STEWART, a surname derived from the high office of steward of the royal household, and distinguished as being that of a race of Scottish kings which occupied the throne of Scotland for upwards of three hundred, and that of England for more than one hundred years. The name is sometimes written Steuart, and by the later royal family of Scotland, Stuart. As various families throughout Scotland, as well as in England and Ireland, bear this surname, some of the principal branches having diverged from the main line at a period antecedent to its becoming royal, it may be assumed that those who retain the original spelling belong to some one or other of these branches, that the families who adopt the spelling of Steuart are offshoots, generally illegitimate, of the royal house previously to Queen Mary, and that the form of Stuart, which was only assumed, for the first time, when that ill-fated princess went to France, is exclusively that of the royal blood. In the death-warrant of Charles I. the name is spelled Steuart.

The first of the family of Stewart is said by Pinkerton to have been a Norman baron named Alan, who obtained from William the Conqueror the barony of Oswestry in Shropshire. He was the son of Flaald, and the father of three sons, William, Walter and Simon. It is from the second that the royal family of Scotland descend.

The eldest son, William, was the progenitor of a race of earls of Arundel, whose title, being territorial, and lands, ultimately went by an heiress into the family of the duke of Norfolk. The two younger sons, Walter and Simon, came to Scotland. Walter was by David I. appointed dapifer, that is, meat-bearer or steward of the royal household; sometimes called seneschallus. Simon was the ancestor of the Boyds, his son, Robert, having been called Boidh, from his yellow hair.

The duties of high-steward comprised the management of the royal household, as well as the collection of the national revenue and the command of the king’s armies, and from the office Walter’s descendants took the name of Stewart.

From David I. (1124-1153) Walter obtained the lands of Renfrew, Paisley, Pollock, Cathcart, and others in that district, and in 1157, King Malcolm IV. granted a charter of confirmation of the same. In 1160, he founded the abbey of Paisley, the monks of which, of the Cluniac order of Reformed Benedictines, were brought from the priory of Wenlock in Shropshire. Walter died in 1177, and was interred in the monastery at Paisley, the burying-place of the Stewarts before their accession to the throne, Renfrew being their usual residence.

Walter’s son and successor, Alan, died in 1204, leaving a son, Walter, who was appointed by Alexander II. justiciary of Scotland, in addition to his hereditary office of high-steward. He died in 1246, leaving four sons and three daughters. Walter, the third son, was earl of Menteith. The eldest son, Alexander, was, in 1255, one of the councilors of Alexander III., then under age, and one of the regents of Scotland. He married Jean, daughter and heiress of James, lord of Bute, grandson of Somerled, and, in her right, he seized both the Isle of Bute and that of Arran. The complaints made to the Norwegian court by Ruari or Roderick of Bute, and the other islanders, of the aggressions of the Scots, led to Haco’s celebrated expedition, and the battle of Largs, 2d October 1263, in which the high-steward commanded the right wing of the Scots army, and the Norwegians were signally defeated. In 1265 the whole of the western isles were ceded by treaty to Scotland.

Alexander had two sons, James, his successor, and John, known as that Sir John Stewart of Bonkill, who fell at the battle of Falkirk in 1298. Under Sir John Stewart, in this battle, were the men of Bute, known at that time by the name of the Lord-high-steward’s Brandanes, and they were almost wholly slain with their valiant leader. Wyntoun says:

“Thare Jhon Stwart a-pon fute,
Wyth hym the Brandanys thare of Bute.”

Sir John Stewart had seven sons. 1. Sir Alexander, ancestor of the Stewarts, earls of Angus. 2. Sir Alan of Dreghorn, of the earls and dukes of Lennox, of the name of Stewart. 3. Sir Walter, of the earls of Galloway. 4. Sir James, of the earls of Athol, Buchan, and Traquair (see these titles), and the Lords Lorn and Innermeath. 5. Sir John, killed at Halidonhill in 1333. 6. Sir Hugh, who fought in Ireland under Edward Bruce. 7. Sir Robert of Daldowie.

James, the elder son of Alexander, succeeded as fifth high-steward in 1283. On the death of Alexander III. in 1286, he was one of the six magnates of Scotland chosen to act as regents of the kingdom. In the subsequent contest for the crown, he was one of the auditors on the part of Robert de Brus, but fought bravely under Sir William Wallace in his memorable attempt to retrieve the national independence. He submitted to Edward I., 9th July 1297. In 1302, with other six ambassadors, he was sent to solicit the aid of the French king against Edward, to whom he was compelled to swear fealty at Lanercost, October 23d, 1306. To render his oath if possible secure, it was taken upon the two crosses of Scotland most esteemed for their sanctity, on the consecrated hose, the holy gospels, and certain relics of saints. He also agreed to submit to instant excommunication if he should break his allegiance to Edward. Convinced that his faith was to his country and not to a usurper, in spite of all, he once more took part in the patriotic cause, and died in the service of Bruce, in 1309.

His son, Walter, the sixth high-steward, when only twenty-one years of age, commanded with Douglas the left wing of the Scots army at the battle of Bannockburn. Soon after, on the liberation of the wife and daughter of Bruce from their long captivity in England, the high-steward was sent to receive them on the borders, and conduct them to the Scottish court. In the following year, King Robert bestowed his daughter, the Princess Marjory, in marriage upon him, and from them the royal house of Stuart and the present dynasty of Great Britain are descended. The lordship of Largs, on the forfeiture of John Baliol, had been conferred by Bruce on the high-steward, and with his daughter he got in dowry an extensive endowment of lands, particularly the barony of Bathgate, Linlithgowshire. The princess died in 1316. According to a local but unauthenticated tradition, she was thrown from her horse and killed at a place called the Knock, near Renfrew, leaving a son, afterwards Robert II.

