BALCARRES, earl of, a title formerly possessed by a principal branch of the ancient and noble family of Lindsay, and now held by the chief of the name. (See LINDSAY, surname of.) The first of the family of Balcarres was John Lindsay, the second son of Sir David Lindsay of Edzell and Glenesk in Forfarshire, ninth earl of Crawford, who died in 1558. (See CRAWFORD, earl of.) John Lindsay was born in 1552, and, with his elder brother David, was, at the proper age, sent to pursue his studies in France, under the care of Mr. James Lawson, afterwards the well-known colleague of John Knox in the ministry of Edinburgh. On the troubles breaking out between the Huguenots and the Catholics, they were obliged to fly from Paris at a moment’s warning, leaving their books behind them, and saving nothing but the clothes on their backs. They took refuge at first at Dieppe, but on the capture of that town, they passed over to England, and ultimately went to the university of Cambridge. (Lives of the Lindsays, vol. i. pp. 831, 332.) In conformity with the practice of the age, whereby the nobility and barons took possession of the temporalities which, before the Reformation, belonged to the Romish clergy, the revenues of the rectories of Menmuir, Lethnot, and Locblee, in Forfarshire, livings in the gift of the family of Edzell, had been settled upon John Lindsay, while yet a child, and in consequence he took the title, familiar to every Scottish antiquary, of Parson of Menmuir. He had also the teinds, or tithes, of certain parishes, and a pension of two hundred pounds annually out of the bishopric of St. Andrews, by writ under the privy seal, 11th July 1576; and the small estate of Drumcairn, in Forfarshire, was settled upon him. (Ibid. p. 834.) Having applied himself to the study of the law, he was appointed a lord of session, 5th July 1581, before he was thirty years of age, when he assumed the judicial title of Lord Menmuir. Sibbald styles him "a wise and learned person." (History of Fife, p. 358.) In 1587 he purchased the lands of Balcarres, in the parish of Kilconquhar, Fifeshire, with Balneill, Pitcorthie, and other lands in that county, and, 10th June 1592 he obtained a royal charter uniting them in a free barony in his favour; an estate, which, says Lord Lindsay, with the lands of Balmakin and Innerdovat in Forfarshire, formed the original patrimony of the Balcarres family. (Lives of the Lindsays, vol. i. p. 337.) In 1587, Lord Menmuir’s name appears prominently as member of different public commissions, He was the framer of the acts passed in that year, "anent the form and order of parliament," "anent the vote of the barons," and other acts which modified the constitution of the Scottish parliament, and abridged the power of the higher nobility, in admitting the lesser barons to a voice in parliament by their commissioners. (See BARON, title and privileges of.) In October 1591, he was appointed one of the queen’s four master stabulars, or managers of her revenues, the three others being Seyton, afterwards Lord Chancellor and first earl of Dunferrnline; Elphinstone, first lord Balmerinoch; and Hamilton, first earl of Haddington. In June 1592 Lord Menmuir was appointed for life " Master of the Metals" and minerals within the kingdom, "an appointment," says Lord Lindsay, "sanctioned by extensive powers, and the object of which was the increase of revenue to the crown, by the exploration of the mineral wealth of Scotland, more especially the gold mines of Crawfordmoor on the lands granted by the Lindsays, above three hundred and fifty years before, to the monks of Newbattle. But this resource was found unproductive, or at least the necessary preliminary outlay was too expensive." (Lives of the Lindsays, vol. i. p. 351.) In January 1595 his lordship was appointed one of the eight commissioners of the exchequer, called the Octavians, in whom the control and management of the treasury and the administration of public affairs were vested, with unlimited powers, after the death of Chancellor Maitland. In March of the same year (1595) Lord Menmuir was appointed lord keeper of the privy seal, and on the 28th May 1596 secretary of state for life. "In this capacity," says Lord Lindsay, quoting the Balcarres papers in the Advocates’ Library, "the correspondence and complicated negotiations with foreign powers, for the object of securing their support of James in the event of his succession to the throne of England, fell to the conduct and guidance of Lord Menmuir." (Lives of the Lindsays, vol. i. p. 356.) He was the chief confidant and adviser of the king in his attempts to restore episcopacy, and in 1596 drew up a "plat," or scheme, for "planting" the whole kirks throughout Scotland with perpetual local stipends,—a scheme which, according to James Melville, who has inserted it at full length in his Diary, (p. 223.) "was thought the best and maist exact that ever was devisit or sett down, and wald, sum little things amendit, haiff bein gladlie receavit be the breithring of best judgment, gif in the monethe of August ther haid nocht bein ane Act of Esteattis devysit anent the renewing of the takes of teinds to the present takismen for thair granting to the perpetuall plat, quhilk in effect maid the teinds in all tyme cumming heritable to them; thir locall stipends and a portioun to the king sett asyde in ilka paroche. To the quhilk, nather the kirk nor gentilmen whase teinds was in vther men’s possessioun, could nor wald condisend to. And sa, as I mentioned befor, the chieff of this wark gaiff it ower as a thing nocht lyk to be done in his dayes." (Melville's Diary, p. 229.) According to Calderwood, the celebrated fifty-five "questions," as they were called, which, embracing the principal points in dispute between James and the clergy, were sent by the king to the different synods and presbyteries, and led to the convention of a General Assembly at Perth, 28th February 1597, and ultimately to the yielding by the clergy of most of James’ demands and the re-establishment of episcopacy, were drawn up by Lord Menmuir. (Lives of the Lindsays, vol. i. p. 366.) As he had for years suffered severely from the stone, his lordship designed to go to Paris, as was then the custom, to be cut for the disease, and King James accordingly appointed him ambassador to France, assigning him one hundred crowns monthly during his absence. Towards the end of 1597 he resigned his office of secretary of state, and his place as a lord of session, the latter of which was bestowed on his elder brother Sir David, thenceforward designed Lord Edzell. (See EDZELL, Lindsays of.) His own title and rank as Lord Menmuir were continued to him for life. Increasing infirmity prevented his departure for France, and he died September 3, 1598, at his house of Balcarres in Fifeshire, in his forty-seventh year. A total eclipse of the sun had appalled the people of Scotland early in that year, and among other events which it was thought to have portended was the death of Lord Menmuir, "for naturall judgment and lerning," says James Melville, "the graittest light of the polecie and counsell of Scotland." (Diary, p. 290.) Besides the other offices held by him, he was also chancellor of the university of St. Andrews.

