Chapter IX (2)

John, the second Marquis, and first Duke, of Athole, designated Lord John Murray, was one of the commissioners for inquiring into the massacre of Glencoe in 1693. He was created a peer in his father’s lifetime, by the title of Earl of Tullibardine, Viscount of Glenalmond, and Lord Murray, for life, by patent dated 27th July 1696, and in April 1703 he was appointed lord privy seal. On the 30th July of that year, immediately after his father’s death, he was created Duke of Athole, by Queen Anne, and invested with the order of the Thistle. His grace died 14th November 1724. He was twice married; first to Catherine, daughter of the Duke of Hamilton, by whom he had six sons and a daughter, and secondly to Mary, daughter of William Lord Ross, by whom he had three sons and a daughter. His eldest son John, Marquis of Tullibardine, died in 1709. His second son William, who succeeded his brother, was the Marquis of Tullibardine who acted the prominent part in both the Scottish rebellions of last century, which is recorded in the former part of this work. In 1745 he accompanied Prince Charles Edward to Scotland, and landed with him at Borodale 25th July. He was styled Duke of Athole by the Jacobites. After the battle of Culloden he fled to the westward, intending to embark for the isle of Mull, but being unable, from the bad state of his health, to bear the fatigue of travelling under concealment, he surrendered, on the 27th April 1746, to Mr Buchanan of Drummakill, a Stirlingshire gentleman. Being conveyed to London he was committed to the Tower, where he died on the 9th July following.

James, the second Duke of Athole, was the third son of the first duke. He succeeded to the dukedom on the death of his father in November 1724, in the lifetime of his elder brother William, attainted by parliament. Being maternal great-grandson of James, seventh Earl of Derby, upon the death of the tenth earl of that line, he claimed and was allowed the English barony of Strange, which had been conferred on Lord Derby by writ of summons, in 1628. His grace was married, first to Jean, sister of Sir John Frederick, Bart., by whom he had a son and two daughters; secondly to Jane, daughter of John Drummond of Megginch, who had no issue. The latter was the heroine of Dr Austen’s song of ‘For lack of gold she’s left me, O!’ She was betrothed to that gentleman, a physician in Edinburgh, when the Duke of Athole saw her, and falling in love with her, made proposals of marriage, which were accepted; and, as Burns says, she jilted the doctor. Having survived her first husband, she married a second time, Lord Adam Gordon.

The son and the eldest daughter of the second Duke of Athole died young. Charlotte, his youngest daughter, succeeded on his death, which took place in 1764, to the barony of Strange and the sovereignty of the Isle of Man. She married her cousin John Murray, Esq., eldest son of Lord George Murray, fifth son of the first duke, and the celebrated generalissimo of the forces of the Pretender in 1745. Though Lord George was attainted by parliament for his share in the rebellion, his son was allowed to succeed his uncle and father-in-law as third duke, and in 1765 he and his duchess disposed of their sovereignty of the Isle of Man to the British government, for seventy thousand pounds, reserving, however, their landed interest in the island, with the patronage of the bishopric and other ecclesiastical benefices, on payment of the annual sum of one hundred and one pounds fifteen shillings and eleven pence, and rendering two falcons to the kings and queens of England upon the days of their coronation. His grace, who had five sons and two daughters, died 5th November 1774, and was succeeded by his eldest son John, fourth duke, who in 1786 was created Earl Strange and Baron Murray of Stanley, in the peerage of the United Kingdom. He died in 1830. The fourth duke was succeeded by his eldest son John, who was for many years a recluse, and died single 14th September 1846. His next brother James, a major-general in the army, was created a peer of the United Kingdom, as baron Glenlyon of Glenlyon, in the county of Perth, 9th July 1821. He married in May 1810, Emily Frances, second daughter of the Duke of Northumberland, and by her he had two sons and two daughters. He died in 1837. His eldest son, George Augustus Frederick John, Lord Glenlyon, became, on the death of his uncle in 1846, sixth Duke of Athole. He died in 1864, and was succeeded by his only son, John James Hugh Henry, seventh Duke of Athole. The family residence of the Duke of Athole is Blair Castle, Perthshire, a view of which, as restored in 1872, is here given.