During the absence in Ireland of his illustrious father-in-law, to the high-steward and Sir James Douglas, Bruce confided the government of the kingdom, and by them the borders were gallantly defended against all the inroads of the English. On the capture of Berwick from the English in 1318, he got the command of that town, which, on 24th July 1319, was laid siege to by Edward II. The English brought formidable engines against the walls, and on these being destroyed by the garrison, the steward rushed from the town, and by a sudden onset beat off the enemy. In 1322, with Douglas and Randolph, he made an attempt to surprise the English king at Biland abbey, near Melton, Yorkshire. Edward, however, escaped, though with the utmost difficulty, to York. Walter pursued him with five hundred horse, and in the spirit of chivalry, waited at the gates till the evening for the enemy to issue forth and renew the combat. He died 9th April 1326, at the castle of Bathgate, one of his chief residences, which was curiously situated in the centre of a bog. At the time of his death he was only thirty-three years of age.

His son, Robert, seventh lord-high-steward, had been declared heir presumptive to the throne in 1318, but the birth of a son to Bruce in 1326 interrupted his prospects for a time. From his grandfather he received large possessions of land in Kintyre. During the long and disastrous reign of David II. the steward acted a patriotic part in defence of the kingdom. At the fatal fight of Halidon-hill in 1333, when little more than seventeen years of age, he commanded the second division of the Scottish army, under the inspection of his father’s brother, Sir James Stewart of Durrisdeer. A short time after, when Scotland was nearly overrun by Edward III., he was forfeited by that monarch, and his office of high-steward given to the English earl of Arundel, who pretended a right to it, in consideration of his descent from the elder brother of Walter, the first steward of the family. Robert Stewart, as he was usually called, “was,” says Fordun, “a comely youth, tall and robust, modest, liberal, gay, and courteous, and, for the innate sweetness of his disposition, generally beloved by all true-hearted Scotsmen.” In 1334, after the temporary success of Edward Baliol, the young steward was forced to conceal himself for a time in Bute. Escaping thence the following year, he recovered his own castle of Dunoon, in Cowal, which had been taken by Baliol. He next reduced the island of Bute, and caused the people of Renfrewshire and Ayrshire to acknowledge David II. On the death, in 1338, of the regent, Sir Andrew Moray of Bothwell, the command of the Scots army devolved upon the steward; and, shortly afterwards, by the treachery of its governor Bulloch, an ecclesiastic whom Baliol had appointed chamberlain of Scotland, he obtained possession of the castle of Cupar in Fife, which the late regent had in vain attempted to take by force. By his exertions, the English were driven from the country, and on the return of David II., then in his eighteenth year, from his nine years’ exile in France, in June 1341, he was enabled to restore to him his kingdom free, and once more established in peace and order. In 1346, when David II. was defeated and taken prisoner at the battle of Durham, the remains of the Scots army were conducted home in safety by the earl of March and the steward of Scotland. The latter, during the imprisonment of the king, was again appointed regent. In 1357, he effected the liberation of the king, his own eldest son being one of the hostages sent to England in his stead. King David, the following year, conferred on him the earldom of Strathern. The king afterwards entered into a disgraceful plot with the English monarch, to have the kingdom of Scotland settled on Prince Lionel, duke of Clarence, a son of the latter. On proposing this to the Scots parliament in 1363, the steward assembled his adherents, to enforce his right of succession, which had been confirmed by a former parliament. The king, on his part, marched with an army against the partisans of the steward, and soon awed them into submission. David, however, was compelled to respect the law of succession as established by King Robert the Bruce; and he conferred the earldom of Carrick, formerly belonging to that monarch, upon the eldest son of the steward, afterwards Robert III. On David’s marriage with the daughter of Sir John Logie in 1368, the steward and his adherents were thrown into prison. On the death of David, without issue, February 22d 1371, the steward, who was at that time fifty-five years of age, succeeded to the crown as Robert II., being the first of the family of Stewart who ascended the throne of Scotland.

The direct male line of the elder branch of the Stewarts terminated with James V., and at the accession of James VI., whose descent on his father’s side was through the earl of Lennox, the head of the second branch, there did not exist a male offset of the family which had sprung from an individual later than Robert II. Widely as some branches of the Stewarts have spread, and numerous as are the families of this name, there is not a lineal male representative of any of the crowned heads of the race, Henry, Cardinal York, who died in 1804, being the last. The crown which came into the Stewart family through a female seems destined ever to be transmitted through a female. From the princess Elizabeth, daughter of James VI., descended, through her daughter, Sophia, electress of Hanover, the present line of British monarchs. The nearest heir of the royal house of Stuart by direct descent is Francis V., grand-duke of Modena, born June 1, 1819 (accession, 1846, ceased to govern, 1859), his mother having been Mary Beatrice, of the royal house of Sardinia. The princess Henrietta, younger daughter of Charles I. of Great Britain, married the duke of Orleans, and had 2 daughters, one of whom married the king of Sardinia, whose elder twin daughter married the duke of Modena.

The male representation or chiefship of the family is claimed by the earl of Galloway; also, by the Stewarts of Castlemilk as descended from a junior branch of Durnley and Lennox.

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STEWART, the name of one of the Scottish clans not originally of Celtic origin. The first and principal seat of the Stewarts was in Renfrewshire, but branches of them penetrated into the western Highlands and Perthshire, and acquiring territories there, became founders of distinct families of the same name. Of these the principal were the Stewarts of Lorn, the Stewarts of Athole, and the Stewarts of Balquhidder, from one or other of which all the rest have been derived. The Stewarts of Lorn were descended from a natural son of John Stewart, the last lord of Lorn, who, with the assistance of the M’Larens, retained forcible possession of part of his father’s estates. From this family sprang the Stewarts of Appin, who, with the Athole branches, were considered in the Highlands as forming the clan Stewart. The badge of the original Stewarts was the oak, and of the royal Stuarts, the thistle.

The district of Appin forms the north-west corner of Argyleshire. In the Ettrick Shepherd’s well-known ballad of ‘The Stewarts of Appin,’ he thus alludes to it:

“I sing of a land that was famous of yore,
The land of green Appin, the ward of the flood,
Where every grey cairn that broods over the shore,
Marks graves of the royal, the valiant, or good;
The land where the strains of grey Ossian were framed, --
The land of fair Selma, and reign of Fingal, --
And late of a race, that with tears must be named,
The noble Clan Stewart, the bravest of all,
Oh-hon a Rei! And the Stewarts of Appin!
The gallant, devoted old Stewarts of Appin!
Their glory is o’er,
For the clan is no more,

And the Sassenach sings on the hills of Green Appin!”

