GALLOWAY,
a surname derived from a district in the south-west of Scotland, which
took its name from the Gael, Galli, or Irish settlers, in the eighth and
two following centuries, and which acquired the name of Gallwalia,
Gallawidia, Gallowagia, Gallwadia, Gallweia, Gallway, Galloway. The name
may be merely Galliway or Gaelway, the bay of the Gael or Irish. “A
Gaelic etymologist,” says Chalmers, “would probably derive the etymon of
Galloway from Gallbagh, which the English would pronounce Gallwa or
Gallway, the estuary or bay of the strangers or foreigners. It seems
more than probably that this difficult name was originally imposed by
the Irish settlers, and afterwards Saxonised, from the coincidence of
the name. The legends of the country, however, attribute the origin of
the name to King Galdus, who fought and fell on the bay of Wigton. This
is the fabulous Galdus who is said by Boece and Buchanan to have opposed
the Romans, though conducted by Agricola. We may herein see a slight
trait of history, by connecting the fictitious Galdus with the real
Galgac, who fought Agricola at the foot of the Grampians.” [Chalmers’
Caledonia, vol. i. p. 359.]
Of this
surname was a distinguished officer of the Indian army, General Sir
Archibald Galloway, K.C.B., who served the East India Company for
thirty-five years, and during that long period, besides actions in the
field, was present at six sieges and seven storms, in four of which he
was closely engaged. He was the son of Mr. James Galloway of Perth, and
in 1799 he was appointed, as a cadet, to the 58th native
infantry, of which he became the colonel in 1836. He was present at the
siege of Delhi, and was one of the handful of men to whom the Company
owed the remarkable defence of that city, when besieged by an army of
70,000 men, with 130 pieces of cannon. He was also at the siege of
Bhurtpore, under lord Lake, and commanded the corps of sappers, the most
distinguished in the army for the hard and hazardous service it had to
perform. On two most sanguinary assaults he led this corps at the head
of the forlorn hope, and in the latter was desperately wounded. Lord
William Bentinck, when governor-general, nominated him to be one of the
members of the Military Board under its new constitution, and on his
departure from India, he received an expression of the high approbation
of the governor-general in council. His services were honoured with
public approbation by commanders-in-chief in India, on nine different
occasions, and by the supreme government of India, or the Court of
Directors and superior authorities in England, on upwards of thirty
occasions, the former twenty-one, and the latter eleven times. He was
the author of a Commentary on the Moohummuddan Law, and another on the
Law, Constitution, and Government of India. His work on Sieges in India,
at the recommendation of General Mudge of the royal engineers, was
reprinted by the Court of Directors, and used at their military college.
It was likewise, by the orders of the marquis of Hastings when
governor-general, distributed to the army for general instruction. He
wrote also other military treatises. In 1838 he was nominated a
Companion of the Bath, and in 1848 a Knight Commander. In 1846 he was
elected a director of the East India Company, and in 1849 he officiated
as chairman, which office he held at the time of his death, which took
place at London on 6th April 1850, aged 70.
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GALLOWAY, lord of,
the ancient title of the feudatory princes of that extensive district
which, in former times, comprehended not only the shire of Wigton and
the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, to which the name is now restricted, but
also part of Dumfries-shire and the greatest part of Ayrshire. The first
lord of Galloway mentioned in history with any certainty, is Jacob, who
in 973 was one of the eight reguli who met Edgar at Chester. Fergus, a
subsequent lord of Galloway, flourished in the reign of David the First.
At his death his extensive inheritance was divided between his two sons,
Gilbert and Uchtred. The former was the ancestor of the earls of
Carrick; the latter was murdered by Gilbert’s son, Malcolm, by order of
his father, 22d September 1174.
Uchtred’s son,
Roland, on the death of Gilbert, in 1185, possessed himself of all
Galloway; but by the interposition of King Henry the Second of England,
he relinquished Carrick to his cousin Duncan, the son of gilbert. On his
marriage with Eva, or Elena, daughter of Richard de Moreville, high
constable of Scotland, he obtained that office, in right of his wife.
His eldest son, Alan, lord of Galloway, died in 1234. By his first wife,
whose name is not known, Alan had a daughter, Elena, married to Roger de
Quincy, earl of Winchester, who, in her right, became constable of
Scotland. By his second wife, Margaret, eldest daughter of David, earl
of Huntingdon, brother of King Malcolm the Fourth, and King William, he
had two daughters, Devorgoil, married to John de Baliol, lord of Barnard
castle, through which marriage sprung the claim of his fourth but only
surviving son, John Baliol, to the Scottish crown, and Christian, the
wife of William de Fortibus, earl of Albermarle. Having, by a third
wife, no issue, Alan’s lordship was divided among the three daughters.
Devorgoil’s only daughter, Marjory, was married to John Cumyn of
Badenoch, a competitor for the crown.