      Lord Menmuir is commemorated as an able lawyer and statesman, a scholar, a man of letters, and a poet. He seems to have been acquainted with the French, Italian, Spanish, and other continental languages, and wrote both the Latin and Scottish fluently and vigorously. He is mentioned with praise as a writer of " Epigrams," both by Scott of Scotstarvet, and Sir William Alexander, earl of Stirling; but none of them have been preserved. A treatise of his, ‘De Jure Anglicano,’ has also been lost. He was a book-collector, and accumulated numerous state-papers and letters by personages distinguished during the earlier parts of the sixteenth century, particularly those belonging to the court of France, such as, Catherine de Medicis; Henry the Second; the celebrated Anne, Constable de Montmorency; Diana of Poitiers; Mary, Queen of Scots; Margaret of France, duchess of Savoy; James the Fifth of Scotland; Jeanne d’Albret, queen of Navarre, and others. All these, with others of later date, were presented, in 1712, to the Advocate’s library, Edinburgh, by Lord Menmuir’s great grandson, Colin, third earl of Balcarres, and have been arranged and bound up, by Dr. Irving, the late librarian, in nine folio volumes. Mr. Maidment, advocate, has printed several of them in the Miscellany of the Maitland Club, vol. i. page 207, et seq., and in the Analecta Scotica, 2 vols. 8vo, 1836—7. Much of Lord Menmuir’s own correspondence, both in Latin and Scottish, is also preserved in the public repositories of Scotland. Several of his Latin letters are printed in Mr. Maidment’s Letters and State Papers during the reign of King James 17., Abbotsford Club, page 18 et seq. (See Lives of the Lindsays, vol. i. pp. 375, 376, and notes.) The family mansion of Balcarres was erected by his lordship in 1595.

      He was twice married, first, in 1581, to Marion, daughter of Alexander Guthrie, burgess of Edinburgh, and widow of David Borthwick of Lochhill, Lord Advocate from 1573 to 1580, by whom he had two sons, John and David, and three daughters; secondly, to Dame Jean Lauder, the dowager lady of Corstorphin, who, described as "a termagant," made his life very uncomfortable, and was even imprisoned for her violence. By this lady he had no children. Catherine, his eldest daughter, was married first to her cousin Sir John Lindsay of Woodhead and Ballinscho, fourth son of David, tenth earl of Crawford, and had a son, Colonel Henry Lindsay; secondly, to John Brown of Fordell, Perthshire, to whom also she had issue; Margaret, the second daughter, married Sir John Strachan of Thornton, and Janet, the youngest, became the wife of Sir David Auchmutie of Auchmutie.

      John Lindsay, Lord Menmuir’s eldest son, died shortly after himself, under age and unmarried, in January 1601.

      The second son, David, succeeded his brother when only fourteen years old. In 1607, before he was twenty years of age, he went to the continent, and spent some years in France and elsewhere. In 1612 he returned to Scotland, when he received the honour of knighthood. He married Lady Sophia Seyton, third daughter of Alexander, first earl of Dunfermline, lord high chancellor of Scotland, and retiring to Balcarres, devoted himself to literary and scientific pursuits. He is said to have had the best library of his time in Scotland. He was a laborious alchemist, and "natural philosophy, particularly chemistry and the then fashionable quest of the elixir vitae, and the philosopher’s stone, occupied much of his attention." (Lives of the Lindsays, vol. ii. p. 3.) Ten volumes of transcripts and translations from the works of the Rosicrucians and others were, at one period, in the library at Balcarres, written in his own hand, of which only four now remain.

He was the correspondent and friend of Drummond of Hawthornden, and the celebrated Sir John Scott of Scotstarvet.

      On Charles the First’s visit to Scotland in 1633, Sir David was created Lord Lindsay of Balcarres, 27th June that year, to him and his heirs male bearing the name of Lindsay. In 1639, when the Scots mustered their forces on Dunse Law, to resist Charles’ attempt to overthrow the civil and religious liberties of Scotland, Lord Balcarres appeared at the head of his followers on the side of the Covenanters. The treaty of Berwick brought a temporary peace, and Lord Balcarres disbanded his followers. He died at Balcarres in March 1641.

      His eldest son, Alexander, second Lord Balcarres, raised a troop of horse, constantly alluded to in the histories of the period, with which he joined the Covenanters, and was engaged at the battle of Alford against the marquis of Montrose, 2d July 1645. After the defeat of the Covenanters, with General Baillie and the earl of Argyle, he repaired to the parliament of Stirling, and was favourably received. At the sitting of 10th July, "the house, by ther acte, ordained the Lord Balcarras good service to hes countrey to be recordit in the bookes of parliament to posterity, and a letter of thankes to be wrettin from the house to him, for hes worthey carriage and good service." (Balfour’s Annals, vol. iii. p. 295.) At the battle of Kilsyth, which followed, Balcarres acted as general of the horse, and on the defeat of the Covenanters, he fled to West Lothian, and reached Colinton the same night, with ten or twelve horsemen only. On the surrender of the king to the Scottish army, Lord Balcarres was one of the commissioners sent by the Scottish parliament 19th December 1646, to negotiate with Charles on the part of the church and parliament of Scotland; but as his majesty declined the terms, the Scotch army retired from England, after surrendering him to the English parliament. In 1648 Lord Balcarres entered into the engagement or league, which was formed for the rescue of the king, and was appointed colonel of horse for the shire of Fife. He was also one of the Committee appointed to manage affairs during the recess of parliament. On the arrival of Charles the Second in Scotland in 1650, he waited upon his majesty. by whom he was graciously received. After the rout at Dunbar, he formed a party in favour of the king, and they soon became the majority in parliament. On the 22d February 1651, "My Lord Balcarras," says Sir James Balfour, "gave his Majestie a banquett at his housse (in Fife), quher he stayed some two houres, and visited his ladey that then lay in." (Annals, vol. iv. p. 247.) He was created earl of Balcarres by patent dated at Perth 9th January 1651, appointed hereditary governor of the castle of Edinburgh, (this office was given up to the crown after his death, by his widow,) and high commissioner to the General Assembly of the kirk, which met at Dundee, 16th July, 1651.

      On Charles’s march to Worcester, he left Balcarres, with the earl of Crawford and Lords Marischal and Glencairn, as a committee of estates, in charge of his affairs in Scotland, but his lordship was soon obliged to take refuge in the Highlands, where he assumed the command of the royalist troops, under the king’s commission. He had sold his plate the previous year for two thousand pounds, to defray the expenses of the General Assembly. To assist his majesty’s interests in the north, he now mortgaged his estates for six thousand pounds more. (Lives of the Lindays, vol. ii. p. 92.) After the defeat of the king at Worcester, Lord Balcarres capitulated, in December 1651 to Cromwell’s officers at Forres, and, disbanding his followers, settled, on the 8th November 1652, with his family at St Andrews, whence he kept up a correspondence with his exiled sovereign.