In the end of the fifteenth century, the Stewarts of Appin were vassals of the earl of Argyle in his lordship of Lorn. In 1493 the name of the chief was Dougal Stewart. He was the natural son of John Stewart, the last lord of Lorn, and Isabella, eldest daughter of the first earl of Argyle. The assassination of Campbell of Calder, guardian of the young earl of Argyle, in February 1592, caused a feud between the Stewarts of Appin and the Campbells, the effects of which were long felt. During the civil wars, the Stewarts of Appin ranged themselves under the banners of Montrose, and at the battle of Inverlochy, 2d February 1645, rendered that chivalrous nobleman good service. They and the cause which they upheld were opposed by the Campbells, who possessed the north side of the same parish, a small rivulet, called Con Ruagh, or red bog, from the rough swamp through which it ran, being the dividing line of their lands.

The Stewarts of Appin under their chief, Robert Stewart, engaged in the rebellion of 1715, when they brought 400 men into the field. They were also “out” in 1745, under Stewart of Ardshiel, 300 strong. Some lands in Appin were forfeited on the latter occasion, but were afterwards restored. The principal family is extinct, and their estate has passed to others, chiefly to a family of the name of Downie. There are still, however, many branches of this tribe remaining in Appin. The chief cadets are the families of Ardshiel, Invernahyle, Auchnacrone, Fasnacleich, and Balachulish.

Between the Stewarts of Invernahyle and the Campbells of Dunstaffnage, there existed a bitter feud, and about the beginning of the sixteenth century, the former family were all cut off but one child, the infant son of Stewart of Invernahyle, by the chief of Dunstaffnage, called Cailein Uaine, or Green Colin. The boy’s nurse fled with him to Ardnamurchan, where her husband, the blacksmith of the district, resided. The latter brought him up to his own trade, and at sixteen years of age he could wield two forehammers at once. One in each hand, on the anvil, which acquired for him the name of Domhnull nan ord, or Donald of the hammers. Having made a two-edged sword for him, his foster-father, on presenting it, told him of his birth and lineage, and of the event which was the cause of his being brought to Ardnamurchan. Burning with a desire for vengeance, Donald set off with twelve of his companions, and at a smithy at Corpach in Lochaber, he forged a two-edged sword for each of them. He then proceeded direct Dunstaffnage, where he slew Green Colin and fifteen of his retainers. Having recovered his inheritance, he ever after proved himself “the unconquered foe of the Campbell.” The chief of the Stewarts of Appin being, at the time, a minor, Donald of the hammers was appointed tutor of the clan. He commanded the Stewarts of Appin at the battle of Pinkie in 1547, and on their return homewards from that disastrous field, in a famishing condition, they found in a house at the church of Port of Menteith, some fowls roasting for a marriage party. These they took from the spit, and greedily devoured. They then proceeded on their way. The earl of Menteith, one of the marriage guests, on being apprised of the circumstance, pursued them, and came up with them at a place called Tobernareal. To a taunt from one of his attendants, one of the Stewarts replied by an arrow through the heart. In the conflict that ensued, the earl fell by the ponderous arm of Donald of the hammers, and nearly all his followers were killed. The History of Donald of the Hammers, written by Sir Walter Scott, will be found in the fifth edition of Captain Burt’s Letters.

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The Stewarts of Athole consist almost entirely of the descendants, by his five illegitimate sons, of Sir Alexander Stewart, earl of Buchan, called, from his ferocity, ‘The wolf of Badenoch,’ the fourth son of Robert II., by his first wife, Elizabeth More. One of his natural sons, Duncan Stewart, whose disposition was as ferocious as his father’s, at the head of a vast number of wild Catherans, armed only with the sword and target, descended from the range of hills which divides the counties of Aberdeen and Forfar, and began to devastate the country and murder the inhabitants. Sir Walter Ogilvy, sheriff of Angus, Sir Patrick Gray, and Sir David Lindsay of Glenesk, immediately collected a force to repel them, and a desperate conflict took place at Gasklune, near the water of Isla, in which the former were overpowered, and the greater part of them slain.

James Stewart, another of the Wolf of Badenoch’s natural sons, was the ancestor of the family of Stewart of Garth, from which proceed almost all the other Athole Stewarts. A battle is traditionally said to have been fought in Glenlyon between the M’Ivers, who claimed it as their territory, and Stewart of Garth, commonly called ‘the fierce wolf,’ the brother of the earl of Buchan, which terminated in the utter defeat of the M’Ivers, and their expulsion from the district. The Garth family became extinct in the direct line, by the death of General David Stewart, author of a History of the Highlands, a memoir of whom is given below. The possessions of the Athole Stewarts lay mainly on the north side of Loch Tay.

The Balquhidder Stewarts derive their origin fro illegitimate branches of the Albany family.

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The Stewarts of Grandtully, Perthshire, are descended from James Stewart of Pierston and Warwickhill, Ayrshire, who fell at Dupplin in 1332, 4th son of Sir James Stewart of Bonkill, son of Alexander 4th lord-high-steward of Scotland. Of this family was Thomas Stewart of Balcaskie, Fifeshire, a lord of session, created a baronet of Nova Scotia, June 2, 1683.

His son, Sir George Stewart, 2d bart., inherited Grandtully, and died without issue. His brother, Sir John Stewart, 3d bart., an officer of rank in the army, married, 1st, Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Sir James Mackenzie of Royston, and had by her an only surviving son, Sir John, 4th baronet; 2dly, Lady Jane Douglas, only daughter of James, marquis of Douglas, and his son, by her, Archibald Stewart, after a protracted litigation, succeeded to the immense estates of his uncle, the last duke of Douglas, and assuming that name, was created a peer of the United Kingdom by the title of Baron Douglas. Title extinct on the death of the 4th Lord Douglas in 1857. Sir John Stewart married, 3dly, Helen, a daughter of the 4th Lord Elibank, without issue. He died in 1764.

