SOUTHESK, Earl of, a title in the peerage of Scotland, conferred in 1633, on Sir David Carnegie of Kinniard, eldest son of Sir David Carnegie of Panbride, also designed of Colluthie, by his second wife, and grandson of Sir Robert Carnegie of Kinniard, appointed a lord of session, July 4, 1547. Sir David was knighted by James VI., and in 1604 nominated one of the parliamentary commissioners for the projected union betwixt England and Scotland. He was also a visitor of the university of St. Andrews. In the parliament which sat in 1612, he was one of the commissioners for the shire of Fife. In 1615 he was a member of the court of high commission. He was first created a peer by the title of Lord Carnegie of Kinniard, 14th April 1616, to him and his heirs male, bearing the name and arms of Carnegie. He was constituted an ordinary lord of session 5th July 1616, and he was one of the royal commissioners to the Perth assembly which met 25th August 1618, when the obnoxious five articles passed. In the parliament which met soon after, he was appointed commissioner for the plantation of kirks, as well as for the abolition of hereditary jurisdictions then contemplated by James VI. On 15th February 1626, he was admitted one of the extraordinary lords of session, and removed 8th February 1628. At the coronation of Charles I. in Scotland in 1633, he was created earl of Southesk, Lord Carnegie of Kinniard and Leuchars, by patent, bearing date, Holyrood-house, 22n June of that year, the preamble narrating the eminent services of his grandfather and father, with remainder to his heirs male for ever. In 1641 he was one of the noblemen selected by the king and parliament to be privy councilors, and in 1645 he was one of the committee of estates to whom the whole management of the country was intrusted, as also in 1648 and 1651. He held the office of high sheriff of Forfarshire. In 1654 he was fined £3,000 by Cromwell’s act of grace and pardon. He died at Kinniard in February 1658. By his wife, Margaret, daughter of Sir David Lindsay of Edzell, he had, with six daughters, four sons. 1. David, Lord Carnegie, who predeceased his father. 2. James, second earl of Southesk. 3. Hon. Sir John Carnegie of Craig. He had a charter, with his father, of Ulyshaven or Usan, in 1619, of Fearn to himself the same year, and of Pittarrow in the Mearns in 1631. 4. Hon. Sir Alexander Carnegie of Pittarrow. Lady Magdalen Carnegie, the youngest daughter, was the wife of the great marquis of Montrose. The first earl of Southesk had three brothers. 1. John, first earl of Northesk. 2. Sir Robert Carnegie of Dunnichen and Caraldstone, knight. 3. Alexander, ancestor of the Carnegies of Balnamoon.

Sir David Carnegie of Panbride, their father, was brother to Sir John Carnegie of Kinniard, who died without male issue. Sir David, by his marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of William Ramsay of Colluthie, Fifeshire, obtained the lands of Leuchars Ramsay and Colluthie. She was his first wife, and had two daughters, one of whom got Leuchars Ramsay, and the other, Margaret, the estate of Colluthie. The latter married William Dundas of Fingask, and with her husband’s consent, she disponed Colluthie to her father, as her sister did Leuchars. Sir David Carnegie took for his second wife a daughter of Wemyss of Wemyss. In 1583 he obtained to himself and Euphemia Wemyss his wife, a charter of the lands of Colluthie. According to Archbishop Spottiswoode, Sir David Carnegie of Colluthie was a wise, peaceable, and sober man, in good credit and estimation with the king, and taken into the privy council for his knowledge of civil affairs. In 1595 he was constituted one of the eight commissioners of the treasury, called from their number the Octavians.

James, second earl of Southesk, had a charter, in his father’s lifetime, of the barony of Rossie, Forfarshire, 25th March 1632. In 1650 he waited on Charles II. in Holland, and in August 1652 was one of the commissioners chosen for Scotland to sit in the parliament of England. He succeeded his father in 1658, and in August 1660 he killed the master of Gray in a duel near London. He was sworn a privy councilor to Charles II., and had a grant of the office of sheriff of Forfar. He died at Kinniard in March 1669. By his wife, Lady Rachel Ker, relict of Halyburton of Pitcur, and youngest daughter of the first earl of Roxburghe, he had, with two daughters, a son, Robert, third earl of Southesk.

Robert, 3d earl, was captain in the Scottish guards in France, and afterwards colonel of the Forfarshire militia. He had a grant of the office of sheriff of Forfar, to him and his son, 29th April 1682. He died 19th February 1688. He married Lady Anne Hamilton, eldest daughter of the 2d duke of Hamilton, a lady who figures conspicuously in the ‘Memoires de Grammont,’ in which work is an engraving of her ladyship, from a drawing after Sir Peter Lely. Subjoined is a woodcut of the seal of James, earl of Southesk:

[seal of James earl of Southesk]

They had two sons; Charles, fourth earl of Southesk, and the Hon. William Carnegie, killed in a duel at Paris, in 1681, by William Talmash, son of the duchess of Lauderdale.