The first baronet of the OCHTERTYRE family was William Moray of Ochtertyre, who was created a baron of Nova Scotia, with remainder to his heirs male, 7th June 1673. He was descended from Patrick Moray, the first styled of Ochtertyre, who died in 1476, a son of Sir David Moray of Tullibardine. The family continued to spell their name Moray till 1739, when the present orthography, Murray, was adopted by Sir William, third baronet.

DRUMMOND.

The name of DRUMMOND may be derived originally from the parish of Drymen, in what is now the western district of Stirlingshire. The Gaelic name is _Druiman_, signifying a ridge, or high ground.

An ancestor of the noble family of Perth thus fancifully interprets the origin of the name: _Drum_ in Gaelic signifies a height, and _onde_ a wave, the name being given to Maurice the Hungarian, to express how gallantly he had conducted through the swelling waves the ship in which prince Edgar and his two sisters had embarked for Hungary, when they were driven out of their course, on the Scottish coast. There are other conjectural derivations of the name, but the territorial definition above-mentioned appears to be the most probable one.

The chief of the family at the epoch of their first appearing in written records was Malcolm Beg (or the little), chamberlain on the estate of Levenax, and the fifth from the Hungarian Maurice, who married Ada, daughter of Malduin, third Earl of Lennox, by Beatrix, daughter of Walter, lord high steward of Scotland, and died before 1260.

Two of his grandsons are recorded as having sworn fealty to Edward the First.

The name of one of them, Gilbert de Dromund, “del County de Dunbretan,” appears in Prvnne’s copy of the Ragman Roll. He was Drummond of Balquapple in Perthshire, and had a son, Malcolm de Drummond, who also swore fealty to Edward in 1296, and was father of Bryce Drummond, killed in 1330 by the Monteiths.

DRUMMOND.

The other, the elder brother of Gilbert, named Sir John de Dromund, married his relation, a daughter of Walter Stewart, Earl of Menteith, and countess in her own right.

His eldest son, Sir Malcolm de Drummond, attached himself firmly to the cause of Bruce. King Robert, after the battle of Bannockburn, bestowed upon him certain lands in Perthshire. He married a daughter of Sir Patrick Graham of Kincardine, elder brother of Sir John Graham, and ancestor of the family of Montrose. He had a son, Sir Malcolm Drummond, who died about 1346. The latter had three sons, John, Maurice, and Walter. The two former married heiresses.

Maurice’s lady was sole heiress of Concraig and of the stewardship of Strathearn, to both of which he succeeded.

The wife of John, the eldest son, was Mary, eldest daughter and co-heiress of Sir William de Montefex, with whom he got the lands of Auchterarder, Kincardine in Monteith, Cargill, and Stobhall in Perthshire. He had four sons, Sir Malcolm, Sir John, William, and Dougal; and three daughters--Annabella, married, in 1357, John, Earl of Carrick, high steward of Scotland, afterwards King Robert the Third, and thus became Queen of Scotland, and the mother of David, Duke of Rothesay, starved to death in the palace of Falkland, in 1402, and of James the First, as well as of three daughters; Margaret, married to Sir Colin Campbell of Lochow, Jean, to Stewart of Donally, and Mary, to Macdonald of the Isles.

About 1360, in consequence of a feud which had long subsisted between the Drummonds and the Menteiths of Rusky, the residence of the family seems to have been transferred from Drymen, in Stirlingshire, where they had chiefly lived for about two hundred years, to Stobhall, in Perthshire, which had some years before come into their possession by marriage.

Sir Malcolm Drummond, the eldest son, succeeded to the earldom of Mar in right of his wife, Lady Isabel Douglas, only daughter of William, first Earl of Douglas. His death was a violent one, having been seized by a band of ruffians and imprisoned till he died “of his hard captivity.” This happened before 27th May 1403. Not long after his death, Alexander Stewart, a natural son of “the Wolf of Badenoch,” a bandit and robber by profession, having cast his eyes on the lands of the earldom, stormed the countess’ castle of Kildrummie; and, either by violence or persuasion, obtained her in marriage. As Sir Malcolm Drummond had died without issue, his brother, John, succeeded him.