His son, Sir John, 4th bart., died in 1797.

Sir John’s eldest son, Sir George, 5th bart., married Catherine, eldest daughter of John Drummond, Esq. of Logie Almond, and died in 1827, leaving 5 sons and 2 daughters.

The eldest son, Sir John, 6th bart., died without issue, May 20, 1838.

His brother, Sir William Drummond Stewart, born Dec. 25, 1795, succeeded as 7th baronet. He served in the 15th Hussars in the campaign of 1815, and is a knight of the order of Christ of Italy and Portugal; married in 1830; issue, a son, William George, captain 93d Highlanders, born in Feb. 1831.

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The family of Stewart, now Shaw Stewart of Blackhall and Greenock, Renfrewshire, is descended from Sir John Stewart, one of the natural sons of Robert III. From his father Sir John received three charters of the lands of Ardgowan, Blackhall, and Auchingoun, all in Renfrewshire, dated 1390, 1396, and 1404. Sir Archibald Stewart of Blackhall, the fifth from Sir John, was one of the commissioners to parliament for the shire of Renfrew, in the reign of Charles I., by whom he was made one of his privy council, and knighted. He was also of the privy council of Charles II., when in Scotland in 1650. He died in 1658. His grandson, Sir Archibald Stewart of Blackhall, was created a baronet of Nova Scotia, 27th March 1667. He had three sons and a daughter. His youngest son, Walter Stewart of Stewarthill, which estate he purchased in 1719, was solicitor-general for Scotland.

The eldest son, Sir John Stewart of Blackhall, the second baronet of the family, was one of the commissioners for Renfrewshire to the union parliament. His son, Sir Michael Stewart, the third baronet, was admitted advocate in 1735. He married Helen, daughter of Sir John Houston of Houston, by his wife, Margaret Shaw, only daughter of Sir John Shaw of Greenock, and of Dame Eleanor Nicolson, daughter of Sir Thomas Nicolson of Carnock. With two daughters, Sir Michael had three sons. 1. Sir John, who, on the death of his grand-uncle, Sir John Shaw of Greenock, in 1752, without male issue, inherited the entailed estate of Greenock, consisting of the conjoined baronies of Easter and Wester Greenock, as also Finnart. 2. Houston, who, on the death of Sir John Houston, succeeded to the entailed estate of Carnock, and assumed the additional surname of Nicolson. His only son, Michael, succeeded as fifth baronet. 3. Archibald, who purchased an estate in Tobago in 1770, and was killed in 1779, in repulsing some American privateers who had landed and burnt two plantations on that island.

The eldest son, Sir John Shaw Stewart of Greenock and Blackhall, became fourth baronet on his father’s death, 20th October 1796. He was M.P. for Renfrewshire, and dying without issue, in August 1812, was succeeded by his nephew, Sir Michael Shaw Stewart, fifth baronet. The latter was lord-lieutenant of the county of Renfrew, and died in August 1825. He married his cousin, Catherine, youngest daughter of Sir William Maxwell, baronet, of Springkell, and had six sons and three daughters. His third son, Rear-admiral Sir Houston Stewart, K.C.B., born at Springkell in 1791, was educated at Chiswick. He entered the navy in 1805, and served under the earl of Dundonald, then Lord Cochrane. He was at the siege of Flushing, and commanded the Benbow at the bombardment of St. Jean d’Acre. In 1846 he held the temporary command at Woolwich for a few months. In November of that year he was appointed comptroller-general of the coast guard, an office which he held till February 1850, when he became a lord of the admiralty. In 1851 he attained the rank of rear-admiral, and in February 1852 was elected M.P. for Greenwich, but only retained his place in parliament till July of that year, and in the following December he ceased to be a lord of the admiralty. In 1855 he was created a knight commander of the Bath, for his services as second in command of the naval forces off Sebastopol in that year. In 1858 he was appointed a vice-admiral of the white. He married a daughter of Sir William Miller of Glenlee, bart., issue 4 sons.

The eldest son, Sir Michael Shaw Stewart, 6th baronet, was M.P., first for Lanarkshire and afterwards for Renfrewshire, and died Dec. 19, 1836. By his wife, Eliza Mary, only child of Robert Farquhar, Esq. of Newark, Renfrewshire, he had 6 children, three of whom were daughters.

His eldest son, Sir Michael Robert Shaw Stewart, 7th bart., born in 1826, is 17th in direct male descent from the founder of the family. Educated at Christ Church, Oxford, and formerly lieutenant 2d Life-guards; he married, in 1852, Lady Octavia Grosvenor, daughter of 2d marquis of Westminster; issue, 2 sons and 2 daughters; is a magistrate and deputy-lieutenant of Renfrewshire, and was M.P. for that county in 1855. His elder son, Michael Hugh, was born in 1854. Sir Michael’s next brother, John Archibald, inherited Carnock.

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The Stewarts of Drumin, Banffshire, now of Belladrum, Inverness-shire, trace their descent from Sir Walter Stewart of Strathaven, knighted for his services at the battle of Harlaw in 1411, one of the illegitimate sons of the Wolf of Badenoch, and consequently of royal blood. The representative of the family, John Stewart, Esq. of Belladrum, born 29th May 1784, was M.P. for Beverley in the last parliament of George IV. He died in 1860. He had 2 sons and 2 daughters. Sons: 1. Charles, born in 1817, appointed in 1839 to the East India Company’s civil service. 2. John Henry Fraser, born in 1821, formerly an officer in the army.

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The Stewarts of Binnie, Linlithgowshire, descend from Sir Robert Stewart of Tarbolton and Cruickston, 2d son of Walter, 3d high-steward and justiciary of Scotland, in the reign of Alexander II. The lands of Binnie were purchased by Robert Stewart, advocate, the 12th of the family. Previously to his time the family designations were, of Torbane and Raiss, Halrig, and Shawood. The representative of the family, John Stewart of Binnie, born March 4, 1776, at one period a captain in the East India Company’s maritime service, succeeded his elder brother, Robert Stewart, in 1802.

