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EGLINTON,
a surname derived from lands of that name in the district of Cunningham,
county of Ayr and possessed by an ancient family, some of whom were
witnesses to the charters of king William the Lion and Alexander the
Second and Third. In the Ragman Roll appear the names of Sir Radulphus and
Sir Ranulph de Eglinton, as among those who swore a forced fealty to
Edward the First in 1296. In 1361 Sir Hugh de Eglinton was justiciary of
Lothian, and six years thereafter he was one of the commissioners for a
treaty with England. He married Egidia, or Giles, daughter of Walter, high
steward of Scotland, and sister of King Robert the Second, widow of Sir
James Lindsay of Crawford, and soon after the accession of his
brother-in-law to the throne, his majesty granted to him certain lands in
Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, and Mid Lothian. He appears to have died soon after
1376. He had an only daughter, his sole heiress, Elizabeth, who married
Sir John Montgomery, the seventh laird of Eaglesham, ancestor of the earls
of Eglinton. [See MONTGOMERY, surname of.] With her Sir John obtained the
baronies of Eglinton and Ardrossan, and the large possessions of the
Eglinton family, and in consequence of this marriage he quartered the arms
of Eglinton with his own.
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EGLINTON, Earl of,
a title in the peerage of Scotland, conferred in the year 1507, on Hugh,
third Lord Montgomery, descended in a direct line from the above Sir John
Montgomery of Eaglesham, and his wife Elizabeth de Eglinton. This Sir John
Montgomery (for whose extraction and descent see MONTGOMERY, surname of)
invariably proved himself a true friend of his country, and in 1388, he
and his eldest son, Hugh, accompanied the earl of Douglas in his
expedition into England, and distinguished himself at the battle of
Otterburn, or Chevy Chase, where he commanded part of the Scots force, by
taking prisoner Henry Percy, surnamed Hotspur. According to the Scotch
version of the ballad on this famous fight:
“The Percy and Montgomery met,
That either of other were fain;
They swapped swords, and they twa swat,
And aye the blood ran down between.
“‘Yield thee, O yield thee, Percy!’ he said,
‘Or else I shall lay thee low!’
‘Whom to shall I yield,’ earl Percy said.
‘Sin I see it maun be so?’
‘”’I will not yield to a braken bush,
Nor yet will I to a brier,
But I would yield to Earl Douglas,
Or Sir Hugh Montgomery if he were here.’
“As soon as he knew it was Montgomery,
He stuck his sword’s point to the ground;
And Sir Hugh the Montgomery was a courteous
knight,
And quickly took him by the hand.”
Hugh, being a common
name in the Montgomery family, is here employed instead of John. At the
same battle Hugh, the eldest son of this gallant knight, was slain by an
arrow, which transfixed his heart. With Percy’s ransom Sir John built the
castle of Polnoon in Renfrewshire, which has ever since continued one of
the seats of the family. He had four sons, and was succeeded by Sir John
Montgomery, the second son, Hugh, the eldest, having left no issue.
Alexander, the third son, was designed of Bonnington. The youngest, who
became tutor to his grand nephew, the third lord Montgomery, was also
named Hugh, having been born after his eldest brother’s death.
Sir John
Montgomery, the second son and successor, designed of Eaglesham, Eglinton,
and Ardrossan, obtained letters of safeguard into England, on 21st
September 1405, and also on 1st November 1406, to treat for the
release of the earl of Douglas, who had been taken prisoner at the battle
of Homildon in 1402, and on 20th April 1408 he became one of
his hostages. He was soon, however, released, as, on 15th May
1412, he had a letter of safe-conduct into England. His lordship, along
with William Lauder, bishop of Glasgow, lord high chancellor of Scotland,
and other commissioners, had a letter of safe-conduct, 12th May
1423, to treat about the ransom of King James the First, and he had
another to the same effect 16th September following. He was one
of the hostages for King James, his annual revenue being established at
seven hundred marks. He returned to Scotland in 1424, and received the
honour of knighthood at his majesty’s coronation. He was one of the jury
on the trial of Murdach, duke of Albany, his two sons, and the duke of
Lennox, at Stirling, 24th May 1425. He died before August 10,
1430. By his wife, Margaret, only daughter of Sir Robert Maxwell of
Caerlaverock, he had two sons and two daughters. Robert, the second son,
was ancestor of the Montgomeries of Macbiehill and Stanhope, in the county
of Peebles, baronets, and of other families of the name.
Sir Alexander de
Montgomery of Ardrossan, the eldest son, a man of great abilities, was by
James the First admitted, in 1425, when but a youth, a member of his privy
council, and in August 1430 was appointed governor of Kintyre and
Knapdale, jointly with Sir Robert Cunningham of Kilmaurs, ancestor of the
earls of Glencairn. After the assassination of King James the First, being
in equal favour with his son, King James the Second, he was continued in
the privy council. From that monarch he obtained several grants of land,
in consideration of his great loyalty and faithful services, and in 1438
was joined with Sir Alexander Gordon and Mr. John Methven, secretary of
state, and other commissioners, to treat of a peace with the English, when
they concluded a truce for nine years. In 1444, 1447 and 1449, he was also
much employed in negociations with England, and in 1451 he was one of the
conservators of the truce with that kingdom. He was created a lord of
parliament by the title of Lord Montgomery, before 31st January
1448-9, when the office of bailiary of the barony of Cunningham was
granted to him. IN 1459, he was again a conservator of a truce with
England, and on 2d June 1460, he obtained a safe-conduct to go into that
kingdom with twenty persons in his train, on the affairs of the truce. He
died soon after 6th June 1461. With three daughters, he had
three sons, Alexander, master of Montgomery, who predeceased his father,
in 1452; George, ancestor of the Montgomeries of Skelmorley, from whom the
present earl of Eglinton descends through an heiress; and Thomas, rector
of Eaglesham.