John’s eldest son, Sir Walter Drummond, was knighted by King James the Second, and died in 1455. He had three sons: Sir Malcolm his successor; John, dean of Dunblane; and Walter of Ledcrieff, ancestor of the Drummonds of BLAIR-DRUMMOND (now the HOME DRUMMONDS, Henry Home, the celebrated Lord Kames, having married Agatha, daughter of James Drummond of Blair-Drummond, and successor in the estate to her nephew in 1766); of Cairdrum; of Newton, and other families of the name.

The eldest son of the main stem, that is, the CARGILL and STOBHALL family, Sir Malcolm by name, had great possessions in the counties of Dumbarton, Perth, and Stirling, and died in 1470. By his wife Marion, daughter of Murray of Tullibardine, he had six sons. His eldest son, Sir John, was first Lord Drummond.

Sir John, the eldest son, was a personage of considerable importance in the reigns of James the Third and Fourth, having been concerned in most of the public transactions of that period. He died in 1519.

By his wife, Lady Elizabeth Lindsay, daughter of David, Duke of Montrose, the first Lord Drummond, had three sons, and six daughters, the eldest of whom, Margaret, was mistress to James the Fourth. Malcolm, the eldest son, predeceased his father. William, the second son, styled master of Drummond, suffered on the scaffold.

William had two sons, Walter and Andrew, ancestor of the Drummonds of BELLYCLONE. Walter died in 1518, before his grandfather. By Lady Elizabeth Graham, daughter of the first Earl of Montrose, he had a son, David, second Lord Drummond, who was served heir to his great-grandfather, John, first lord, 17th February 1520. Of his two sons, Patrick, the elder, was third Lord Drummond; James, the younger, created, 31st January 1609, Lord Maderty, was ancestor of the viscounts of Strathallan.

Patrick, third Lord Drummond, embraced the reformed religion, and spent some time in France. He died before 1600. He was twice married, and by his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of David Lindsay of Edzell, eventually Earl of Crawford, he had two sons and five daughters.

The elder son, James, fourth Lord Drummond, passed a considerable portion of his youth in France, and after James the Sixth’s accession to the English throne he attended the Earl of Nottingham on an embassy to the Spanish court. On his return he was created Earl of Perth, 4th March 1605. John, the younger son, succeeded his brother in 1611, as second Earl of Perth.

The Hon. John Drummond, second son of James, third Earl of Perth, was created in 1685 Viscount, and in 1686 Earl of Melfort; and his representative Captain George Drummond, duc de Melfort, and Count de Lussan in France, whose claim to the earldom of Perth in the Scottish peerage was established by the House of Lords, June 1853, is the chief of the clan Drummond, which, more than any other, signalised itself by its fidelity to the lost cause of the Stuarts.

GRAHAM.

The surname GRÆME, or GRAHAM, is said to be derived from the Gaelic word _grumach_, applied to a person of a stern countenance and manner. It may possibly, however, be connected with the British word _grym_, signifying strength, seen in _grime’s dyke_, erroneously called Graham’s dyke, the name popularly given to the wall of Antoninus, from an absurd fable of Fordun and Boece, that one _Greme_, traditionally said to have governed Scotland during the minority of the fabulous Eugene the Second, broke through the mighty rampart erected by the Romans between the rivers Forth and Clyde. It is unfortunate for this fiction that the first authenticated person who bore the name in North Britain was Sir William de Græme (the undoubted ancestor of the Dukes of Montrose and all “the gallant Grahams” in this country), who came to Scotland in the reign of David the First, from whom he received the lands of Abercorn and Dalkeith, and witnessed the charter of that monarch to the monks of the abbey of Holyrood in 1128. In Gaelic _grim_ means war, battle. Anciently, the word Grimesdike was applied to trenches, roads, and boundaries, and was not confined to Scotland.