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The Stewarts of St. Fort, Fifeshire, representatives of the old family of Stewart of Urrard, Perthshire, are descended from John, another natural son of the Wolf of Badenoch. John Stewart of Urrard, the fifth of the family, had, besides James his heir, another son, who died in childhood, of fright during the battle of Killiecrankie, which was fought beside the mansion-house of Urrard in 1689. The elder son, James Stewart of Urrard, had, with other children, a daughter, Jean, called Minay n’m lean, the wife of Niel M’Glashan of Clune. She is said to have acted a distinguished part in Stirling castle, after the battle of Sheriffmuir in 1715. Robert Stewart of this family, born in 1746, was a captain in the East India Company’s service, on the staff of General Clavering. On his return to Scotland he purchased the estates of Castle Stewart in Wigtownshire, and St. Fort in Fifeshire, the former of which was afterwards sold. By his wife, Ann Stewart, daughter of Henry Balfour of Dinbory, he had, with two daughters, three sons. 1. Archibald Campbell, who succeeded him, and died unmarried. 2. Henry, who succeeded his brother. 3. William, an officer in the Coldstream guards, who assumed the surname of Balfour, in addition to Stewart, in conformity to the will of his maternal uncle, Lieutenant-general Nisbet Balfour.

Henry Stewart of St. Fort, born in 1796, married, in 1837, Jane, daughter of James Fraser, Esq. of Calderskell, issue 2 sons. Robert Balfour, the elder, was born in 1838.

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The Stewarts of Physgill and Glenturk, Wigtownshire, descend from John Stewart, parson of Kirkmahoe, 2d son of Sir Alexander Stewart of Garlies, who died in 1590.

Agnes, only child of Lieutenant Robert Stewart, R.N., and grand-daughter of John Stewart of Physgill, succeeded to both the estates of Physgill and Glenturk, the latter in right of her mother, Agnes Stewart, heiress of Robert Stewart of Glenturk. IN 1740 she married John Hathorn of Over Airies, in the same county, and had a son, Robert Hathorn Stewart, who succeeded his mother. This gentleman married, in 1794, Isabella, only daughter of Sir Stair Agnew, of Lochnaw, bart.; issue 2 sons and 2 daughters. He died Nov. 7, 1818.

His elder son, Stair Hathorn Stewart, Esq. of Physgill, born in 1796, was educated at Oxford; a magistrate and a deputy-lieutenant and convener of the county of Wigtown. He married, 1st, in 1820, Margaret, only daughter of James Johnston of Straiton, issue, a son and a daughter; 2dly, in 1826, Helen, youngest daughter of the Right Hon. Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster, bart., issue, 2 sons and 2 daughters; 3dly, in 1846, Jane Rothes, daughter of John Maitland, Esq. of Freugh, Wigtownshire. His eldest son, Robert Hathorn Johnston, born in 1824, an officer 93d Highlanders, succeeded, in 1841, on the death of his uncle, James Johnston, Esq. of Straiton, to his entailed estates in Mid Lothian and West Lothian, and in consequence assumed the additional name of Johnston. He married, 1st, in 1851, Ellen, daughter of Archibald Douglas, Esq. of Glenfinnart, Argyleshire; 2dly, in 1856, Anne, daughter of Sir William Maxwell, of Monreith, baronet.

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The Stewarts of Coll and Knockrioch, Argyleshire, were formerly designed of Benmore, Perthshire. The present representative, John Lorne Stewart, Esq., born in 1800, is the eldest son of Duncan Stewart, Esq. of Glenbuckie, by Margaret, daughter of Duncan Stewart, Esq. of Ardsheal. He married, in 1831, Mary, daughter of Archibald Campbell, Esq. with issue. Is a magistrate for Perthshire, and a deputy-lieutenant of Argyleshire. His son and heir, Duncan, born in 1834, married, in 1858, Ferooza Margaret, daughter of Sir John M’Neill, G.C.B.

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In the stewartry of Kirkcudbright are the families of Stewart of Shambelly, and Stewart of Cairnsmore.

William Stewart, Esq. of Shambelly, born in 1815, eldest son of William Stewart, Esq. of Shambelly, by Bertha, daughter of Charles Donaldson, Esq. of Broughton, succeeded in 1844. In 1841 he was appointed a deputy-lieutenant of the stewartry, and, in 1846, major in the Galloway militia, but resigned in 1854. In 1845 he married Katherine, daughter of John Hardie, Esq. Heir, his son, William, born in 1848.

Lieutenant-Colonel James Stewart, 42d Highlanders, younger of the two sons of Charles Stewart of Shambelly, had an only child, Williamina Helen Stewart, who married Colonel James John Forbes Leith of Whitehaugh, Aberdeenshire, the representative of the Tolquhoun Forbeses.

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The Stewarts of Ardvoirlich, Perthshire, are descended from James Stewart, called James the Gross, 4th and only surviving son of Murdoch, duke of Albany, regent of Scotland, beheaded in 1425. On the ruin of his family he fled to Ireland, where, by a lady of the name of Macdonald, he had seven sons and one daughter. James II. created Andrew, the eldest son, Lord Avandale.

James, the third son, ancestor of the Stewarts of Ardvoirlich, married Annabel, daughter of Buchanan of that ilk.

His son, William Stewart, who succeeded him, married Mariota, daughter of Sir Colin Campbell of Glenorchy, ancestor of the marquis of Breadalbane, and had several children. From one of his younger sons, John, the family of Stewart of Glenbuckie, and from another, that of Stewart of Gartnaferaran, both in Perthshire, were descended.

His eldest son, Walter Stewart, succeeded his father, and married Euphemia, daughter of James Reddoch of Cultobraggan, comptroller of the household of James IV.

His son, Alexander Stewart of Ardvoirlich, married Margaret, daughter of Drummond of Drummond Erinoch, and had tow sons, James, his successor, and John, ancestor of the Perthshire families of Stewart of Annat, Stewart of Ballachallan, and Stewart of Craigtoun.