The master of
Montgomery had married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Sir Adam Hepburn of
Hales, and by her had Alexander, second Lord Montgomery; Robert of
Breadstane, from whom the earls of Mount Alexander, Viscounts Montgomery,
in Ireland (titles which became extinct in 1758), and the Montgomeries of
Grey Abbey, Downshire, were lineally descended; Hugh Montgomery of Hislot;
and a daughter, Margaret, the wife of Alexander, first lord Home.
Alexander,
second Lord Montgomery, who succeeded his grandfather in 1461, had also
three sons, Hugh, James of Smithston, and John.
The eldest son,
Hugh, third Lord Montgomery, and first earl of Eglinton, born about 1460,
being under age at his father’s death, was placed under the tutorship of
his father’s uncle, Hugh Montgomery, as already stated. He attached
himself to the party of James the Fourth, and on the accession of that
monarch to the throne in 1488, he was made by him one of his privy
council. On the 14th October the same year, for the good
services done to his majesty by him, particularly in the field of
Sauchieburn near Stirling on the 11th of June, he obtained a
remission for throwing down the house of Turnelaw, and carrying off goods
from thence, and for all other offences committed by him previous to the
29th August preceding the said 14th of October. In
1489 he obtained a grant of the constabulary of the royal castle of
Rothesay, and on 4th July 1498, he had a charter of the offices
of bailie of Cunningham and chamberlain of the town of Irvine, which
offices had formerly belonged to his grandfather, Alexander Montgomery.
The grant of the office of bailiary of Cunningham produced a feud between
the Eglinton and Glencairn families which occasionally led to deeds of
violence, and caused tedious and fruitless appeals to umpires till after
the union of the crowns. In 1507 Lord Montgomery was created earl of
Eglinton. After the fatal field of Flodden, 9th September 1513,
he was one of the peers who met in parliament at Perth early in the
following month, when the coronation of the infant king, James the Fifth,
was fixed for the 21st of the same month, and he was nominated
one of the queen mother’s counsellors. On 28th October 1515, he
was made keeper of the Isle of Little Cumray, for the preservation of the
game there, till the king should be fifteen years of age, and on 21st
February 1526-7, he was appointed justice-general of the northern parts of
Scotland, till James should attain the age of twenty-five years. After the
young king’s escape from the yoke of the Douglases in May 1528, the earl
and his second son, Lord Montgomery, were among the nobles who attended
the first free council held by his majesty at Stirling. In November of the
same year the earl’s house of Eglinton was burnt by William Cunningham,
master of Glendairn and his accomplices, and in consequence of the
charters, writs, and evidents of his lands being destroyed therein, the
king granted him a new charter of them under the great seal, dated 23d
January 1528-9. On the king’s matrimonial excursion to France in 1536, the
earl of Eglinton was appointed a member of the regency empowered to
administer the government in his absence, the other members being Bethune,
archbishop of St. Andrews, Dunsar, archbishop of Glasgow, the earls of
Huntly and Montrose, and Lord Maxwell. On December 24, 1540, a remission
was granted to Hugh, earl of Eglinton, his two sons, and thirty others,
for abiding from the army at Solway. He died in June 1545, in the 85th
year of his age. He had lived in the time of five sovereigns of Scotland,
having been born in the last year of King James the Second, and died in
the third of Queen Mary. With six daughters he had six sons. Alexander,
Lord Montgomery, his eldest son, died in 1498, unmarried; John, the second
son, at first designed master of Eglinton, was after his brother’s death,
styled Lord Montgomery; Sir Niel, the third, was ancestor of the
Montgomeries of Lainshaw; William of Greenfield, the fourth son, was
ancestor of the Montgomeries of Auchenhood and other families of the name;
Hugh, the fifth, married Jean, daughter and heiress of Lord Lisle; and
Robert, the youngest, was bishop of Argyle, and had three sons, who were
legitimated after his death.
John, the second
but eldest surviving son, is designed master of Montgomery in the records
of parliament, 12th July 1505, On 18th November of
that year, he was summoned to underlie the law and censure of treason, for
wounding William Cunningham of Craigends. In the famous street conflict at
Edinburgh, between the earls of Arran and Angus, and their adherents, on
28th April 1520, he was killed on the side of Arran, in the
lifetime of his father. By his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Archibald
Edmonstone of Duntreath, he had (with a daughter, Christian, married to
Sir James Douglas of Drumlanrig, ancestor of the dukes of Queenberry) two
sons, Archibald master of Eglinton, and Hugh, second earl. The name of the
former occurs in the records of parliament, 21st November 1526,
as having been on the king’s side, but in reality on that of the
Douglases, in the encounters with Scott of Buccleuch at Melrose, and the
earl of Lennox at Linlithgow that year, and he died soon after without
issue.