      When General Monk was recalled from Scotland, Lord Balcarres again took arms in the Highlands, and in concert with Athol, Lorn (afterwards the unfortunate earl of Argyle, beheaded in 1685), and the principal Highland chiefs, under the earl of Glencairn as commander-in-chief, made a last unavailing attempt to uphold the royal cause against Cromwell. In 1654 his estate was sequestrated. He was afterwards sent for by the king, to consult as to the position of affairs, and accordingly, with his countess, he proceeded to France. He continued some years with the king, holding the office of secretary of state for Scotland, and was employed in various political negotiations for the interest of King Charles. Lord Clarendon, head of the high church party, once had influence enough with the king to procure his dismissal from the court at Cologne, but he was soon recalled. In a letter to Lord Arlington, Charles thus expresses himself,—" Our little court are all at variance, but Lord Balcarres will soon return and heal us with his wisdom." (Memoirs of James, earl of Balcarres, quoted in the Lives of the Lindsays, vol. ii. page 106.) His lordship died in exile at Breda, 30th August 1659, and his body having been brought to Scotland, was interred at Balcarres. Cowley, styled by Lord Lindsay the minstrel of the Cavaliers, wrote an elegiac poem upon his death, which thus concludes:

"His own and country’s ruin had not weight
Enough to crush his mighty mind;
He saw around the hurricanes of state,
Fixed as an island ‘gainst the waves and wind.
Thus far the greedy sea may reach;
All outward things are but the beach;
A great mans soul it doth assault in vain!
Their God himself the ocean doth restrain
With an imperceptible chain,
And bids it to go back again.His wisdom, justice, and his piety,
His courage both to suffer and to die,
His virtues, and his lady too,
Were things celestial. And we see
In spite of quarrelling philosophy,
How in this case ‘tis certain found
That heaven stands still, and only earth goes round!"

The first earl of Balcarres had married, in 1640, the lady Anna Mackenzie, daughter and co-heiress of Colin, first earl of Seaforth, and had issue Charles and Colin, who both succeeded him in the earldom, and three daughters: Anne, who died a nun; Sophia, a lady remarkable for her liveliness and spirit, who accomplished the escape of her stepfather, the earl of Argyle, from the castle of Edinburgh in 1680, in the disguise of a page holding up her train, and who married the Hon. Colonel Charles Campbell, Argyle’s third son by his first wife; and Harriet, who became the wife of Sir Duncan Campbell, Baronet, of Auchinbreck. The countess of Balcarres married a second time, in 1671, Archibald, the unfortunate earl of Argyle, beheaded in 1685.

      The eldest son, Charles, second earl of Balcarres, did not long survive his father, dying unmarried on the 15th October 1662, when only twelve years old, of a disease of the heart.

      The second son, Colin, succeeded his brother. He was an episcopalian, and distinguished himself by his staunch adherence to James the Seventh. Lord Lindsay relates that at the age of sixteen he went to London, and was presented to King Charles by his cousin the duke of Lauderdale. Being extremely handsome, the king was pleased with his countenance. He said he had loved his father, and would be a father to him himself, and though so young he gave him the command of a select troop of horse, composed of one hundred loyal gentlemen who had been reduced to poverty during the recent troubles, and had half-a-crown a-day. (Lives of the Lindsays, vol. ii. p. 120.) His majesty had previously settled on Lady Balcarres and the longest liver of her two sons a pension of one thousand pounds a-year, on her giving up, during their minority, the patent of the hereditary government of Edinburgh castle, which had been conferred on their father. Earl Colin married early, and there is a romance attending his marriage of a peculiarly affecting nature. The young Mademoiselle Mauritia de Nassau, sister of Lady Arlington and the countess of Ossory, and daughter of Louisa de Nassau, count of Beverwaert and Anverquerque in Holland, a natural son of Maurice prince of Orange, had fallen deeply in love with him, and erelong the day was fixed for their marriage. On this occasion, says Lord Lindsay, the prince of Orange, afterwards William the Third, presented his fair kinswoman with a pair of magnificent emerald ear-rings, as his wedding gift. On the marriage day, when the wedding party were assembled in the church, and the bride was at the altar, to their dismay no bridegroom appeared. The earl, it seems, had forgotten the day fixed for his marriage, and was found, in his nightgown and slippers, quietly eating his breakfast. He hurried instantly to the church, but in his haste left the wedding ring in his writing case. A friend in the company gave him one. The ceremony proceeded, and without looking at the ring he had received, he placed it on the finger of his fair young bride, It was a mourning ring, with the morthead and crossed bones! On perceiving it, at the close of the ceremony, the countess fainted, and the evil omen made such an impression on her mind that she declared she should die within the year, a presentiment which was too truly fulfilled. (ibid., p. 121.)

      After the death of his wife, Lord Balcarres went to sea with the duke of York, and was with his royal highness in the well-fought battle of Solebay, 28th May 1672. He was admitted a privy councillor 3d June 1680, and in 1682 became sheriff of Fifeshire. After the accession of James the Seventh he was appointed, 3d September 1686, one of the Council of Six, or commissioners of the treasury, in whom the Scottish administration was lodged. When the prince of Orange prepared to invade Britain, the earl of Balcarres and his friend the earl of Cromarty proposed to the earl of Perth, the chancellor, with the money then in the Scottish exchequer, about ninety thousand pounds, to levy ten battalions of foot, to form a body of four or five thousand men from the Highlands, to raise the arrière van and to select about twelve thousand horse out of them, and with this force and three or four thousand regular troops, amounting in all to an army of about fifteen thousand men, commanded by General Douglas and Lord Dundee, to march to York, and keep all the northern counties in order. This plan was disapproved of by Lord Melfort, sole secretary of state, who sent orders for the small army on foot instantly to march into England, to reinforce the English army. On rumours of the landing of the prince reaching Scotland, Lord Balcarres was sent by the council to London to ascertain the state of matters. With Lord Dundee he waited upon the king a day or two after his return from his flight to Feversham, and was affectionately received. At the request of James they took a walk with his majesty in the Mall. The king asked them how they came to be with him, when all the world had forsaken him for the prince of Orange. Lord Balcarres said their fidelity to so good a master would ever be the same, and that they had nothing to do with the prince of Orange. Lord Dundee also made the strongest professions of duty. The poor king then demanded, "Will you two, as gentlemen, say you have still attachment to me ?" They both replied, "Sir, we do." "Will you," said James, "give me your hands upon it, as men of honour ?" They did so. "Well," continued the king, "I see you are the men I always took you to be. You shall know all my intentions. I can no longer remain here but as a cipher, or be a prisoner to the prince of Orange, and you know there is but a small distance between the prisons and the graves of kings; therefore I go for France immediately. When there, you shall have my instructions,— you, Lord Balcarres, shall have a commission to manage my civil affairs, and you, Lord Dundee, to command my troops in Scotland." (Lives of the Lindsays, voL ii. p. 162.)