The elder son, James Stewart of Ardvoirlich, rendered himself remarkable by the assassination of his friend Lord Kilpont, son of the earl of Airth and Menteth, in Montrose’s camp, near Collace, Sept. 5, 1644. After the bloody deed Stewart joined the earl of Argyle, then in arms against Montrose, and was appointed a major in his army. He afterwards distinguished himself, on the side of the Covenanters, in Leslie’s campaigns. He married Barbara Murray of Buchanty, Perthshire, with issue.

His eldest son, Robert Stewart of Ardvoirlich, married Jean, daughter of David Drummond of Comrie, and had two sons, James and William. The latter married Jean, daughter of Patrick Stewart of Glenbuckie, and was father of Robert Stewart, who, on the death of his first cousin, inherited Ardvoirlich.

The elder son, James Stewart of Ardvoirlich, married Elizabeth, only child of John Buchanan, last of Buchanan.

His son, Robert Stewart of Ardvoirlich, died unmarried, in 1756, when his cousin, Robert, succeeded. This gentleman married Margaret, daughter of John Stewart of Annat.

His son, William Stewart of Ardvoirlich, married, in 1797, Helen, eldest daughter of James Maxtone of Cultoquhey, and had two sons, Robert and William Murray, and a daughter.

The elder son, Robert Stewart of Ardvoirlich, succeeded his father Feb. 26, 1838, and died, unmarried, July 16, 1854.

He was succeeded by his nephew, William Stewart, who was the eldest of 7 sons of William Murray Stewart, Bengal Infantry, younger son of William Stewart of Ardvoirlich. He was an officer in the Bengal Artillery, and died in 1857.

His next brother, Robert, born in 1829, succeeded him. Heir, his brother, John, lieutenant Bengal Artillery, born in 1833.

[Preserved at Ardvoirlich, for centuries, is a lump of pure white rock crystal, about the size and shape of an egg, bound with four bands of silver, of very antique workmanship, and known by the Gaelic name of Clach Dearg, the red stone, arising probably from a reddish tinge it seems to assume when held up to the light. The water in which the stone has been dipped was formerly ignorantly considered a sovereign remedy in all diseases of cattle.]

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The family of Stewart of Tonderghie, Wigtownshire, is a branch of the noble house of Galloway, their progenitor being Sir William Stewart of Dalswinton and Garlies, who was living in 1479. He obtained Minto, in 1429, after much opposition from the Turnbulls, the former possessors. He had 4 sons. 1. Andrew, who predeceased his father. 2. Alexander, who succeeded. 3. Sir Thomas Stewart of Minto, ancestor of the Lords Blantyre, the Marquises of Londonderry, in Ireland, and other families. 4. Walter, of Tonderghie, from whom the Stewarts of Shambelly, the Earls of Blessington in Ireland, and other families are descended.

In direct descent from Walter was Alexander Stewart of Tonderghie, who, in 1694, married Janet, daughter of Hugh M’Guffog, or M’ Guffock, of Rusco Castle. Their son left an only daughter, Harriet, who married Colonel Dun. The property being entailed, male or female, Colonel Dun had to assume the surname of Stewart. This was the first deviation from the direct male line. The next in succession in the entail was Captain Robert M’Kerlie, through his grandmother, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Alexander Stewart of Tonderghie. (See M’KERLIE.)

Colonel Dun Stewart left a son, Hugh, and a daughter, Harriet. The son, Hugh, the present representative, a deputy-lieutenant of Wigtownshire, served as major of the Galloway militia. The daughter, Harriet, married John Simson of Barrachan, with issue.

STEWART, DR. MATTHEW, professor of mathematics in the university of Edinburgh, the son of the Rev. Dugald Stewart, minister of Rothesay, in the Isle of Bute, was born at that place in 1717. After receiving his elementary education at the grammar school, being intended by his father for the church, he was sent to the university of Glasgow, where he was entered a student in 1734. He made great progress in mathematics, under the celebrated Dr. Simson, whose predilection for the ancient geometry he fully adopted. In 1741 he went to Edinburgh to attend the university lectures there; and, after having been duly licensed, became minister of Roseneath. In 1746 he published his ‘General Theorems,’ which, although given without the demonstrations, are of considerable use in the higher parts of mathematics, and at once placed their discoverer among geometricians of the first rank. In September 1747 he was elected to the vacant chair of mathematics in the university of Edinburgh. In this situation he still more systematically pursued the object which of all others he most ardently wished to obtain, namely, the application of geometry to such problems as the algebraic calculus alone had been thought able to resolve. His first specimen of this kind, the solution of Kepler’s problem, appeared in the second volume of the ‘Essays of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh,’ for 1756; and in the first volume of the same collection are some other propositions by him. In 1761 he published his ‘Tracts, Physical and Mathematical,’ in farther prosecution of his plan of introducing into the higher branches of mixed mathematics the strict and simple form of ancient demonstration. The transit of Venus, which took place the same year, led to his essay on the ‘Distance of the Sun from the Earth,’ which he published in 1763; and although the correctness of his computation was disputed in some important points, he declined entering into any controversy on the subject. A few months previously he had produced his ‘Propositiones Geometriciae More Veterum Demonstratae,’ consisting of a series of geometrical theorems, mostly new, and investigated by the analytical method of the ancient geometers. Soon after, his health began to decline. IN 1772 he retired to the country, where he spent the remainder of his life, pursuing his mathematical researches as an amusement; his duties in the university being performed by his son, the afterwards celebrated Dugald Stewart, who, in 1775, was associated with him in the professorship. Dr. Stewart died January 23, 1785, at the age of 68. His works are:

General Theorems, of considerable use in the higher parts of Mathematics. Edin. 1746, 8vo.
A Solution of Kepler’s Problem. Edin. 1756, 8vo.
Tracts, Physical and Mathematical; containing an explanation of several important Points in Physical Astronomy, and a new Method of ascertaining the Sun’s distance from the Earth by the Theory of Gravitation. Lond. 1761-3, 8vo.
Distance of the Sun from the Earth determined by the Theory of Gravitation, together with several other things relative to the same subject; being a supplement to his Physical and Mathematical Tracts. Edin. 1763, 8vo. The same, 1764, 8vo.
Propositiones Geometricae more veterum demonstratae, ad Geometriam antiquam illustrandam et promavendam idoneae. Edin. 1763, 8vo.
Pappi Alexandrini Collectionum Mathematicarum libri quarti, Propositio quarta generalior facta; cui Propositiones aliquot eodem spectantes adjiciuntur. Ess. Phys. And Lit. i. p. 141. 1754. – Solution of Kepler’s Problem. Ib, ii. p. 116.