Hugh, second
earl of Eglinton, succeeded his grandfather in June 1545, and died 3d
September 1546. Bu is countess, Mariota, daughter of the third Lord Seton,
he had, with two daughters, a son, Hugh, third earl, who was a minor when
he succeeded to the honours and estates of his family. In May 1561, with
others of the nobility, he accompanied the Lord James Stewart, afterwards
the regent Moray, when he went to France to invite the young queen, Mary,
on the death of her husband, the French king, Francis, to return to
Scotland, and on her voyage home, in August of that year, he was on board
the only ship taken by the English fleet sent to intercept her, but soon
after being carried to London, he was released. He adhered firmly to Mary,
in all her troubles, and at the head of his retainers was personally
engaged on her side at the battle of Langside, where he was taken
prisoner. In the parliament held by the regent Moray, 19th
August 1568, he was declared guilty of treason. He long continued faithful
to the queen’s cause but at last, in April 1571, by the persuasion of the
earl of Morton, soon after elected regent, with the earls of Argyle and
Cassillis, and other lords of the queen’s party, he submitted to the
king’s authority, and appeared in the parliament held at Stirling in
September of that year. In the parliament held in the same place in July
1578, he was chosen one of the lords of the articles. He died in June
1585, having been twice married, first, to Lady Jean Hamilton, youngest
daughter of the regent Arran, duke of Chatelherault, which marriage, on
account of consanguinity, was dissolved in 1562; and, secondly, to
Margaret, daughter of Sir John Drummond of Innerpeffry, by whom he had two
sons and two daughters, namely, Hugh, fourth earl of Eglinton, and Robert
of Giffen, who, by his wife, Margaret, daughter of Sir Mathew Campbell of
Loundoun, had one daughter, his sole heiress, married to her cousin, Hugh,
fifth earl of Eglinton; Margaret, the earl’s elder daughter, was married
to Robert earl of Wintoun, and carried on the line of this family. The
second daughter, Agnes, married Robert, fourth lord Semple.
Hugh, the fourth
earl, a youth of great promise and singular endowments, enjoyed his
inheritance only about ten months, having, on 19th April 1586,
fallen the victim of his family’s hereditary feud. As he was riding, after
dinner on that day, attended only by his ordinary domestics, from his own
castle of Eglinton towards Stirling, where the court then was, he was
attacked in the low grounds near the bridge of Annock, by John Cunningham,
brother of the earl of Glencairn, David Cunningham of Robertland, John
Cunningham of Clonbeith, Alexander Cunningham of Corsehill, and others of
the name, to the number of thirty-four, and his small retinue being
dispersed or slain, he was himself shot dead by a pistol fired by
Cunningham of Clonbeith. He had dined at the house of Lainshaw, and it is
said that the Cunninghams got notice of his being there by the Lady of
Lainshaw, Margaret Cunningham, a daughter of Cunningham of Aiket, (others
say, it was a servant of the name of Cunningham) hanging a white table
napkin from the battlements, as a signal, most of the parties implicated
in the murder residing within sight of it. The earl of Glencairn
disclaimed all connexion with this foul act, and left his friends to the
law. In the meantime, the friends of the Eglinton family flew to arms, and
killed every Cunningham that came in their way. The laird of Aiket, one of
th principal persons concerned in the bloody deed, was shot near his own
house; Robertland and Corsehill escaped; Clonbeith, the actual murderer,
was pursued by a party of Montgomeries, with the earl’s brother, the
master of Eglinton at their head, as far as Hamilton, and a house in which
he had taken refuge being beset, he was discovered by John Pollok of that
ilk, a bold daring man, son-in-law of the laird of Lainshaw, concealed in
a chimney, on which he was cut to pieces on the spot. The lady of Lainshaw
was forced to abscond, it was said to Ireland, but she was for a long time
concealed in the house of one of her husband’s tenants. Twenty years after
this event, namely, on the 1st of July 1606, the feud between
the Montgomeries and Cunninghams again broke out in a violent tumult at
Perth, under the very eyes of the parliament and the privy council, and
the matters in dispute between them having been referred by his majesty to
six on either side, were finally settled by the active negociation of his
majesty’s commissioner, the earl of Dunbar, in the following February.
Hugh, fifth
earl, only son of the murdered nobleman, was an infant when deprived of
his father, and in consequence was placed under the charge of his maternal
uncle, Robert Boyd of Badenheath, his mother, the widowed countess, being
Egidia, (or Giles,) eldest daughter of Robert fourth Lord Boyd. He was in
especial favour with King James the Sixth, who had planned a marriage
between him and the Lady Gabriella Stuart, sister of the duke of Lennox,
which, however, did not take place, owing, it is supposed, to the death of
the lady. He obtained a grant of all the lands and titles that had
belonged to the dissolved abbey of Kilwinning, with the patronage of
sixteen parish churches, all of which were erected into a temporal
lordship, of which he had a charter under the great seal, 5th
January 1603-4. He married his cousin, Margaret, daughter and sole heiress
of Robert Montgomery of Giffen, an unhappy marriage, according to the MS.
history of the family, as it ended in a divorce, and the lady afterwards
became the wife of the sixth Lord Boyd. Having no issue, he made a
resignation and settlement of the earldom and entail on Sir Alexander
Seton of Foulstruther, son of his aunt, Margaret, countess of Wintoun,
(heir of line of the family,) and the heirs male of his body, he and they
taking the name and arms of Montgomery; which settlement was confirmed by
charter under the great seal, dated 28th November 1611; and his
lordship died in the following year.
He was succeeded
as sixth earl by his cousin, the said Sir Alexander Seton, who, in
accordance with the deed of adoption, changed his name to Montgomerie.