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GALLOWAY, earl of,
a title possessed by the family of Stewart of Garlies (conferred in
1623), descended from Sir Walter Stewart, son of Sir James Stewart of
Bonkyl, and grandson of Alexander high steward of Scotland. This Sir
Walter Stewart obtained the barony of Garlies, in Wigtonshire, from John
Randolph, earl of Moray, by charter, wherein the earl denominates him
his uncle. His son, Sir John Stewart of Dalswinton, was made prisoner at
the battle of Durham in 1346, and in 1357 was one of the hostages for
King David the Second. His grand-daughter (Marion Stewart, heiress of
her father, Sir Walter Stewart of Dalswinton) married, 17th
October, 1396, Sir John Stewart, son of Sir William Stewart of Jedworth,
sheriff of Teviotdale, and left two sons, William and John, the latter
provost of Glasgow. The elder son, Sir William Stewart of Dalswinton and
Garlies, obtained the estate of Minto in 1429, after much opposition
from the Turnbulls, the former possessors. Sir William’s third son, Sir
Thomas Stewart of Minto, was ancestor of the Lords Blantyre. His eldest
surviving son, Sir Alexander Stewart, succeeded him, and the
great-grandson of the latter, Sir Alexander Stewart of Garlies, was one
of the prisoners taken at the rout of Solway, in November 1542. He
appears to have been released in 1543, on giving his son and heir
Alexander as his hostage. He died in 1590, and (his son, Alexander, the
same who offered to fight Kirkaldy of Grange in 1571, having been killed
with the regent Lennox the same year,) he was succeeded by his grandson,
Sir Alexander Stewart of Garlies, who married Christian, daughter of Sir
William Douglas of Drumlanrig, and died in 1596.
His elder son,
Sir Alexander Stewart, was the first peer of the family. After being
knighted by King James the Sixth, he was created Lord Garlies by patent,
dated at Whitehall, 19th July 1607, when he was sworn of the
privy council. On 9th September 1623 he was created earl of
Galloway. He was also of the privy council of Charles the First, and
died in 1649. His elder son, Alexander, Lord Garlies, having predeceased
him, his second son, Sir James Stewart, who had been created a baronet
in 1627, became the second earl. For his loyalty to the king, he was in
1654 fined £4,000 by Cromwell’s act of grace and pardon. He died in June
1671. His elder son, Alexander, third earl, was succeeded by his eldest
son, Alexander, fourth earl, who died unmarried in 1694, whereupon his
next brother, James, became fifth earl. In 1706 he was appointed one of
the commissioners of the treasury, and sworn a privy councillor, but
nevertheless opposed the treaty of union in all its articles, except two
or three. He died 16th February 1746.
His eldest
son, Alexander, sixth earl, died at Six in Provence, 24th
September 1773, in the 79th year of his age. His eldest son,
Alexander, Lord Garlies, predeceased him in 1738, in the 19th
year of his age. A Collection of poems printed at Glasgow contains a
tribute to the memory of this young nobleman (inserted in the
Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. ix. p. 97), by his friend and fellow-student,
the Hon. Mr. Boyle. His next brother having also died young, John, the
third son, became seventh earl of Galloway. The sixth earl’s third and
youngest son, the Hon. Keith Stewart of Glasserton, appointed a captain
in the royal navy in 1762, commanded the Berwick in Admiral Keppel’s
engagement with the French fleet in 1778, and the same ship, with a
commodore’s broad pendant, in Admiral Parker’s action with the Dutch on
the Dogger bank in August 1781. In the following year he commanded the
Cambridge, in Lord Howe’s squadron sent to the relief of Gibraltar, when
they had an engagement with the combined fleets. He became rear-admiral
in 1790, and vice-admiral in 1794. At the general election of 1768, he
had been chosen M.P. for the county of Wigton, and was rechosen three
times afterwards. In 1784, he vacated his seat, on being appointed
receiver-general of the land tax of Scotland. He died 5th May
1795, aged 56. His eldest son, Archibald Keith Stewart, was a midshipman
on board the Queen Charlotte, Lord Howe’s flag ship, on the glorious
first of June 1794, and in the same vessel, bearing Lord Bridport’s
flag, when the French fleet were defeated off Port L’Orient, 23d June
1796. Next day, a fatal curiosity led him over the ship’s side, to
observe the carpenters stopping the shot-holes, when he lost his hold,
fell into the sea, and was drowned, in the 13th year of his
age. Admiral Stewart’s second son, the Right Hon. James Alexander
Stewart, born in 1784, married Mary Lady Hood, eldest daughter and
coheir of Francis Lord Seaforth, and assumed the surname of Stewart
Mackenzie. This gentleman, who was governor of the island of Ceylon, and
subsequently lord high commissioner of the Ionian islands, died 24th
September 1843, leaving issue Keith William Stewart Mackenzie of
Seaforth, and other children.
