dalriadic Scots. Pinkerton says: "The Irish accounts bear that Loarn, Angus, and Fergus, three sons of Ere, led the Scots back to Britain in 503, (after having been compelled to retreat to Ireland about fifty years before—that is, about the middle of the fifth century, or about two hundred years after their first arrival in Argyleshire,) and that Loarn was the first king and was succeeded by Fergus. What became of Angus we are not told. It would seem that, either from incapacity or preference of private life, he aspired not to any share of the power of his brothers. But though Loarn be left out of the regal list in the Scottish accounts, yet neither he nor Angus is unknown to them. Fordun, lib. iii. cap. i., says that Fergus, son of Ere, came to Scotland cum duobus fratribus Loarn et Tenegus, ‘with his brothers Loarn and Tenegus,’ which last word is a not uncommon corruption of Angus with Fordun. The register of the priory of St. Andrews, written about  1250, also says of Kenneth, son of Alpin, sepultus in Yona insula, ubi tres filii Erc, sciliet Fergus, Loarn et Enegus, sepulti fuerant; lie was buried in Ions, where the three sons of Erc, namely Fergus, Loarn, and Enegus were buried.’" (Enquiry into the History of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 92.) It would appear that Cantyre, (from the Gaelic word Ceantir, Headland), was the portion of Fergus, Loarn possessed the district called after him Lorn, and Angus is supposed to have colonized Islay, as it was enjoyed by Muredach his son, after his decease. See LORN, marquis of, and ARGYLE, duke of; also DALRTADA. ANGUS, styled by the annalists Angus MacFergus, was also the name of the most powerful king the Picts ever had. He reigned between 731 and 761, in which latter year he died. Belonging originally to the southern Picts, he had, in 729, raised himself to the command of that portion of the Pictish tribes, and in the year 731, by the conquest of Talorgan MacCongusa, his last opponent, he obtained the throne of the whole Pictish nation. In consequence of his success a league was entered into between the principal tribes of the northern Picts and the Dalriads or Scots of Argyle, who were ever ready for war with their Pictish enemies. Angus, however, crushed this formidable union, and almost annihilated the Scots of Dalriada; "and yet," says Skene, "it was his power and his victories which laid the germ of that revolution that resulted in the overthrow of the Pictish influence in Scotland." (History of Highlanders, vol. i. p. 55)

ANGUS, was also the name of a king of the Dalriads, who began to reign in 804 and died in 811. At a very early period the district of country lying between the North Esk on the north, and the Tay and Isla on the south, was called Angus, which it still retains, though also called Forfarshire from the county town. Its more ancient name is commonly supposed to have been so named from Angus, a brother of Kenneth the Second, to whom this territory was granted by Kenneth, after the union of the Picts and Scots. Gaelic scholars, however, think that the name denotes a hill of a particular description, or which was applied to a special use; and it is supposed to have been derived from the Hill of Angus, a lit— tle to the eastward of the church of Aberlemno, in ancient times the usual place of rendezvous for the inhabitants of the surrounding country, during the predatory incursions of the Danes and Norwegians. It seems more probable that the hill itself took its name from the district.

ANGUS, earldom of, one of the most ancient titles in Scotland. According to Chalmers, Dubican, the son of Indechtraig, and maormor or earl of Angus, died in 939. Maolbride his son died during the reign of Culen, who was murdered by Rohard, thane of Fife, in 970. His successor Cunechat, Cruchne, or Conquhare, maormor of Angus, had a daughter Finella, styled the lady of Fettercairn, to whose name an historical interest is attached as being the murderess of Kenneth the Third, king of Scots, in consequence of having caused her son Crathilinthus to be put to death as related in the life of that monarch. See KENNETH III. This event happened in the year 994, and the Lady Finella was afterwards put to death for her crime, in the romantic ravine called Den Finella. Her memory is still preserved in the names of various other places in the county of Kincardine.