From King James the Sixth he obtained a charter, dated at Whitehall, 24th
March 1615, ratifying and confirming all the honours, dignities and
precedency, enjoyed by any former earl of Eglinton. According to a family
anecdote, his lordship of Kilwinning, that had been granted to the fifth
earl by charter in January 1603-4, having been conferred by the king on
Sir Michael Balfour, of Burleigh, the earl who, from his bold and
undaunted character, had acquired the cognomen of Greysteel, remonstrated
in strong terms against this invasion of his rights, but receiving no
redress, after a tedious correspondence, he waited personally upon the
king’s favourite for the time, (Car, earl of Somerset,) and signified to
him that though little acquainted with the intricacies of the law, or of
court etiquette, he knew the use of his sword, and expected to have
justice done to him. The result was an immediate inquiry into the merits
of the case, and his claims being found just, the property was restored to
him, and a charter of confirmation of the former one granted 26th
April 1615. For the delay that took place in the recognition of his
titles, the continuator of Nisbet (System of Heraldry, vol. ii. p.
59) endeavours to account by saying “Though Montgomerie, earl of Eglinton,
could dispose of his estate, he could not make over his honours to Sir
Alexander Seton, and it was some time before King James the Sixth could be
prevailed upon to confirm them, which was at last done by the intercession
of the queen, upon Seton’s marrying Lady Anne Livingstone (daughter of
Alexander, firs earl of Linlithgow) who was one of the queen’s maids of
honour, and the titles and precedency of the earls of Eglinton were
confirmed to him.” This marriage, however, had taken place two or three
years before, as it appears from the register of the parish of Tranent,
that the eldest son was born on the 8th April 1613. Playfair (British
Family Antiquity, vol. iii. p. 277) says that the fifth earl had one
son, Robert, who died before his father, in 1602, leaving a daughter, the
wife of Robert, Lord Boyd, without issue, and she, surviving her
grandfather, immediately on his death, assumed the titles of Eglinton, as
his heir of line, but afterwards yielded them to Alexander, sixth earl, by
a deed dated 4th March 1615. All this, however, is a manifest
error. It appears that it was through the influence of his uncle, the earl
of Dunfermline, then lord chancellor, and of Lord Binning, afterwards earl
of Melrose and Haddington, that he was at last allowed the earldom.
The earl of
Eglinton was one of the Scots nobles who attended the funeral of James the
Sixth in Westminster Abbey, on the 7th May 1625. On the rising
of the Scots parliament, 28th May 1633, he carried the sword
before King Charles the First, from the parliament-house, Edinburgh, to
Holyrood-house palace. On the 7th September 1641 he was
admitted a member of his majesty’s privy council. On the 13th
November the same year, he was one of the councillors nominated by the
Scots parliament, and also a commissioner for receiving brotherly
assistance from the parliament of England and for serving the articles of
the treaty with that nation. In 1642 he was a member of the General
Assembly of the Church of Scotland, when the solemn league and covenant
was resolved upon, and the same year he had the command of one of the
regiments sent to Ireland, to suppress the rebellion there. In 1643 he was
in the Scots army sent to the assistance of the English parliament, and
was present at the battle of Marston Moore that year, when the royalists
were defeated. In 1646 he was elected one of the committee of estates
during the interval betwixt the sessions of parliament. In 1648 he opposed
the “Engagement” to march into England, to attempt the relief of the king,
and on the defeat of the duke of Hamilton at Preston being known in
Scotland, a party of the western Covenanters, under the command of the
earl’s youngest son, Robert Montgomerie, attacked a troop of the earl of
Lanark’s horse, quartered in Ayrshire, killed some, and routed the rest.
The committee of estates immediately ordered out all the fencible men in
the kingdom to put down the rising; but at the head of a large body of
Covenanters, with the lord chancellor Loudoun, and some ministers, the
earl, who had joined the party of the marquis of Argyle, advanced to
Edinburgh, which city they entered without opposition, the magistrates and
ministers, on their approach, going out to welcome them. After the
disbanding of the two opposing armies, Argyle, the chancellor Loudoun, the
earl of Eglinton and others, met at Edinburgh, and, under the title of the
committee of estates, summoned a parliament on the 4th of
January 1649. On King Charles the Second’s arrival in Scotland in 1650,
the earl was appointed colonel of his majesty’s horse regiment of
life-guards (Balfour’s Annals, vol. iv. p. 85), and by his advice
his majesty came from Stirling, on the 29th July, to visit the
camp at Leith. His lordship was present at Dunfermline, with Argyle,
Lothian, Tweeddale, Lorn, and other heads of that party, at the first
council held by the king since his coming to Scotland, when the famous
‘declaration’ was presented to his majesty, which, with some modification,
was signed by Charles on the 16th of August. In the following
year the earl raised a regiment for the king’s service, but with his
fourth son James, was surprised at Dumbarton, when in bed, by a party of
English horse, and sent prisoner first to Hull, and then to Berwick, where
he remained in confinement till the Restoration, when he was restored to
all his estates and honours. He died 7th January 1661, in the
71st year of his age.