      After James was gone, Lord Balcarres waited on the prince of Orange, to whom he was well known. The prince said he doubted not of his lordship’s attachment to him at the convention. The earl replied, that although he had the utmost respect for his highness, be could have no hand in turning out his king, who had been a kind master to him, however imprudent in many things. The prince twice thereafter spoke to him on the same subject, but at last told him to beware how be behaved himself, for if he transgressed the law, he should be left to it. Lords Balcarres and Dundee then returned to Scotland, where, with the archbishop of St. Andrews, they received a commission from King James to call a new convention at Stirling. After Dundee had gone north to raise forces in King James’ behalf, the duke of Hamilton, who was president of the parliament, had been invested with full powers, to imprison suspected persons, sent a detachment of infantry to Fife, to take Lord Balcarres prisoner. He was carried to Edinburgh, and confined in the common gaol, where at first he had liberty to see his friends. At the first meeting of the convention, however, some intercepted letters, directed to him by the earl of Melfort, were read; wherein, after assurances of speedy relief, he expressed a wish that some had been cut off that he and Lord Balcarres had often spoken off, and then these things had never happened, "but when we get the power," it was added, "we will make these men hewers of wood and drawers of water." In his memorial to King James, Lord Balcarres solemnly denied that he had ever heard Lord Melfort use any such expressions, and in the convention he was defended by the duke of Queensberry, who expressed his conviction that Melfort had written the letters on purpose to injure Lord Balcarres, with whom he was on very ill terms. Influenced by the duke of Hamilton, however, the convention voted his lordship close prisoner in the tolbooth, where he remained for four months. On the surrender of the castle of Edinburgh by the duke of Gordon, he was removed to that fortress, and not released till after the death of Dundee at Killiecrankie, and consequent dispersion of his army. When confined to the castle he is said to have seen the ghost of his friend Dundee one morning at daybreak. The story is thus related. "The spectre, drawing aside the curtain of the bed, looked very steadfastly upon the earl, after which it moved towards the mantelpiece, remained there for some time in a leaning posture, and then walked out of the chamber without uttering one word. Lord Balcarres, in great surprise, though not suspecting that which he saw to be an apparition, called out repeatedly to his friend to stop, but received no answer, and subsequently learned that at the very moment this shadow stood before him Dundee had breathed his last near the field of Killiecrankie." (Law’s Memorials, Prefatory Notice by C. Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq. p. xci. quoted by Lord Lindsay.) Lord Balcarres had no doubt been dreaming of Dundee, and the vision which he thus saw had been but the vivid impression of his dream.

He had no sooner regained his freedom than he engaged deeply in the plot set on foot by Sir James Montgomery of Skelmorly, for the restoration of King James, and on its discovery, in 1690, he thought it advisable to retire to the continent. He first went to Holland to visit his first wife’s relations, and then proceeded through Flanders in a coach with some friends on his way to France. At one part of the journey he was proceeding on foot with a guide through a wood to the next stage, when he met with a party of banditti, who seized and robbed him, and were going to kill him, but on promising them a good ransom they spared his life. He remembered that the Jesuits had a college at Douay, from which they were distant thirty miles—they, he said, would pay his ransom. The thieves agreed for one hundred pistoles, and took his oath never to discover them. The money was paid, and he got his liberty, and went to the college, where he found the famous Father Petre. The priests treated him with great kindness, got him clothes, and lent him money on his bills. (Lives of the Lindsays, vol. ii. p. 176.)

      On his arrival at St. Germains, he waited on the exiled monarch, by whom, as well as by the queen, he was received with great affection. He delivered to King James the curious memoir, drawn up by himself, which, with the title of ‘An Account of the Affairs of Scotland relating to the Revolution of 1688,’ was published in 1714 at London, and afterwards in 1754 at Edinburgh; a work which has entitled Lord Balcarres to a place in Walpole’s Royal and Noble Authors. The manuscripts from which these editions were printed having been, in several instances, corrupted and interpolated, Lord Lindsay has printed the Memoir for the Bannatyne Club, for the first time in its original state.

      Lord Balcarres remained for six months at St. Germains, in great familiarity with King James; but his old opponent, Lord Melfort, and the priests, becoming jealous of the favour shown to him, artfully forged a calumny against him, and he was forbid the court. He retired to the south of France, whence he addressed an expostulatory letter to the king, as his father, on a similar occasion, had done to King Charles the Second in his exile. James soon wrote to him, inviting him back again, owning that he had been imposed upon, but the earl refused to return. After passing a year in France, he went to Brussels, then to Utrecht, and sending for his wife and family from Scotland, resided there some years in tranquility in society with Bayle, Leclerc, and other learned men. He had married a second time, Lady Jean Carnegie, eldest daughter of David earl of Northesk. By this lady he had a daughter, Anne, who became the wife of Alexander, fifth earl of Kellie, and after his death, of James third Viscount Kingston, attainted after the rebellion of 1715, and whom also she survived. His second countess died in King Charles’s reign, and he married a third time, Lady Jean Ker, paternally Drummond, only daughter of William earl of Roxburgh, youngest son of John earl of Perth, the cousin of that earl of Perth who was chancellor of Scotland under King James. By this lady he was father of Colin, Lord Cummerland, master of Balcarres, who died unmarried in November 1708, and Lady Margaret Lindsay, who married John earl of Wigton, and had one daughter, married to Sir Archibald Primrose.

      Owing to his long exile, and his carelessness in money matters, Lord Balcarres’ affairs in Scotland fell into disorder, and he found himself five thousand pounds in debt. Many applications were made to King William to permit him to re— turn to Scotland. In Carstares’ State Papers, (page 630,) will be found a letter from the Duke of Queensberry to Car-stares (secretary of state for Scotland), dated Holyroodhouse 31st August 1700, recommending his being allowed to return. Carstares had already spoken to King William in Lord Balcarres’ behalf. His lordship had walked on foot, as usual, to the Hague, to solicit his favour. Carstares told the king, a man he had once favoured was in so low a condition that he had footed it from Utrecht that morning to desire him to speak for him. "if that be the case," said he, "let him go home, he has suffered enough already." Lord Balcarres accordingly returned to Scotland towards the end of 1700, after an exile of ten years. (Lives of the Lindsays, vol. ii. p. 190.)

      On the accession of Queen Anne Lord Balcarres went to court, to wait on her Majesty, and as Lord Lindsay adds, to negotiate for the interests of the Episcopal church of Scotland. The duke of Marlborough, with whom he had an early friendship, and who often said he was the pleasantest companion he ever knew, got him a rent-charge of five hundred pounds a-year, for ten years, upon the crown lands of Orkney, as he had lost his pension of a thousand pounds per annum at the Revolution. The grant, dated May 29, 1704, proceeds on the consideration of Anne, countess of Balcarres, having surrendered the heritable right to the government of the castle of Edinburgh. This rent-charge his necessities compelled him afterwards to sell. Although admitted a privy councilor by Queen Anne, and talked of as likely to be appointed lord-justice-general, he held no public office subsequently to the Revolution. (Ibid. page 193.)