      In the reign of Malcolm Canmore flourished Gilchrist, earl of Angus, who was living after the year 1120. He married Finella or Fynbella, the sister of the thane of Mearns, by whom he had a son Gilbrede, the second earl of Angus, properly so called instead of maormor, who succeeded him, and was engaged in the battle of the Standard, under King David the First, in 1138. Earl Gilibrede was one of the twenty barons who were given up to Henry as hostages for the performance of the disgraceful conditions entered into by King William the Lion, in 1174, when imprisoned at Falaise in Normandy, in order to obtain his release. He died about 1180. He married a daughter of Cospatrick, the third earl of March, by whom he had six sons, namely, Gilchrist, third earl of Angus; Magnus, earl of Caithness, (see CAITHNESS, earldom of); Gilbert, ancestor of the Ogilvys, earls of Airlie, (see OGILVY, surname of, and AIRLIE, earl of); Adam, William, and Anegus.

      Gilchrist, third earl of Angus, married a sister of William the Lion. He was the father of Duncan the fourth earl, whose son, Malcolm the fifth earl, married Mary, daughter and heiress of Sir Humphrey Berkeley, knight, by whom he had a daughter, Matildis, countess of Angus in her own right. She married first John Cumin who, in her right, became earl. He died in France in 1242. She married, secondly, in 1243, Gilbert de Umfraville, lord of Redesdale, Prudhow, and Her-bottle in Northumberland, who in consequence also became earl of Angus. He died in 1245. He was one of the most famous barons of that age and guardian of the northern parts of England. (Dugdale’s Baronage, vol. i. p. 504.)

      His only son by the countess, also bore the name of Gilbert de Umfraville. He succeeded as the eighth earl. He was governor of the castles of Dundee and Forfar, and of the whole territory of Angus, in 1291, when the regents of Scotland, during the competition for the crown, agreed to deliver up the kingdom and its fortresses to Edward I. of England. On this occasion the earl declared that he had received his castles in charge from the Scottish nation, and that he would not surrender them to England, unless Edward and all the competitors joined in an obligation to indemnify him. The English monarch and the competitors submitted to these conditions of Angus, who was the only person in Scotland who acted with integrity and spirit at this national crisis. (Feodera, vol. ii. p. 531.) He married the third daughter of Alexander Cumin, earl of Buchan, and died in 1307. He had three sons. The eldest, Gilbert, having died before his father, he was succeeded by Robert his second son, who was the ninth earl of Angus. By Edward the Second, Earl Robert was appointed joint-guardian of Scotland, 21st July 1308, and had a commission to be sole guardian 20th August 1309, but did not act upon it, as Robert de Clifford was constituted to that office. Robert de Umfraville, earl of Angus, was forfeited by King Robert the First, for his adherence to the English interest. In 1319, he was one of the commissioners of England to treat with those of Scotland for peace between the two nations. He appears to have died about 1326. By his first wife Lucia, daughter of Philip de Kyme, he had a son Gilbert, who succeeded him, and a daughter, Elizabeth, married to Gilbert de Burdon. His second wife, Alianore, who was afterwards the wife of Roger Mauduit, brought him two sons, Sir Robert, and Thomas.

      Gilbert de Umfraville, the tenth earl of Angus, was among the disinherited barons who invaded Scotland in 1332. He claimed the earldom of Angus, of which his father had been deprived by forfeiture in the reign of Robert the First. He had a like right to the superiority of the barony of Dunipace in Stirlingshire, which Bruce had granted to William de Lindesay. He had a share in the decisive victory obtained by Edward Baliol over the forces of King David I. at Dupplin Moor, 12th August 1332. He was much engaged in the wars of Scotland, and in the fourteenth year of Edward the Third he was joined in commission with Lord Percy and Lord Neville, to conclude a truce with the Scots. At the battle of Durham, 20th August 1346, when David the Second was defeated and made prisoner, he was one of the chief commanders of the English anny, and ten years afterwards he was one of the commissioners for treating of the liberation of that monarch. He was also frequently a commissioner for guarding the marches. He died 7th January 1381, possessed of great estates in the counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, York, Lincoln, and Suffolk, leaving his niece his next heir, his son, Sir Robert de Umfraville, having predeceased him. This lady was Alianore, the daughter of his sister, Elizabeth, and Gilbert de Burdon, and the wife of Henry Talboys.