His first
countess died in 1632, and he married again, Margaret, eldest daughter of
Walter, first Lord Scott of Buccleuch, widow of Lord Ross, but by her he
had no issue. By his first wife he had, with two daughters, five sons,
namely, Hugh, seventh earl; the Hon. Sir Henry Montgomerie of Giffen; the
Hon. Alexander, who died in Ireland; the Hon. Colonel James, of
Coilsfield, immediate ancestor of the present earl; and the Hon. General
Robert Montgomerie, who was first engaged on the side of the parliament,
in whose army he attained the rank of major-general, but on the arrival of
Charles the Second in Scotland he repaired to the royal standard, and
distinguished himself at the battle of Dunbar, 3d April 1650. Accompanying
the king into England, he acted as major-general of his majesty’s horse at
the battle of Worcester in 1651, and after receiving several wounds he was
taken prisoner, and confined in the castle of Edinburgh, whence he escaped
in 1659. He afterwards joined Charles the Second on the continent, and was
made one of the gentlemen of his bedchamber, returning with him at the
Restoration. From his religious and conscientious disposition he was
exposed to some suffering in the after persecutions of the period.
Hugh, seventh
earl, born 8th April 1613, continued constant in his attachment
to Charles the First, from the beginning of his troubles to the end. In
1643, when Lord Montgomerie, he raised a troop of horse at his own
expense, and, marching into England with them, fought at their head on his
majesty’s side, at Marston Moor, when his father was in the opposite
ranks. He was personally engaged in several other battles and skirmishes
in support of the royal cause, for which he was particularly excepted out
of Cromwell’s act of indemnity in 1654. At the Restoration he had a large
share of Charles’ favour. He died in 1669. He married, first, Anne,
daughter of James, marquis of Hamilton, by whom he had an only daughter,
Anne; secondly, Lady Mary Leslie, daughter of the fifth earl of Rothes,
and had with her five daughters and two sone, Alexander, eighth earl, and
the Hon. Francis Montgomerie of Giffen, one of the lords of the privy
council, and a commissioner of the Treasury in the reigns of King William
and Queen Anne. He was for several years member for Ayrshire in the Scots
parliament, and in 1705 was nominated one of the commissioners for the
treaty of union. He steadily supported that measure, and in February 1707,
he was one of the members chosen to the parliament of Great Britain. The
daughters were all married; Lady Mary, to the third earl of Wintoun; Lady
Margaret, to the second earl of Loundoun; Lady Christian, to the fourth
Lord Balmerino; Lady Eleanora, to Sir David Dunbar of Balnoon, baronet;
and Lady Anne, to Sir Andrew Ramsay of Abbotshall, baronet. It is recorded
by Wodrow, to the honour of the fourth of these ladies, Lady Eleonora
Dunbar, that, during the persecuting times, she concealed and sustained
two Presbyterian ministers in a house in Kilwinning for several years.
Indeed to the credit of the Eglinton family it may be stated that they
never countenanced the oppressive measures of that period, and yet they
lost none of their influence at court.
Alexander,
eighth earl, was one of the early supporters of the Revolution, and on 1st
May 1689, was sworn one of the lords of the privy council to King William.
In 1687, during the ascendency of the prelatic party in Scotland, he had
influence enough to procure a license for a presbyterian minister to hold
a meeting-house at Kilwinning, to which the gentry and others from the
surrounding parishes resorted for baptism to their children, as appears in
the session records of that parish. He died in 1701. He was twice married:
first, to Lady Elizabeth Crichton, eldest daughter of the second earl of
Dumfries, by whom he had three sons and one daughter; and, secondly, in
December 1698, to Catherine, daughter of Sir William St. Quentin of
Harpham, in the county of York, baronet. This lady had previously been
thrice married, and was ninety years of age on her union with Lord
Eglinton, and it is said survived him. The family tradition respecting
this singular marriage is that, besides being uncommonly elegant in person
and manners, she had, on some occasion, been instrumental in essentially
promoting his lordship’s interest in his early years.
His eldest son,
Alexander, ninth earl, was one of the privy council of King William and a
commissioner of the treasury. In 1700, elected one of the sixteen
representative Scots peers, and rechosen in 1713. He was one of Queen
Anne’s privy council, and one of the commissioners of the chamberlain
court in 1711. During the rebellion of 1715, he actively promoted the
training and disciplining of the fencible men of Ayrshire, and joined the
earls of Kilmarnock and Glasgow and Lord Sempill at Irvine, 22d August
that year, when six thousand men appeared in arms in support of the
government. By his prudent management, his lordship cleared the estate of
a large amount of debt, and made several purchases of land, and died in
March 1729. He was thrice married: first, in 1676, to Margaret, eldest
daughter of Lord Cochrane, the son of the first earl of Dundonald;
secondly, to Lady Anne Gordon, daughter of the earl of Aberdeen, high
chancellor of Scotland; and, thirdly, to Susannah, daughter of Sir
Archibald Kennedy of Culzean, baronet, celebrated for her personal beauty,
and her patronage of the Scottish muses of her day. It is stated that on
her being brought to Edinburgh, just about the time of the Union, by her
father, she was surrounded by wooers, of whom Sir John Clerk, baronet, of
Pennycuik, was likely to be the successful one, when on consulting the
earl, whose second countess was then alive, but in a long-continued state
of ill health, as to the propriety of the match, his lordship said, “Bide
awee, Sir Archie, my wife’s very sickly.” He was little more than forth
when he married this his third countess. To her the Gentle Shepherd, first
published in 1725, is dedicated both in Allan Ramsay’s prose and Hamilton
of Bangour’s flattering verse. Several other publications of the period
were inscribed to her ladyship, and to her Ramsay dedicated the music of
his first book of songs, a little work now very rare. At a later period he
presented to the countess the original manuscript of his great pastoral
poem, which she afterwards gave to James Boswell, and it is now preserved
in the library at Auchinleck, along with the presentation letter of the
poet. She died in 1780, in the ninety-first year of her age.