STEWART, DUGALD, a distinguished writer on ethics and metaphysics, was born in the college of Edinburgh, Nov. 22, 1753. He was the only son, who survived the age of infancy, of Dr. Matthew Stewart, professor of mathematics in that university, and Marjory, daughter of Archibald Stewart, Esq. of Catrine, Ayrshire, writer to the signet. At the age of seven he was sent to the High School, and, in October 1766, was entered a student at the college of his native city, where his studies were chiefly directed to history, logic, metaphysics, and morals. IN 1771 he removed to the university of Glasgow, to attend the lectures of the celebrated Dr. Reid; and during the session he composed his admirable Essay on Dreams, first published in the first volume of the ‘Philosophy of the Human Mind,’ in 1792.

The declining state of his father’s health compelled him, in the autumn of 1772, to return to Edinburgh, and officiate in his stead to the mathematical class in the university, a task for which, at the early age of nineteen, he was fully qualified. When he had completed his twenty-first year he was appointed assistant and successor to his father, on whose death, in 1785, he was nominated to the vacant chair. In 1778, during Dr. Adam Ferguson’s absence in America, he supplied his place in the moral philosophy class. In 1780 he received a number of young noblemen and gentlemen, as pupils into his house, and, in 1783, he visited Paris in company with the marquis of Lothian. On his return, he married, the same year, Helen, daughter of Neil Bannatyne, Esq., merchant in Glasgow, by whom he had one son. In 1785 he exchanged his chair for that of moral philosophy, to allow Dr. Ferguson to retire on the salary of mathematical professor, and thenceforth devoted himself almost exclusively to the prosecution and culture of intellectual science. In 1787 his wife died, and the following summer he again visited the continent, with Mr. Ramsay of Barnton. In 1790 he married Helen D’Arcy Cranstoun, a daughter of the Hon. George Cranstoun, and authoress of the song, ‘The tears I shed must ever fall.’

In 1793 he read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh his Account of the Life and Writings of Dr. Adam Smith, and the same year he published the ‘Outlines of Moral Philosophy,’ for the use of his students. In March, 1796, he communicated to the royal Society his account of the Life and Writings of Dr. Robertson, and, in 1802, that of the Life and Writings of Dr. Reid. The Memoirs of Smith, Reid, and Robertson, were afterwards collected into one volume, and published with additional notes. In 1796 he again took a number of pupils into his house, and, in 1800, he added a course of lectures on political economy to the usual course of his chair. So extensive were his acquirements, and so ready his talent for communicating knowledge, that his colleagues frequently availed themselves of his assistance in lecturing to their classes, in cases of illness or absence. In addition to his own academical duties he repeatedly supplied the place of Dr. John Robison, professor of natural philosophy. He taught for several months during one winter the Greek classes of Professor Dalzel; he more than one season taught the mathematical classes for Mr. Playfair; he delivered some lectures on logic during an illness of Dr. Finlayson, and he, one winter, lectured for some time on Belles Lettres for the successor of Dr. Blair.

In 1806 he accompanied the earl of Lauderdale, when he went on a political mission to Paris. On the accession of the Whig administration, in that year, a sinecure office, that of gazette-writer for Scotland, was created for the express purpose of rewarding Mr. Stewart for the services he had rendered to philosophy and education, the salary being £300 a-year. “Mr. Stewart’s personal character and philosophical reputation,” says his biographer, Mr. Veitch, “rendered his house the resort of the best society of Edinburgh, at a time when the city formed the winter residence of many of the Scottish families.” Colonel Stewart, referring to this period, speaks of his father’s house “as the resort of all who were most distinguished for genius, acquirements, or elegance in Edinburgh, and of all the foreigners who were led to visit the capital of Scotland.” “From an early period of life,” he continued, “he had frequented the best society both in France and in this country, and he had, in a peculiar degree, the air of good company. The immense range of his erudition, the attention he had bestowed on almost every branch of philosophy, his extensive acquaintance with every department of elegant literature, ancient or modern, and the fund of anecdote and information which he had collected in the course of his intercourse with the world, with respect to almost all the eminent men of the day, either in this country or in France, enabled him to find suitable subjects for the entertainment of the great variety of his visitors of all descriptions, who at one period frequented his house.” He held the first place as a powerful and impressive lecturer, and his popularity as a lecturer increased to the last. Among his students were found, not only the youth of Scotland, but many, and some of the highest rank, from England. The continent of Europe and America likewise furnished a large proportion of pupils. “As a public speaker,” says the writer of his biography in the Annual Obituary of 1829, “he was justly entitled to rank among the very first of his day; and, had an adequate sphere been afforded for the display of his oratorical powers, his merit as an orator would have sufficed to procure him an eternal reputation. The ease, the grace, and the dignity of his action; the compass and harmony of his voice, its flexibility, and variety of intonation; the truth with which its modulation responded to the impulse of his feelings, and the sympathetic emotions of his audience; the clear and perspicuous arrangement of his matter; the swelling and uninterrupted flow of his periods, and the rich stores of ornament which he used to borrow from the literature of Greece and Rome, of France and England, and to interweave with his spoken thoughts with the most apposite application, were perfections not possessed by any of the most celebrated orators of the age. His own opinions were maintained without any overweening partiality; his eloquence came so warm from the heart, was rendered so impressive by the evidence which it bore of the love of truth, and was so free from all controversial acrimony, that what has been remarked of the purity of purpose which inspired the speeches of Brutus, might justly be applied to all that he spoke and wrote.” His portrait is subjoined: --