The fourth earl of Southesk was, on 8th May 1688, served heir male of his father in his extensive estates in the counties of Aberdeen, Dumfries, Fife, Forfar, Kincardine, Kirkcudbright, Peebles, and Selkirk. Disapproving of the Revolution, he never went to court or parliament after that event, and died 9th August 1699. By his wife, Lady Mary Maitland, second daughter of the third earl of Lauderdale, he had James, fifth earl. This nobleman engaged in the rebellion of 1715, and was attainted by act of parliament. His estates, at that time of the annual rental of £3,271, probably about a tenth of their present value, were forfeited to the crown. In 1717 an act passed to enable his majesty to make provision for his wife and children. He died in France in 1729. He married Lady Margaret Stewart, eldest daughter of the fifth earl of Galloway, and had a son and a daughter, who both died young. With this earl the elder branch became extinct. His countess took for her second husband John, master of Sinclair.

The representation of the family devolved on Sir James Carnegie of Pittarrow, descended from Hon. Sir Alexander Carnegie of Pittarrow, fourth son of the first earl of Southesk. He died before 1680. By his wife, Margaret Arbuthnott, sister of the first Viscount Arbuthnott, he had, with two daughters, two sons. 1. Sir David, first baronet. 2. Mungo Carnegie of Birkhill, advocate.

The elder son, Sir David Carnegie, created a baronet of Nova Scotia Feb. 2, 1663, married, first, Catherine, second daughter of Sir Archibald Primrose of Dalmeny, lord-register, sister of the first earl of Rosebery, by whom he had a son, Sir John, and two daughters, the elder of whom, Margaret, married Henry Fletcher of Salton, and was mother of Andrew Fletcher of Salton, a lord of session under the title of Lord Milton; 2dly, Catherine, daughter of Robert Gordon of Pitlurg, widow of the second Viscount Arbuthnott, without issue; 3dly, Jean, daughter of Burnet of Lagaron, by whom he had two sons and two daughters. The eldest son, Sir John Carnegie, 2d baronet, died in April 1729, leaving, by his wife, Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Burnet of Leys, 5 sons and 5 daughters. George, the youngest son, a merchant at Gottenburgh, purchased the lands of Pittarrow, and married in 1769, Susan, daughter of David Scott of Benholm, Kincardineshire, with issue.

Sir James Carnegie of Pittarrow, the eldest son, 3d baronet, became heir male of the family of Southesk, and was allowed, by act of parliament, in 1764, to purchase from the York Building Company, into whose possession they had come, the forfeited estates of the family in Forfarshire, for which he paid £36,870 14s. 2d. He was a captain in the army, and M.P. for Kincardineshire, and had 4 sons and 2 daughters.

The eldest son, Sir David Carnegie of Kinniard, 4th baronet, repurchased several estates of his family in Fifeshire, and rebuilt the castle of Kinniard; M.P. for Forfarshire. He died in London 25th May 1805. By his wife, Agnes Murray Elliot, daughter of Andrew Elliot, Esq., of Greenwells, Roxburghshire, he had 2 sons and 10 daughters. Emma, the 9th daughter, married Douglas of Cavers; and Magdalene, the youngest, became, in 1816, the wife of Sir Andrew Agnew, baronet.

Sir James Carnegie of Kinniard, the elder son, then a minor, succeeded as 5th baronet. Born in 1799, he was at one time M.P. for the Montrose burghs. He claimed the earldom of Southesk, and died Jan. 30, 1849. By his wife, Charlotte, daughter of Rev. Daniel Lysons, F.R.S., of Hemsted Court, Gloucestershire, author of the ‘Magna Britannia,’ he had 3 sons and 2 daughters; 1st, James; 2d. John, born 1829 lieutenant, R.N.; 3d Charles, born 1833, M.P. for Forfarshire, 1860; 4th, Lady Charlotte, born in 1839, married in 1860, Thomas F.S. Fotheringham, Esq., of Fotheringham; 5th, Agnes, died in 1842.
His eldest son, Sir James Carnegie of Kinniard, born at Edinburgh in 1827, succeeded as 6th baronet. Educated at Sandhurst military college, he entered the army in 1845. He served for five months in the 92d foot, and was afterwards for three years in the grenadier guards. By the reversal of the attainder, by act of parliament in 1855, the titles of earl of Southesk, and Lord Carnegie of Kinniard and Leuchars, which had been attainted in 1716, were restored to him with the original precedence, and his brothers and sister were subsequently restored to their relative rank as children of an earl. He married in 1849, Lady Catherine Hamilton Noel, 2d daughter of 1st earl of Gainsburough, and had by her 3 daughters; 1st, Lady Arabella Charlotte, born 1850; 2d Lady Constance Mary, born in 1851; 3d, Lady Beatrice-Cecilia-Diana, born in 1852; and one son, Charles Noel, Lord Carnegie, born in 1854. Her ladyship died in 1855. He married 2dly, in 1860, Lady Susan Catherine-Mary Murray, eldest daughter of 6th earl of Dunmore. The earl was lord-lieutenant of Kincardineshire from 1849 to 1856.