By his first
wife the earl had two sons and four daughters, namely, Hugh, Lord
Montgomerie, who died while at the college of Glasgow in 1696, unmarried,
and Alexander, who also died young. The daughters were all well married.
The second daughter, ‘Lady Effie,’ or Euphemia, became the wife of George
Lockhart of Carnwath, M.P., commonly called ‘Union Lockhart,’ author of
the ‘Memoirs of Scotland,’ and it is said proved an able auxiliary to him
in many of his secret intrigues on behalf of the exiled Stuarts. Dr.
Daniel Wilson in his Memorials of Edinburgh, vol. ii. p. 21, gives
the following curious anecdote of her ladyship, which he says he obtained
frm a grandnephew of Lady Lockhart: When not engaged in attending
parliament, Mr. Lockhart resided chiefly at his country seat of Dryden,
while Lady Effie paid frequent visits to Edinburgh, disguised in male
attire. She used to frequent the coffeehouses, and other places of public
resort, and joining freely in conversation with the Whig partisans, she
often obtained important information. It chanced on one occasion that Mr.
Forbes, a zealous Whig, but a man of profligate habits, had been intrusted
with some important private papers implicating her husband, to forward to
government. Lady Euphemia dressed her two sons, fair and somewhat
effeminate-looking youths, in gay female attire, and sending them out to
the cross, they soon attracted the notice of the Whig gallant, and so won
on him by their attentions that he was induced to accompany them to a
neighbouring tavern, where the pretended courtesans fairly drank him below
the table, and then rifled him of the dangerous papers.
By his second
wife, the earl had one daughter, Lady Mary Montgomerie, whose beauty is
celebrated in Hamilton of Bangour’s poetry, married to Sir David
Cunningham of Milnecraig, in Ayrshire, baronet; and by his third wife, the
lovely Countess Susannah, he had three sons, James, Lord Montgomerie, who
died under age; Alexander, tenth earl of Eglinton, and Archibald, eleventh
earl; and seven daughters, who were all married but one. To them their
handsome mother transmitted a nobleness of mien, distinguished at the
period as the “Eglinton air.”
Alexander, tenth
earl, was only three years of age when he succeeded his father in 1729. In
the summer of the following year, a desolating storm of hail spread over
three distinct baronies of the Eglinton estate, to the almost utter
destruction of the crops. This gave rise to a lawsuit, and after several
years’ litigation, the court of session decided that the tenants were not
that year liable in rent. Even the miller, to whose mill the corns were
astricted, was allowed a deduction from his rent, on account of the
defalcation in the multures. In 1748, under the act for abolishing the
heritable jurisdictions, his lordship got seven thousand eight hundred
pounds, in full of his claim of twelve thousand pounds, for the redeemable
sheriffship of Renfrew, the bailiary of the regality of Kilwinning, and
the regality of Cunningham. In 1759 he was appointed governor of the
castle of Dumbarton, and on the accession of George the Third, in the
following year, he was made one of the lords of the bedchamber, but
resigned that appointment in 1767. In 1761 he was chosen one of the Scots
representative peers, and in 1768 was rechosen. To his patriotic exertions
the country chiefly owes the act which abolished the optional clause of
the Scots banks to refuse payment of their notes for no less than six
months after demand. He first commenced that system of agricultural
improvement, introducing a new mode of farming in his own estates, which
was soon adopted in other parts of Ayrshire. He also instituted an
agricultural society, over which he presided for several years. His death
was a violent one, and at the time was considered a severe public loss.
While riding on the 24th October 1769, near Ardrossan, his
carriage and four servants following him, he met two men, one of whom,
Mungo Campbell, an officer of excise at Saltcoats, had a gun in his hand,
and alighting from his horse, his lordship desired him, as he had formerly
been detected killing game on his estates, to deliver up his gun, which he
refused, and, to intimidate him, the earl then ordered his fowling-piece,
which was not loaded, to be brought from the carriage. In the scuffle that
ensued, Campbell fired at Lord Eglinton, who was mortally wounded, and
died about one o’clock the following morning, at Eglinton castle, where he
had been carried. The murderer was tried before the high court of
justiciary at Edinburgh, and condemned to death, but prevented a public
execution by hanging himself in prison. Dying unmarried, the earl was
succeeded by his brother, Archibald.
Archibald,
eleventh earl, was a general in the army and colonel of the 512st foot. He
raised the 77th foot, Highlanders, of which he was made
lieutenant-colonel-commandant, 4th January 1757, and
accompanying that corps to America, served under General Amherst in the
war which terminated in the peace of 1763. He was M.P. for the county of
yr, and held the office of equery to the queen from 1761 to his succession
to the title. On 1st March 1764 he was appointed governor of
the castle of Dumbarton, and in February 1766, deputy ranger of Hyde Park
and St. James’ Park. In 1776 he was elected one of the sixteen Scots
representative peers, on a vacancy, and rechosen at the general elections
1780, 1784, and 1790. In 1782 he was appointed governor of the castle of
Edinburgh, and in 1793 he raised a regiment of fencibles, of which his
cousin, Hugh Montgomerie of Coilsfield, was appointed colonel. He was for
some years colonel of the Scots Grey. He died 30th October
1796, having been twice married, and had two daughters, Lady Mary, the
elder, married Archibald, Lord Montgomerie, eldest son of Hugh, twelfth
earl of Eglinton, thus uniting the lineal and male branches of the family;
and Lady Susanna, who died 16th November 1805, in her 18th
year, unmarried.