      Lord Balcarres supported the treaty of union, but on the breaking out of the rebellion in 1715, his old predilections for the Stuarts returned, and he joined the standard of the Pretender. After the suppression of the rebellion, his friend the duke of Marlborough interposed his good offices on his behalf, and the duke of Argyle, by whose exertions principally the rebellion had been suppressed, being also favourable to him, on surrendering he was subjected to no other punishment than being confined to his own house, with a single dragoon to attend him, till the passing of the bill of indemnity. His latter years were spent in retirement at Balcarres. He was fond of books and added to his library. He had also a taste for art, and during his residence in Holland collected several pictures of the Dutch school, now in the possession of the present Lord Balcarres. He caused a handsome village to be built below his house, which is named after himself, Colinsburgh, now a burgh of barony under the Balcarres family, and a thriving place. He died in 1722, in his seventy-third year. He had married, a fourth time, Lady Margaret Campbell, eldest daughter of James, second earl of London, and by her, besides several children who died young, he had four who survived him, namely, two sons, Alexander, fourth earl of Balcarres, and James, fifth earl, and two daughters, Lady Eleanor Lindsay, married to the Hon. James Fraser of Lonmay, third son of William, eleventh Lord Salton, and Lady Elizabeth, familiarly called lady Betty Lindsay, who died at Edinburgh, 12th March, 1744, unmarried.

      Alexander, fourth earl of Balcarres, entered the army at an early age, and was first an ensign and then a lieutenant in the horse grenadier guards. He next became a captain in Lord Orkney’s regiment, then stationed in Flanders, in which he served from 1707 to the end of the war, was in all the battles and most of the sieges during that time, was wounded at St. Venant, and was looked upon by all as an active, intrepid and skilful officer. Lord Lindsay quotes a spirited reply of his which is still remembered and cited in illustration of his character. A portion of the British army, in which he had a command, besieging a town in Flanders, was in its turn threatened by a superior force. As he voted for perseverance in the siege, he was asked, "What then have we to retreat upon ?" "Upon Heaven!" was his reply—and they ultimately took the town. (Lives of the Lindsays, vol. ii. p. 202.) He was in Ireland with his regiment at the time his father and brother engaged in the rebellion of 1715, and their participation in that outbreak made him lose all expectation of promotion in the army. He returned home, and, in 1718, married Elizabeth, daughter of David Scott of Scotstarvet, in Fife. In 1732 he was promoted to a company in the foot guards, the highest military rank he ever attained. At the general election 1734, he was chosen one of the sixteen representative peers of Scotland. He died 21st July, 1786. By his countess, who survived him till 4th September 1768, he had no issue, and was consequently succeeded by his brother.

      James, fifth earl of Balcarres, was born 14th November, 1691. Preferring the naval to the military service, at the age of thirteen he went to sea on board the lpswich, commanded by Captain Robert Kirkton, an excellent officer, with whom he remained five years, and through whose means he became lieutenant of the Portland. In that ship he suffered much hardship for nearly three years, and lost his health, which obliged him to observe the strictest temperance in his habits, and he became so much accustomed to it that he persevered in it as long as he lived. The following characteristic anecdote is related by Lord Lindsay: "Like most other gay and handsome young men, he was fond of showing off his natural graces to the best advantage, and, on the day appointed for his examination as lieutenant, he waited upon his judges in a rich suit of clothes, with red silk stockings and pink heels to his shoes; his examiners were a set of rough seamen in sailors’ jackets, who abhorred dandyism. They determined not to let him pass, and sent him back to sea for six months. At the expiration of that time, he reappeared before the nautical tribunal, a wiser man—in a sailor’s dress, with a quid of tobacco in his cheek,—passed a most rigid examination with great credit, and was dismissed with the assurance that he had acquitted himself equally to their satisfaction six months before,—’ but we were determined,’ said they, ‘not to pass you till you were cured of your puppyism, which will not do for a sailor.’" (Lives of the Lindsays, vol. ii. p. 197.) His ship being paid off at the peace, he returned at the age of twenty-five to Scotland. He opposed his father’s inclinations to join the Pretender, but finding him bent upon it, he resolved to accompany him. He and his friend, the Master of Sinclair, with the help of others, levied three troops of gentlemen, who acted as common soldiers. Of this body he was one of the three captains. At the battle of Sheriffmuir five squadrons of dragoons ran away before three squadrons of them. They kept together and in order, acting with the greatest gallantry, and when the Highlanders returned from the pursuit, upon the left wing being beat, they had these squadrons to rally to. This saved the army, and Lord Marischal, by order of the earl of Marr, came to their front, and thanked the whole body for their behaviour. (Lady Anne Barnard, quoted in Lives of the Lindsays, vol. ii. p. 198.)

      After the suppression of the rebellion he was concealed for some time in the castle of Newark, now ruinous, about three miles from Balcarres, and then belonging to the Anstruthers. One of the young ladies, we are informed, concealed him in a secret room communicating with her apartment, and situated near the leads of the house. To furnish him with food woman’s wit came to her aid. She feigned a ravenous appetite, the cravings of which increased to such a degree that she declared she could not bear to be seen eating. In consequence, all her meals were brought to her room that she might eat by herself; and the supply her pretended voracity required served to satisfy both. His aunt, the countess of Stair, represented him to General Cadogan as drawn into the rebellion by his father against his will, and solicited a remission for him, which was granted, at the joint request of Cadogan and Lord Stan-hope, by George the First, who soon after gave young Lindsay a lieutenant’s commission in the Royal North British dragoons, or Scots Grays, commanded by his uncle, Sir James Campbell. He was in that station when he succeeded as Lord Balcarres, on the death of his brother, in 1736. He then went to London, gained the good-will of the earl of Ilay, the brother of the duke of Argyle, and Sir Robert Walpole, and got the command of a troop, with which he proceeded to the continent. At the battle of Dettingen, fought 16th June 1743, he commanded one of the squadrons of his regiment, and was by some of the generals recommended to George the Second as deserving a higher rank. The king "fell into a passion, and told the minister that he had occasion to know before that no person who had ever drawn his sword in the Stuart cause should ever rise to command, and that it was best to tell Lord Balcarres so at once." The earl, in consequence, resolved to quit the army, which he did after the battle of Fontenoy, where his gallant uncle, Sir James Campbell, received a mortal wound. His lordship now retired to his seat at Balcarres, and devoted_himself to the improvement of his estates. In the old Statistical account of the parish of Kilconquhar, Fifeshire, he is described as a nobleman distinguished by the benevolence of his heart, the liberality of his sentiments, and the uncommon extent of his knowledge, particularly in history and agriculture, and as among the first who brought farming to any degree of perfection in this country. (Stat. Acc. vol. ix. p. 296.) When almost sixty years of age, Lord Balcarres married. He had met at the waters of Moffat, Miss Anne Dalryrnple, youngest daughter of Robert Dalrymple, of Castleton, knight, and granddaughter of the Hon. Sir Hew Dairymple, of North Berwick, knight, lord president of the court of session. She was born 25th December 1727, and married Lord Balcarres at Edinburgh 24th October 1749, when only twenty-two. They had eight sons and three daughters. Of this large family the celebrated Lady Anne Lindsay or Barnard (see BARNARD, Lady Anne) was the eldest. Lord Balcarres died at Balcarres, 20th February 1768, in his seventy-seventh year.