John, seventh
earl of Galloway, was, in 1768, while Lord Garlies, appointed one of the
gentlemen of the board of police, and on 15th August 1772,
one of the commissioners of trade and plantations. He founded the town
and seaport of Garlieston, in Wigtonshire, He succeeded his father in
1773, and on 25th January following was constituted one of
the lords of police. He was invested with the order of the Thistle, 1st
November 1775. He warmly supported the Pitt administration on its
formation in December 1783, and on 2d January was appointed one of the
lords of the bedchamber. At the general election in 1774 he had been
chosen one of the sixteen representative Scots peers, and was rechosen
in 1780 and in 1784. He was created a British peer by the title of Baron
Stewart of Garlies, in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, 28th
May 1796, with limitation to the heirs male of his body. He died at
Galloway house, Wigtonshire, 14th November 1806, in his 71st
year.
His eldest
son, Alexander, Lord Garlies, having died young, the second son, George,
succeeded as eighth earl. The fourth son, the Hon. William Stewart,
entered the army young, and after passing through subordinate
gradations, became lieutenant-colonel of the 95th foot, 25th
August 1800. The same year he was severely wounded at the unsuccessful
attempt on Ferrol. He attained the rank of colonel 2d April 1801, and
the same month accompanied the immortal Nelson to the attack on
Copenhagen. He was highly spoken of in his lordship’s despatches, and
after that attack, he concluded the convention with the Danes, by which
the northern confederacy was broken. In 1804 he was a brigadier on the
staff, and in 1805 he published ‘Outlines of a Plan for the general
reform of the British Land Forces.’ In the expedition to Egypt, in 1807,
he accompanied Major-general Mackenzie Fraser as third in command. After
the surrender of Alexandria, on 20th March that year, a body
of troops under Major-general Wauchope, second in command, was sent to
take Rosetta, but was repulsed, and Wauchope being killed,
Brigadier-general Stewart marched from Alexandria on 3d April, at the
head of 2,500 men, and invested Rosetta. Though wounded, the very day of
his arrival before that place, he never quitted his post; but, deceived
in his expectations of support from the Mamelukes, and the enemy,
consisting of Turks, Albanians, and Egyptians, increasing in force, he
was obliged to abandon the bombardment, and retreat to Alexandria, which
he reached on 24th April, that city being soon after
evacuated. He had the rank of major-general 7th May 1808, and
was appointed colonel commandant of the 3d battalion of the 95th
foot, 2d September 1809. In 1795 he had been elected M.P. for Saltash in
the room of his brother Lord Garlies. He died in 1827. Two of his
younger brothers, the Hon. Edward Richard Stewart, and the Hon. James
Henry Keith Stewart, were also officers in the army.
George, eighth
earl of Galloway, entered the navy in March 1780, and served in the
Berwick, 74, in the action with the Dutch fleet, on the Dogger bank, in
August 1781. He was appointed lieutenant 8th August 1789,
master and commandant 1790, and commanded the Vulcan fire-ship in the
squadron which sailed to the Mediterranean under Lord Hood in May 1793.
The same year he was promoted to the rank of captain. In command of the
Winchelsea frigate, he assisted materially in the reduction of
Martinique, St. Lucia, and Guadaloupe, 11th April 1794, and
was mentioned in Sir John Jervis’ despatches to the secretary of the
admiralty, as having “acquitted himself with great address and spirit in
the service, although he received a bad contusion from the fire of a
battery against which he placed his ship, in the ‘good old way,’ within
half-musket shot.” His lordship commanded the Lively frigate in Jervis’
fleet at the glorious victory off Cape St. Vincent, 14th
February 1797, and was sent home with the news of that signal action. He
was appointed one of the lords of the admiralty 13th April
1805; but on the change of administration, in the following February, he
quitted the board. On 28th March 1807 he was appointed
lord-lieutenant and sheriff principal of Wigtonshire, and 20th
January 1808 he moved the address of thanks in the House of Lords for
the king’s speech. In 1810 he became rear-admiral of the Blue squadron.
He was a knight of the Thistle. He died 27th March 1834.
His eldest
son, Randolph Stewart, ninth earl, born at Coolhurst in Sussex, in 1800,
was lord-lieutenant of Kirkcudbright, but resigned in 1844; and of
Wigtonshire, but resigned in 1851. While Lord Garlies he was M.P. for
Cockermouth from 1826 to 1831. He married, in 1833, Lady Harriet Blanche
Somerset, 7th daughter of the 6th duke of
Beaufort, issue, Alan Plantagenet, Lord Garlies, 4 other sons and 7
daughters.
The earl of
Galloway claims the representation of the line of Darnley, on the ground
that as Sir William Stewart of Jedworth was brother of Sir John Stewart
of Darnley, 9(which, however, Mr. Andrew Stuart, in his Genealogical
History of the Stewarts, argues against the probability of,) the
earl of Galloway, the lineal descendant of the former, must be the
representative of the family after the death of Cardinal York.
GALLOWAY, ROBERT,
author of ‘Poems, Epistles, and Songs, chiefly in the Scottish dialect,’
was born at Stirling in June 1752. He was bred a shoemaker, but finding
that occupation too sedentary for a weak habit of body, he became a
bookseller, and rhymster, and kept a circulating library in Glasgow. His
poems were published in that city in 1788, and the volume contained also
a brief account of the Revolution of 1688, &c. He died March 4, 1794.