The title of earl of Angus after the forfeiture, came into the possession of the Stewart family, having been bestowed before 1329 upon Sir John Stewart of Bonkil, great-grandson of Sir John Stewart of Bonkil, second son of Alexander, high steward of Scotland. He died in December 1331. He had married Margaret, eldest daughter of Sir Alexander de Abernethy, and had an only son Thomas, the second earl of Angus of the Stewart family. The latter took to wife Margaret, daughter of Sir William St. Clair of Roslin, by whom he had one son Thomas, the third earl, and two daughters, Lady Margaret, married first to Thomas the thirteenth earl of Marr, who died without issue in 1377, and secondly to William, first earl of Douglas, by whom she was the mother of George de Douglas, the first earl of Angus of the Douglas family. The second daughter, Lady Elizabeth, married Sir Alexander Hamilton of Innerwick, and had issue.

Thomas, the third earl of Angus, of the Stewart family, succeeded his father in 1361, being then an infant. He died without issue in 1377, when the title devolved on his sister Lady Margaret. On her resignation of it in parliament in 1389, King Robert the Second granted the earldom of Angus, with the lordships of Abenethy in Perthshire, and of Bonkil in the county of Berwick, in favour of George de Douglas her son and the heirs of his body, whom failing to Sir Alexander de Hamilton and his wife Elizabeth, the sister of the said countess, and their heirs. The earldom being afterwards re -stricted to heirs male, is now vested in the Duke of Hamilton, the representative in the male line of the above named George earl of Angus. See DOUGLAS, earl of, (page 45, vol. ii.); and HAMILTON, duke of, (page 422, vol. iii.)

ANGUS, styled Angus Mohr, the great, lord of Islay, was son and successor of Donald, (from whom the Macdonalds take their name) second son of Reginald, son of Somerled, king of the Isles, whose youngest son was also named Angus. During the life of Angus Mohr the expedition of Haco, king of Norway, to the Isles took place, as related in the life of Alexander the Third, (see ante, page 88.) Angus joined Haco with his fleet, but in consequence of the treaty which was afterwards entered into between the kings of Norway and Scotland he was allowed to retain his possessions undisturbed, (see page 93.) His son, Angus Oig, or the younger, was faithful to Robert the Bruce, and when the latter, with the few followers who adhered to him, after taking refuge in the Lennox, proceeded to Kintyre, he was hospitably received by Angus, and entertained for three days in his castle of Dunaverty, the ruins of which still remain; and this at a time when he had been denied an asylum everywhere else. At the head of two thousand men, whom he had raised, Angus Oig engaged on Bruce's side at the battle of Bannockburn, where he displayed great valour. On the forfeiture of Alexander, lord of Lorn, and his son and heir, John, who were opposed to the claims of Bruce, a portion of their territories was bestowed on Angus Oig, and in this way the Isles of Mull, (the possession of which had, for some time, been disputed betwixt the lords of Islay and Lorn,) Jura, Coll, and Tiree, with the districts of Duror and Glencoe, fell to the share of Angus Oig. He also received a portion of Lochaber, and the lands of Morvern and Ardnamurchan. As a measure of precaution, however, Bruce procured from Angus Oig the resignation of his lands in Kintyre, and bestowed them upon Robert, the son and heir of Walter, the high steward and the princess Marjory Bruce, to whom he also gave the keeping of Tarbert castle, then the most important position on the Argyle coast. Before King Robert’s death, Angus Oig was the most powerful chieftain in Argyle or the Isles. He and the Bruce died about the same time, that is about 1329. Under David the Second the lands of Kintyre reverted to the descendants of Angus Oig. (Gregory’s Western Highlands and Isles, pages 22—27.)

ANGUS, earl of, see DOUGLAS, George, William, and Archibald.