      In his old age he was extremely deaf. The death of his brother, in 1736, to whom he was much attached, had so nervously affected him that it suddenly deprived him of his sense of hearing, which was never restored. He wrote a Sys— tem of Agriculture, and Memoirs of his family, from which latter manuscript Douglas, in his peerage, derived much assistance in drawing up his account of the Balcarres family. The manuscript was for a time lost, but was ultimately recovered. Lady Anne Lindsay says it was lent to the brother of her governess, a herald in the office of the Lord Lion of Scotland, and on his death was sold among his books. Many years afterwards it was discovered on a stall by a person who bought it for a shilling, and returned it to a member of the Balcarres family. Lady Anne arranged it as well as its state permitted, but altered nothing, and wrote a preface to it. A continuation was written by her brother, Alexander, the sixth earl. From this valuable family history copious extracts are given by Lord Lindsay in his interesting biographical work. Earl James was also the author of a poetical epistle, addressed to his wife, written after reading Thomson’s Seasons, "my first," he says, "and probably last essay in poetry." Of Thomson he says, "I lived a winter with the man at Bath; he had nothing amiable in his conversation, and I expected little from his writings, and never had before read them; yet his Seasons are truly poetic,—his descriptions beautiful, re— flections wise." (Lives of the Lindsays, vol. ii. p. 275, and note.)

      His eldest son but second child, Alexander, the sixth earl of Balcarres, was born 18th January 1752, and when fifteen years of age he entered the army as an ensign in the 53d foot, and joined his regiment at Gibraltar. He next went to Germany, where he remained two years, studying at the university of Gottingen. On his return he became, in 1771, a captain in the 42d or Royal Highlanders. In 1775 he was appointed, by purchase, all his commissions had been bought, major of his old regiment, the 53d, with which he embarked for Canada, on the breaking out of the American war. In 1777 he commanded the light infantry in the unfortunate army under General Burgoyne, and at the battle near Ticonderago, 7th July of that year, he was wounded in the left thigh. Thirteen balls passed through his jacket, waistcoat, and breeches, yet the wound was slight. At the head of his regiment of light infantry he stormed and carried the lines of Huberton. On the 7th of October following, on the fall of the gallant brigadier-general Frazer, the command devolved on Lord Balcarres, who having previously fortified his battalion in a very strong manner, at the head of his light infantry was enabled to repulse the American army commanded by General Arnold, although victorious on every other point. A few days thereafter, however, he was forced to surrender with the army, in consequence of Burgoyne’s convention with General Gates at Saratoga on the thirteenth October. He obtained his liberty two years afterwards, in 1779, and on his return home he married, at London, 1st June 1780, his cousin-german, Elizabeth, daughter and heiress, by a second marriage, of Charles Dalrymple, Esq. of North Berwick. While he remained a prisoner he had been appointed a lieutenant-colonel in the 24th regiment, and in February 1782 he was advanced to the rank of colonel, and constituted lieutenant-colonel commandant of the second battalion of 71st foot, then formed into a separate regiment, and called the second 71st regiment of foot.

      At the general election of 1784, Lord Balcarres was chosen one of the sixteen representative peers of Scotland. To the bill introduced into the house of lords that year, for restoring the forfeited estates, he gave his warmest support. In answer to an inquiry of Lord Thurlow, then lord-chancellor, as to where the persons to whom the estates originally belonged had resided, and what services they had been engaged in, since the two rebellions for which their ancestors and themselves had suffered, Lord Balcarres made a very eloquent and striking speech, in the course of which occurred the following passage: "Banished their country, their properties confiscated, and impoverished in every thing but their national spirit, they offered their services to foreign princes, in whose armies they were promoted to important commands and trusts, which they discharged with fidelity; but the moment they saw a prospect of return to their friends and restoration to the bosom of their country, there was not a man of them that hesitated; they resigned those high stations, and from being general officers and colonels, accepted companies, and some even subaltern commissions in our service. They were, indeed, returned to their friends, and received with open arms, nor, in the course of those twelve years, was there a man who had abandoned his chief because he was poor, or had deserted him because the heavy hand of adversity hung over his head. A few more years promoted them to commands in the British service; and, at the beginning of the late war, we again see armies rushing from the Highlands, but not with the same ideas that formerly animated them.

      They had already fully established their attachment to their sovereign, and a due regard to the laws of their country. They had repeatedly received the thanks of their king, and of the two houses of parliament; but they now found themselves impelled by a further motive,—they saw themselves commanded by their former chieftains,—they hoped that, by the effusion of their blood, by the extraordinary ardour and zeal they would show in the service, they should one day see their leaders legally re-established in their paternal estates, and be enabled to receive from them those kindness and attentions which they had so generously bestowed upon them in their adversity. It was this hope, and these ideas only, that put a stop to those emigrations which had almost depopulated the northern parts of the kingdom." In reply, the lord-chancellor, after disclaiming any intention of reflecting on the characters or impeaching the merits of the gallant gentlemen in whose favour this act of grace had been brought forward, proceeded to say, "It was fortunate for those brave men that, from what he had said, he had afforded an opportunity for their merits to be brought forward in a manner so truly honourable to them, and the best calculated to do them the justice they deserved. He rejoiced that their merits had now received the highest remuneration, the praise of a soldier who had distinguished himself so eminently in the service of his country, that his competency to distribute either censure or approbation on military merit became unquestionable, and thence his applause was an honour superior to all reward. So well satisfied was he with what had fallen from the noble lord on that part of the subject, that he declared he would desire no better proof of the merits of the persons concerned." This benevolent and important bill passed on the 18th of August, 1784. He was rechosen a representative Scottish peer at the elections of 1790, 1802, 1806, and 1807. He had been colonel of the 63d foot since the 27th August, 1789 and in 1793 he had the rank of major-general.