On the death of
the eleventh earl without male issue, a large proportion of the estates
devolved upon his elder and only surviving daughter, Lady Montgomerie,
while the titles, with about one-half of the lands, fell to the heir male,
Hugh Montgomerie of Coilsfield, descended from Colonel James Montgomerie,
fourth son of Sir Alexander Seton, sixth earl. The estate of Coilsfield
had been purchased by Colonel Montgomerie from the family of Caprington.
Hugh, twelfth
earl, a munificent and patriotic nobleman, born about 1740, entered the
army in 1755, as an ensign in a regiment of infantry. He served in America
during the greater part of the seven years’ war, and was fourteen years
captain in the first or royal regiment of foot. On the commencement of
hostilities with France in 1778, he was appointed major in the Argyle or
Western Fencibles, which had been raised in the western counties of
Scotland, under the joint influence of the Argyle and Eglinton families,
of which Lord Frederick Campbell was colonel. At the general election in
1780, Major Montgomerie was chosen M.P. for Ayrshire, in opposition to Sir
Adam Ferguson of Kilkerran, baronet, the previous member. He succeeded his
father in the estate of Coilsfield, on his death in 1783, and in 1784 was
again returned for Ayrshire, but in 1789 vacated his seat on being
appointed inspector of military roads, the duties of which office he
performed for some years with great assiduity, travelling on foot over
extensive tracts of rugged ground in the Highlands, for the purpose of
ascertaining the proper courses for the roads. [Douglas’s Peerage,
Edited by Wood, vol. i. p. 510.] On the declaration of war by the
French convention against Great Britain and Holland in 1793, seven
regiments of fencibles were ordered to be raised in Scotland, for the
internal defence of the country. Of one of these, the West Lowland
fencibles, raised chiefly in Ayrshire, Major Montgomerie was appointed
colonel. Although a Lowland regiment, both in name and men, it wore
the Highland dress. Soon after he raised a regiment of the line
called ‘the Glasgow regiment,’ which was disbanded in 1795, the men being
drafted into other regiments. About this time he was appointed
lieutenant-governor of Edinburgh castle, in the room of Lord Elphinstone.
In 1796 he was again returned member of parliament for the county of Ayr,
but almost immediately thereafter he succeeded his cousin, Archibald, in
the earldom of Eglinton.
In 1798 he was
elected one of the representative peers of Scotland, on a vacancy, and
rechosen at the general election in 1802. In 1806 he was raised to the
British peerage by the title of Baron Ardrossan. He was also a Knight of
the Thistle, lord-lieutenant of Ayrshire, and one of the prince of Wales’
state councillors in Scotland.
Distinguished
alike by his good taste and his public spirit, the twelfth earl continued
the valuable improvements of his lands, especially in the neighbourhood of
Kilwinning, which had been begun and carried on by his two immediate
predecessors. He also rebuilt Eglinton castle, a magnificent edifice,
situated on the banks of the Lugton, 2-1/2 miles north of Irvine in
Ayrshire, and 26 from Glasgow. It is of a castellated form, and was built
about the year 1798. A spectator, looking upon it from any part of the
lawns, has high conceptions of its grandeur, and of the taste and opulence
of its proprietor. There is a large circular keep, and at the corners are
circular turrets joined together by a curtain, – to use the language of
fortification. The whole is pierced with modern windows, which in some
degree destroy the castellated effect, but add to the internal comfort.
The interior of the fabric corresponds with the magnitude and the beauty
of the exterior. From a spacious entrance-hall, a saloon opens, 36 feet in
diameter, the whole height of the edifice and lighted from above; and from
this the principal rooms enter. All the apartments are spacious,
well-lighted, and furnished and adorned in the most superb manner. One of
them in the front is 52 feet long, 32 wide, and 24 from floor to ceiling.
Everything about the castle contributes to an imposing display of splendid
elegance and refined taste. Nor are the lawns around it less admired for
their fine woods, varied surfaces, and beautiful scenery. The park is
1,200 acres in extent, and has one-third of its area in plantation.
In the
improvement of the harbour of Ardrossan, at the mouth of the Clyde, the
earl expended upwards of a hundred thousand pounds, and was obliged to
sell several valuable portions of his estate, and to incur a heavy debt,
without accomplishing his object. At his death the works were suspended.
He died on the 15th December 1819, aged eighty years. He had
married his cousin Eleonora, daughter of Robert Hamilton of Bourtreehill,
ayrshire, by whom he had two sons and two daughters. The elder son,
Archibald, Lord Montgomerie, a major-general in the army, died on the 4th
January 1814, at Alicant in Spain, whither he had gone for the benefit of
his health, having had by his wife, Lady Mary Montgomerie above mentioned,
two sons, Hugh, who died when about six years of age, and to whose memory
an elegant column of white marble was erected by his grandfather in a
sequestered spot among the woods near Eglinton castle; and
Archibald-William, thirteenth earl. Their widowed mother took for her
second husband on 13th January 18215, Sir Charles Montolieu
Lamb, baronet, and died 12th June 1848. The Hon. Roger
Montgomerie, the earl’s second son, a lieutenant in the navy, died of
pestilential disease at Port Royal in Jamaica, in January, 1799,
unmarried. The elder daughter, Lady Jane, married in 1828, Edward
Archibald Hamilton, Esq. of Blackhouse, formerly of the Hon. East India
Company’s service. They resided for a long time at Roselle, a seat of the
earl of Eglinton, about two miles from Ayr. Lady Jane Hamilton died in
1859. Lady Lilias, the younger daughter, married first in 1796, Robert
Dundas Macqueen, Esq. of Braxfield, who died in 1816, and secondly, in
1817, Richard Alexander Oswald, Esq. of Auchincruive.
