NEWBURGH, Earl of, a title conferred in 1660, on Sir James Livingstone, of Kinniard, baronet. He had been one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber to King Charles I., who created him Viscount Newburgh, 13th September 1647, to him and the heirs male of his body. On Cromwell’s discovering that he corresponded with Charles II. in his exile, his lordship in 1650 escaped into Holland, and repaired to the king at the Hague. He was excepted from pardon by Cromwell’s act of grace in 1654. At the Restoration he was appointed captain of the guards, and by patent, dated 31st December 1660, created earl of Newburgh, viscount of Kinniard, and Baron Livingstone of Flacraig, to him and his heirs whatsoever. He died 26th December 1670. His only son, Charles, second earl of Newburgh, died in 1694, leaving a daughter, Charlotte Maria, countess of Newburgh in her own right. This lady, who possessed the title 61 years, died 4th August 1755. She was twice married; first, to Thomas, eldest son of Hugh, Lord Clifford of Chudleigh, by whom she had two daughters; and, secondly, to the Hon. Charles Radcliffe, third son of Francis, Lord Radcliffe, by Mary Tudor, a daughter of King Charles II., by whom she had three sons and four daughters. Her second husband, Charles Radcliffe, was the brother of the unfortunate earl of Derwentwater, who was beheaded 24th February 1716, for engaging in the rebellion of the previous year. He himself, after being condemned to death for his share in that insurrection, escaped out of Newgate, and took refuge in France, where he married the countess of Newburgh. After the breaking out of the rebellion of 1745, he was taken on board a French privateer, when on her way to Scotland with supplies for Prince Charles, and beheaded on Towerhill, in terms of his former sentence, 8th December 1746. On the death of his nephew, Lord Radcliffe, in December 1731, he had assumed the title of earl of Derwentwater. The Chevalier de St. George wrote a letter of condolence to his widow, under the title of ‘Lady Derwentwater,’ on her husband’s execution, and in her answer she informed “his majesty” that the king of France, on the recommendation of “the prince of Wales and the duke of York,” had given her son, “that was Captain in Dillon’s,” the brevet of colonel, with appointments of 1,800 livres a-year, and to his sisters 150 livres a-year each, “with his royal promise of his protection of the family for ever.” The son referred to, James Clement Radcliffe Livingstone, rose to be a general in the French service. By an act of parliament passed in 1749, the forfeited Derwentwater estates were invested for the benefit of Greenwich Hospital, after allotting £30,000 out of the sum derived from the sale of a portion of them for the relief of the children of the said Charles Radcliffe.

James Bartholomew, the eldest son, born at Vincennes in France, 23d April 1725, was the third earl of Newburgh. While Lord Kinniard, he was captured, with his father, on board the French vessel in 1745. Ten years afterwards, he succeeded his mother, and died at Slindon in Sussex, the property of his wife, the only daughter and heiress of Anthony Kemp of Slindon. His son, Anthony James Radcliffe Livingstone, fourth earl of Newburgh, was born in 1767. Having presented a petition to parliament, a bill was passed in 1788, for granting £2,500 yearly to his lordship and the heirs male of his body, payable from the Derwentwater estates, commencing from March 1787. He died Nov. 29, 1814, when the title was assumed by his cousin, Francis Eyre, Esq., son of Mary, wife of Francis Eyre, Esq. of Hassop, Derbyshire, and Walworth castle, Northamptonshire, and eldest daughter of Charlotte Maria, countess of Newburgh by her 2d husband, the Hon. Charles Radcliffe.

Besides the title, this gentleman assumed also the additional double name of Radcliffe-Livingstone. He died Oct. 23, 1827, in his 66th year. His elder son, Thomas, also assumed the title of earl of Newburgh. He married in 1817 Lady Margaret Kennedy, 3d daughter of the earl of Cassillis, created in 1831 marquis of Ailsa, but died, without issue, May 22, 1833. He was succeeded by his brother, Francis, called the 7th earl, who died, unmarried, in 1852. His sister, Mary Dorothea, then assumed the title of countess of Newburgh. She married, July 21, 1836, Colonel Charles Leslie of Balquhain, Aberdeenshire, at one time an officer of the grenadier guards, and knight of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic order, and died Nov. 22, 1853, without issue.

Immediately after her death, the titles were claimed by Maria Cecilia, Princess Guistiniani, marchioness dowager Bandini, as descended from Lady Anne Clifford, daughter by her first husband, of Charlotte Maria, countess of Newburgh in her own right, daughter of the 2d earl. Lady Anne married at Naples in 1739, Sir James Joseph Mahony, Count Mahoni, a lieutenant-general in Naples. They had one daughter, Cecilia, who married Benedict, 5th Prince Guistiniani, and with 2 daughters had 3 sons; 1. Vincenzio Guiseppe, Prince Guistiniani. 2. The Chevalier Lorenzo Guistiniani. 3. Cardinal James Guistiniani. She married, 2dly, in 1773, Charles, Count Sanseverino, and died in 1793.

The eldest son, Vincenzio Guiseppe, 6th Prince Guistiniani, had one daughter, Maria Cecilia Guistiniani, already mentioned, born in 1796, married, in 1815, Charles, 4th Marquis Bandini of Lanciano and Rustano, in the Roman States, issue, a son, Sigismund Nicholas, and 4 daughters.

The Newburgh earldom in Scotland had by right descended, in 1814, to Vincenzio, 6th Prince Guistiniani, but from his residence in Italy, he did not take proceedings to establish his succession to the peerage of his ancestors, and the assumption of the titles by Francis Eyre Radcliffe-Livingstone, so called 5th earl, was therefore a usurpation. The House of Lords, on July 29, 1858, allowed the claim of Maria Cecilia, Princess Guistiniani, dowager marchioness of Bandini, as heir of the first marriage, and in consequence she became second countess of Newburgh in her own right. Her highness was naturalized by act of parliament in 1857, and resides in the Papal States.

Her son, Sigismund Nicholas, Viscount Kinniard, born June 30, 1818, succeeded his father in 1850, as 5th marquis of Bandini, and assumed the name of Guistiniani, as the adopted heir of his uncle, the Cardinal Prince Guistiniani. With his mother, he was naturalized by act of parliament in 1857. He married, Sept. 14, 1848, Maria Sophia Angelica, daughter and coheir of Signor Guiseppe-Maria Massini of Rome, issue, 2 sons and 3 daughters, all naturalized as British subjects.