      On the breaking out of the war that year, he was appointed to the civil government and command of his majesty's forces in the island of Jersey, in the absence of Marshal Conway the governor. While in that command he undertook and carried on the correspondence with the army of La Vendee, and the establishment of the lines of communications with its chiefs and those of the Chouans, a business on which he prided himself, and from which he had great expectations, but which, being mismanaged at home, came to nothing.

      In 1794 Lord Balcarres was named to the government of Jamaica, where he arrived in April 1795. Almost immediately after his arrival the Maroons broke out in rebellion, for the suppression of which he at once adopted the most spirited and judicious measures, and was successful in putting an end to the revolt. His exertions were acknowledged by the House of Assembly, 22d April 1796, voting the sum of seven hundred guineas for the purchase of a sword to be presented to him as a testimony of the gratitude of the colony. In answer, his lordship congratulated the assembly that "during their contest with an enemy the most ferocious that ever disgraced the annals of history—an army of savages, who had indiscriminately massacred every prisoner whom the fate of war had placed in their power—no barbarity, nor a single act of retaliation, had sullied the brightness of their arms." In 1798 he became lieutenant-general, and in 1801 he resigned his government of Jamaica, and returned to England, and on the 25th September 1803, he attained to the full rank of general. Having met with an accident which lamed him for life, he resided in his latter years at Haigh Hall, near Wigan, in Lancashire, the Haigh property being the inheritance of his countess, on failure of male issue in her maternal family, that of Sir Robert Bradshaigh of Haigh, baronet, her ladyship’s great—grandfather. Besides the continuation of his father’s Memoirs, already mentioned, Lord Balcarres commenced ‘Anecdotes of a Soldier’s Life,’ which he did not finish. In the third volume of the Lives of the Lindsays is inserted an interesting selection from his public despatches and private correspondence during the Maroon war. He died March 27th, 1825. He had issue, James Lord Lindsay, the seventh earl of Balcarres, three other sons and two daughters.

      The following anecdote, related by the late Mr. James Stuart, younger of Dunearn, is eminently characteristic of Lord Balcarres. Speaking of General Arnold, the celebrated American renegade, he says that he "resided in England after the war, but was treated at various times in a way not likely to lead others to emulate his treasonable conduct. He was with the king (George the Third) one day when Lord Balcarres, who had fought under General Burgoyne in the Saratoga campaign, (and had been specially opposed to him in the action of October 7, 1777, when his little redoubt saved the British army,) was presented. The king introduced them. ‘What, Sire!’ said the earl, drawing up his form, and retreating, ‘the traitor Arnold?’ The consequence was a challenge from Arnold. They met, and it was arranged that the parties should fire by signal. Arnold fired, and Lord Balcarres, turning on his heel, was walking away, when Arnold exclaimed, ‘Why don’t you fire, my lord?’ ‘Sir,’ said Lord Balcarres, looking over his shoulder, ‘I have you to the executioner!’" (Stuart’s Three Years in North America, vol. ii. p. 462.)

      The Hon. Robert Lindsay, second son of the fifth earl of Balcarres, born in 1751, was many years in the civil service of the East India Company. Having served his time, he was appointed to the superintendency of Sylhet, in the extreme north of Bengal, where he made a large fortune. While still a resident in India, he purchased the estate of Leuchars in Fife, and on his return to Scotland in 1789 he bought from his elder brother the lands of Balcarres. He married his cousin Elizabeth, third daughter of Sir Alexander Dick of Preston-field, baronet, and had issue five sons and four daughters. He wrote some interesting ‘Anecdotes of an Indian Life’ printed in the third volume of the Lives of the Lindsays. He died in 1836, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Colonel James Lindsay of Balcarres and Leuchars, grenadier guards, colonel of the Fifeshire militia, and formerly member of parliament for Fifeshire. By his second wife, Anne, daughter of Sir Coutts Trotter, baronet of Westville, he had Sir Coutts Lindsay, baronet, born in 1824, younger of Balcarres, author of ‘Alfred, a Drama,’ and ‘Edward the Black Prince, a Tragedy,’ another son, named Robert, and three daughters. Margaret, the eldest, married in 1846 her cousin Lord Lindsay, the author of the Lives of the Lindsays.

      Three of the fifth earl’s sons, Colin, James, and John, were officers in the army. The Hon. Colin Lindsay, born 5th April 1755, purchased an ensigncy in November 1771, in the 4th regiment of foot. He embarked for America as lieutenant in the 55th, and was afterwards promoted by purchase to a company in the 73d, or Mackenzie Highlanders. He served as captain of grenadiers during the greater part of the American war, and was in all the actions in the West Indies. In 1780 he was appointed major to the second battalion of the 73d, and in that capacity served at Gibraltar during the famous siege of that fortress. At the peace of 1783 he returned to England with his regiment, and was promoted to the lieutenant—colonelcy of the 46th. In December 1793 he was appointed aide-de-camp to the king, with the rank of colonel in the army. An expedition being ordered to the West Indies, Colonel Lindsay was early in 1795 advanced to the rank of brigadier-general, and appointed quarter-master-general of the forces there. He sailed with his brother, the earl of Balcarres, then proceeding to Jamaica, and landing at Barbadoes on 12th March, was directed to take the command of the troops in Grenada, at that time in a dangerous state, on account of the revolt of the Mulattoes and Negroes excited by French emissaries. He marched from St. George’s at four in the morning of the 15th, attacked and defeated the insurgents on the 17th, but fell a victim to excessive fatigue and a noxious climate, deeply lamented by his brother officers and the soldiers under his command. His death took place 22d March 1795, in the fortieth year of his age. He published A Military Miscellany; Extracts from Colonel Templehoffe’s History of the Seven Years’ War; his Remarks on General Lloyd; on the Substance of Armies; and on the March of Convoys: also a Treatise on Winter Posts. To which is added, A Narrative of Events at St. Lucie and Gibraltar; and of John Duke of Marlborough’s March to the Danube; with the Causes and Consequences of that Manoeuvre. Lond. 1793, 2 vols. 8vo.

      The next son, the Hon. James Stair Lindsay, entered the army in 1774, as an ensign in the 14th foot, then in America. He commanded the grenadiers of the 73d in the engagement with the French and Mahrattas at Cuddalore 13th June 1783, when he was mortally wounded, storming the redoubts of that place. He received his wound about three o’clock, but the attack and defence being most vigorous, he refused to be taken out of the enemies’ lines, and lay there till near six, when a French officer got him a surgeon. He was carried prisoner into the fort and taken to the French hospital, and humanely treated. In a few days he died, 22d June 1783, in the twenty-fifth year of his age, unmarried. General Stewart, in his Sketches of the Highlanders, (vol. ii. p. 163,) speaks of him with great praise. Part of an unfinished Journal of the War in the Carnatic, in which he fell, is inserted in the third volume of the Lives of the Lindsays.