[portrait of Dugald Stewart]

In 1810 he relinquished his professorship, and removed to Kinneil House, a seat belonging to the duke of Hamilton, on the banks of the Firth of Forth, where he spent the remainder of his days in retirement. He was a member of the Academies of Sciences at St. Petersburg and Philadelphia, and other learned bodies. He died at Edinburgh, June 11, 1828, and was buried in the Canongate churchyard. A monument to his memory stands on the Calton Hill, Edinburgh. He left a widow and two children, a son and a daughter, the former of whom, Lieutenant-colonel Matthew Stewart, has published an able pamphlet on Indian affairs. His widow, who holds a high place among the writers of Scottish sons, survived her husband ten years, dying July 28, 1838. She was the sister of the Countess Purgstall, the subject of Captain Basil Hall’s ‘Schloss Hainfeld,’ and of Mr. George Cranstoun, advocate, afterwards Lord Corehouse. Dugald Stewart’s works are:

Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind. Lond. 1792, 4to. Likewise in 8vo. Edin. 1814, vol. 1st, 8vo, vol. 2d, 4to.
Outlines of Moral Philosophy; for the use of Students in the University of Edinburgh. Edin. 1793, 8vo.
Dr. Adam Smith’s Essays on Philosophical Subjects; with an Account of the Life and Writings of the author. Lond. 1794, 4to.
Account of the Life and Writings of William Robertson, D.D. Lond. 1801, 8vo.
Account of the Life and Writings of Thomas Reid, D.D. Edin. 1803, 8vo.
Statement of Facts relative to the Election of a Mathematical Professor in the University of Edinburgh; accompanied with original papers and critical remarks. Edin. 1805, 3d edit. 8vo.
Postscript to a Statement of Facts relative to the election of Professor Leslie; with an Appendix, consisting chiefly of Extracts from the Records of the University and fro those of the City of Edinburgh. Edin. 1806, 8vo.
Philosophical Essays. Edin. 1810, 4to.
Biographical Memoirs of Adam Smith, LL.D., William Robertson, D.D., and Thomas Reid, D.D.; now collected into one volume, with additional Notes. Edin. 1811, 4to.
Some Account of a Boy born Blind and Deaf. 1812, 4to.
Supplement to the fourth and fifth editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, with a Preliminary Dissertation, exhibiting a General View of the Progress of Metaphysical, Ethical, and Political Philosophy, since the revival of Letters in Europe. Edin. 1816, 4to.
The continuation of the second part of the Philosophy of the Human Mind. 1827.
The Philosophy of the Active and Moral Powers of Man. Third volume of the Philosophy of the Human Mind. 1828.
Works in ten volumes, edited by Sir William Hamilton, Baronet, with an original Memoir of the Author. Edin. 1855-7.

STEWART, DAVID, of Garth, a major-general in the army, and popular writer on the Highlanders, was the second son of Robert Stewart, Esq. of Garth, in Perthshire, where he was born in 1772. In 1789 he entered the 42d regiment as an ensign, and in 1792 was appointed lieutenant. He served in the campaigns of the duke of York in Flanders, and was present at the siege of Nieuport and the defence of Nimeguen. In October 1795, his regiment forming part of the expedition under Sir Ralph Abercromby, he embarked for the West Indies, where he was actively engaged in a variety of operations against the enemy’s settlements, particularly in the capture of St. Lucia; and was afterwards employed for seven months in unremitting service in the woods against the Caribbs in St. Vincent. In 1706 he was promoted to the rank of captain- lieutenant, and in 1797 he served in the expedition against Porto Roco; after which he returned to England; but was almost immediately ordered to join the head-quarters of his regiment at Gibraltar. In 1799 he accompanied the expedition against Minorca; but was taken prisoner at sea, and after being detained for five months in Spain was exchanged. In December 1800 he was promoted to the rank of captain, a step which, like all his subsequent ones, was given him for his services alone. In 1801 he received orders to join Sir Ralph Abercromby against Egypt. At the landing in the Bay of Aboukir, on the morning of March 8, 1801, he was one of the first who leaped on shore from the boats; and by his gallant bearing he contributed greatly to the dislodging of the enemy from their position on the Sandhills. He also distinguished himself in the celebrated action of the 21st March, where he received a severe wound, which prevented him from taking part in the subsequent operations of the campaign.

Some time after his return from Egypt, he recruited, as was then the custom, for his majority, and such was his popularity among his countrymen, that, in less than three weeks, he raised his contingent of 125 men. He now, in 1804, entered the second battalion of the 78th or Ross-shire Highlanders, with the rank of major, and in September 1805 accompanied the regiment to Gibraltar, where it continued to perform garrison duty till the ensuing May, when it embarked for Sicily, to join in the descent which General Sir John Stuart was then mediating on Calabria. At the battle of Maida, July 4, 1806, where he greatly distinguished himself, he was again severely wounded, which forced him to retire from the field, and ultimately to return to Britain. In April 1808 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, with a regimental appointment to the third West India Rangers, then in Trinidad. In 1810 he was present at the capture of Guadaloupe, for which service, and that at Maida, he was rewarded with a medal and one clasp, and was subsequently appointed a companion of the Bath. In 1814 he became colonel, and the year following retired upon half-pay.

In 1822 he published his well-known ‘Sketches of the Character, Manners, and present State of the Highlanders of Scotland, with details of the Military Service of the Highland Regiments,’ a most interesting work, which added greatly to his reputation. A few months after, he succeeded to the patrimonial inheritance of his family, by the deaths, within a short period of each other, of his father and elder brother. The success of his ‘Sketches,’ and an ardent desire to do justice to the history and character of the Highland clans, induced him to commence collecting materials for a history of the Rebellion of 1745; but the difficulties he encountered in obtaining accurate information soon caused him to abandon the task. In 1825 he was promoted to the rank of major-general, and soon after was appointed governor and commander-in-chief of the island of St. Lucia, in the capture of which from the French he had formerly assisted. He died at St. Lucia, of fever, December 18, 1829, while actively occupied with many important improvements which he had projected for the prosperity of the island.