A portrait of
the twelfth earl, in the costume of the West Lowland Fencibles, done by
subscription, is placed in the Justiciary Hall of the county Buildings,
Ayr. It was painted by Sir Henry Raeburn, from the original in Eglinton
castle. He was a brave soldier and a strict disciplinarian, but his
oratorical powers were not of a high order. His character has been thus
correctly depicted by Burns in the ‘Earnest Cry and Prayer,’ as given in
Cunningham’s edition of his works:
“Thee, sodger Hugh, my watchman stented,
If bardies e’er are represented;
I ken, if that your sword were wanted,
Ye’d lend your hand:
But when there’s ought to say anent it
Ye’re at a stand.”
In private life it is
stated that the earl displayed much of the spirit and manners of the
ancient baron. He had the finest horses and equipages in the country. He
was greatly devoted to music, kept his family piper, and performed himself
on the violin with considerable skill. He was the composer of the popular
tunes called ‘Lady Montgomerie’s Reel,’ and ‘Ayrshire Lasses,’ besides
several other admired airs, a selection of which was published by Mr.
Turnbull of Glasgow.
His grandson,
Archibald-William Montgomerie, thirteenth earl, was born 29th
December 1812, at Palermo in Sicily, where his father was at the time in
the command of British troops. His mother, Lady Mary Montgomerie, was his
father’s cousin, and heiress of Archibald, the eleventh earl. In his early
years he was intrusted to the care of his aunt, Lady Jane, and during his
minority the Eglinton estate was relieved of many of the burdens on it. On
obtaining the management of his own affairs in 1833, his lordship
recommenced the works which had been so long suspended at Ardrossan, and
that harbour, to the importance of which the railway betwixt Glasgow and
Ayr adds considerably, is now in a prosperous condition. A circular pier,
900 years in length, covers the harbour on the south and west; while the
Horse Isle – a rock presenting about twelve acres of good pasture –
shelters it on the north-west; and the isthmus of Kintyre, and the island
of Arran protect the channel from the violence of the Atlantic storms.
The Earl of
Eglinton was, at one period, well known on the turf as an eminent
supporter and patron of field sports. In August 1839 he got up at Eglinton
castle a gorgeous pageant, in imitation of the tournaments of the middle
ages, one of the most distinguished actors in which was the price Louis
Napoleon, elected 2d December 1852 emperor of the French. The Queen of
Beauty on the occasion was Lady Seymour, youngest daughter of Thomas
Sheridan, Esq., and grand-daughter of the celebrated Richard Brinsley
Sheridan, sister of the Hon. Mrs. Norton. Her ladyship married lord
Seymour, son and heir of the duke of Somerset, in 1830. In 1840 the earl
of Eglinton was served heir male general of George, fourth earl of Wintoun
(the fifth earl, who was attainted, having left no issue). On the
accession to office of the earl of Derby’s administration in February
1852, Lord Eglinton was appointed to succeed the earl of Clarendon as
lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and remained in that high position until the
earl of Aberdeen became Premier in the following December; he was
reappointed in March 1858, when the earl of Derby resumed office, and
continued in the post till a change of ministry in June 1859. In 1852 he
was sworn a member of the privy council, and in November of the same year
elected lord-rector of the university of Glasgow. He is a doctor of laws
and a doctor of civil law. In 1842 he was appointed lord-lieutenant of
Ayrshire, and was colonel of the Ayrshire militia from 1836 to 1852, when
he resigned. In 1853 he was made a knight of the Thistle, and in June 1859
created earl of Winton in the peerage of the United Kingdom. He married, 1st
in 1841, Theresa, daughter of Charles Newcomen, Esq., and widow of Richard
Howe Cockerel, Esq., Commander, Royal Navy, by whom he had issue,
Archibald-William, Lord Montgomerie, born in 1841; Lady Egidia, born in
1843; Hon. Seton-Montolieu, born in 1846; Hon. George Arnulph, born in
1848. The countess died in 1853, and the earl married, 2dly, in 1858, when
lord-lieutenant of Ireland, Lady Adela-Caroline Harriett Capel, born in
1828, daughter of Arthur Algernon, 6th earl of Essex; issue,
two daughters. The countess died December 31, 1860, after having given
birth to a daughter on the 7th. The earl’s titles are, Baron
Montgomerie (conferred before 1449), earl of Eglinton (before 1508), Baron
Kilwinning (1615), in the peerage of Scotland, and Baron Ardrossan of
Ardrossan (1806), and earl of Winton (1859) in the peerage of the United
Kingdom. He has distinguished himself by promoting agricultural
improvements among his tenantry, and general education among the people on
his estates. He was one of the most popular and enlightened
lords-lieutenant that Ireland has possessed.
Historical
Memoir of the Family of Eglinton and Winton
Together with relative notes and illustrations by John Fullarton, Esq.
(1864) (pdf) |