      William, the next son, was drowned at St. Helena, getting into a boat from the Prism East Indiaman, in 1785, aged twenty-six, having been born in 1759.

      His next brother, the Hon. Charles Dalrymple Lindsay, entered into holy orders, and became bishop of Kildare, in Ireland. He was born 14th December 1760: studied at Baliol College, Oxford; had the rectory of Great Sutterton in Lincolnshire conferred on him in 1793; was consecrated bishop of Killaloe and Kilfenora, 20th October 1803, and was translated to the see of Kildare in 1804. He was also dean of Christ Church, Dublin. He married first, at Boston, 1st January 1790, Elizabeth only daughter of Thomas Fydell, Esq., member of parliament for Boston, and by her, who died 7th February 1797, he had three sons and a daughter. He married, secondly, Catherine, daughter of George Coussmaker, Esq., who brought him two sons. He died 8th August, 1846.

      The Hon. John Lindsay, the ninth of the family, born 15th May 1762, had a lieutenant’s commission in the 73d foot, in December 1777, and was promoted in 1780 to a captaincy in the 2d battalion of the 73d regiment serving in India, in which station he continued fifteen years. He accompanied Colonel Fletcher and the troops detached to the support of Colonel Baillie, on Hyder Ali’s memorable invasion of the Carnatie, and was taken prisoner by the Mahrattas, 10th September, 1780, after being wounded in four places, and endured a captivity of three years and ten months at Seringapatam, suffering the greatest privations, and even denied medical aid. His Journal of that terrible captivity, printed in the third volume of the Lives of the Lindsays, has been truly described as one of the most affecting and interesting narratives extant. At the conclusion of the peace in March 1784 Captain Lindsay and his fellow-prisoners obtained their freedom, and rejoined their regiments. He served under the Marquis Cornwallis in 1791—2, and with his friend Sir David Baird, was at the taking of Seringapatam, where he had so long been a prisoner. He next served in the war with France in 1793, and returned to England on his regiment’s being ordered home in 1797. He became major and lieutenant- colonel of the 71st, and quitted the army on the peace in 1801. Lord Lindsay states that in 1822, when General Stewart of Garth published his ‘Sketches of the Highlanders,’ Colonel Lindsay and Sir David Baird (see life of the latter, ante, p. 191) were the only survivors of the two hundred men of the flank companies of the 73d who had fought under Baillie’s command at Conjeveram. (Lives of the Lindsays, vol. ii. p. 349.) He married, 2d December 1800, Lady Charlotte North, youngest daughter of Frederick second earl of Guilford, and died in 1826.

      The Hon. Hugh Lindsay, the youngest son, born 30th October 1765, entered the navy, and after serving till the cessation of all promotion at the close of the American war, became commander of an East Indiaman, in the service of the East India Company, and afterwards was a director and chairman of the Company. He married at Bargeny 14th January 1799, Jane, second daughter of the Hon. Alexander Gordon, a judge of the court of session, under the title of Lord Rockville, fourth son of William second earl of Aberdeen, by Anne, dowager countess of Dumfries and Stair, and had issue. He died 23d April 1844. An interesting adventure in China, in which he figures as the principal actor, will be found in the third volume of the Lives of the Lindsays.

      Besides Lady Anne Barnard, already mentioned, the fifth earl had two other daughters, Lady Margaret and Lady Elizabeth. Lady Margaret was born 14th February 1753, and married, first, at Balcarres, 20th June 1770, Alexander Fordyce, Esq. of Roehampton in Surrey, banker in London, who died without surviving issue, and secondly, in 1812, Sir James Burgess, and died in Dublin in December 1814. The great beauty of this lady was commemorated by Sheridan while she was yet young, in the well-known lines:

Marked you her eye of heavenly blue,
Marked you her cheek of rosy hue;
That eye in liquid circles roving,
That cheek abashed at man’s approving;
The one Love’s arrows darting round,
The other blushing at the wound?"

The youngest daughter, Lady Elizabeth, born 11th October 1763, married 24th July 1782, Philip third earl of Hardwicke, lord-lieutenant of Ireland from 1801 to 1806, and had issue. Like the rest of the family she was highly gifted, and was the authoress of a beautiful translation of the ‘Gerusalemme Liberata,’ in manuscript. Lord Lindsay quotes an ‘Address to Entick,’ written in a playful vein, when a mere girl, on the fly-leaf of Entick’s grammar, on the occasion of an absurd task having been imposed on her by her school-mistress; also, lines addressed to her eldest son, Lord Viscount Royston on his birthday, and sent to him at Harrow in May 1796, inserted in the Lives of the Lindsays, (vol. ii. pages 338 and 339). Lord Royston was lost in a storm off Lubeck 1st April 1808, in his twenty-fourth year. His ‘Remains’ were published in one volume, edited by the Rev. Henry Pepys, now bishop of Worcester.

The venerable Countess Dowager of Balcarres, the mother of this large family, survived her husband, the fifth earl, fifty-two years, and died at Balcarres 29th November 1820, in the ninety-fourth year of her age.

James the seventh earl was born 24th April, 1783. He had entered the army, and was major in the 20th regiment of light dragoons, when he quitted the service in 1804. He succeeded his father in March 1825, and was created baron of Wigan, in the peerage of Great Britain, by patent, dated in June 1826. He married, 21st November 1811, the Hon. Maria Margaret Frances Pennington, only surviving child of the first Lord Muncaster, and has issue four sons. His eldest son, Alexander William Crawford, Lord Lindsay, born in 1812, is the author of a ‘Letter on the Evidences of Christianity;’ ‘Letters on Egypt and the Holy Land;’ ‘The History of Christian Art;’ and ‘The Lives of the Lindsays;’ from which latter work considerable assistance has been derived in the drawing up of this account of the Balcarres family. He married, as already stated, his cousin Margaret, eldest daughter of Col. Lindsay of Balcarres, and has issue.

On the death of George, the twenty-second earl of Crawford, in 1808, Alexander, sixth earl of Balcarres, succeeded as twenty-third earl of Crawford, but did not assume that title. His son, the seventh earl of Balcarres, had the dignities of earl of Crawford and baron Lindsay adjudged to him by the decision of the House of Lords, 11th August 1848, (see CRAWFORD, earldom of, and LINDSAY, Lord,) whereby he succeeded as twenty-fourth earl of Crawford, and takes rank as the premier earl of Scotland in the Union roll. His lordship, who is the acknowledged chief of the clan Lindsay, also claims the title of duke of Montrose (see that title), conferred on David, fourth earl of Crawford, by charters, dated 18th May 1488 and 19th Sept. 1489, an older creation than that held by the head of the ancient house of Graham

            The Balcarres arms are the same as those of the earl of Crawford, which see. At right is a representation of Balcarres Craig, on the east of Balcarres house in Fife.