This Anglo-Norman knight, Sir William de Graham, had two sons, Peter and John, in whom the direct line was carried on. The elder, Peter de Graham, styled of Dalkeith and Abercorn, had also two sons, Henry and William. Henry the elder, witnessed some of the charters of King William the Lion. He was succeeded by his son Henry, whose son, also named Henry, by marrying the daughter of Roger Avenel (who died in 1243), acquired the extensive estates of Avenel, in Eskdale. His grandson, Sir John de Graham of Dalkeith, had a son, John de Graham, who dying without issue, was the last of the elder line of the original stock of the Grahams.

The male line of the family was carried on by the younger son of Sir William de Graham first above mentioned, John de Graham, whose son, David de Graham, obtained from his cousin, Henry, the son of Peter de Graham, the lands of Clifton and Clifton Hall in Mid-Lothian, and from King William the Lion those of Charlton and Barrowfield, as well as the lordship of Kinnaber, all in Forfarshire. This was the first connection of the family with the district near Montrose, whence they subsequently derived their ducal title. His eldest son, also named Sir David de Graham, had, from Patrick, Earl of Dunbar, in the reign of King Alexander the Second, with other lands, those of Dundaff, in Stirlingshire. The son of Sir David de Graham last mentioned, also named Sir David de Graham, who appears to have held the office of sheriff of the county of Berwick, acquired from Malise, Earl of Strathearn, the lands of Kincardine, in Perthshire, which became one of the chief designations of the family. He died about 1270. By his wife, Annabella, daughter of Robert, Earl of Strathearn, he had three sons, namely, Sir Patrick, who succeeded him; the celebrated Sir John the Graham, the companion of Wallace; and Sir David, one of the nominees, his eldest brother being another, of Baliol, in his competition for the crown of Scotland, 1292. His eldest son, Sir Patrick Graham of Kincardine, fell in battle against the English at Dunbar, 28th April 1296. Another son, Sir David de Graham, a favourite name among the early Grahams, was also designed of Kincardine. From Robert the First, in consideration of his good and faithful services, he had several grants, and exchanged with that monarch his property of Cardross in Dumbartonshire for the lands of “Old Montrose” in Forfarshire. He died in 1327.

Sir William Graham of KINCARDINE, his great-grandson, was frequently employed in negociations with the English relative to the liberation of King James the First. He was twice married. By his first wife he had two sons, Alexander,--who predeceased him, leaving two sons,--and John. His second wife was the princess Mary Stewart, second daughter of King Robert the Second, widow of the Earl of Angus and of Sir James Kennedy of Dunure; after Sir William Graham’s death she took for her fourth husband Sir William Edmonstone of Duntreath. By this lady he had five sons, namely, 1. Sir Robert Graham of Strathcarron, ancestor of the Grahams of Fintry, of Claverhouse, and of Duntrune. 2. Patrick Graham, consecrated bishop of Brechin, in 1463, and three years after translated to the see of St. Andrews. 3. William, ancestor of the Grahams of Garvoch in Perthshire, from a younger son of whom came the Grahams of Balgowan, the most celebrated of which family was the gallant Sir Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch, the hero of Barossa. 4. Henry, of whom nothing is known. 5. Walter, of Wallacetown, Dumbartonshire, ancestor of the Grahams of Knockdolian in Carrick, and their cadets.

Patrick Graham, of Kincardine, the son of Alexander, the eldest son, succeeded his grandfather, and was created a peer of parliament in 1451, under the title of Lord Graham. He died in 1465. His only son, William, second Lord Graham, married lady Anne Douglas, eldest daughter of the fourth Earl of Angus, and had two sons, William, third Lord Graham, and George, ancestor of the Grahams of Calendar.

William, third Lord Graham, sat in the first parliament of King James the Fourth, 1488; and on 3d March, 1504-5, he was created Earl of Montrose, a charter being granted to him of that date, of his hereditary lands of “Auld Montrose,” which were then erected into a free barony and earldom to be called the barony and earldom of Montrose. It is from these lands, therefore, and not from the town of Montrose, that the family take their titles of earl and duke. He fell at the battle of Flodden, 9th September 1513. He was thrice married. By his first wife, Annabella, daughter of Lord Drummond, he had a son, second Earl of Montrose; by his second wife, Janet, a daughter of Sir Archibald Edmonstone of Duntreath, he had three daughters; and by his third wife, Christian Wavance of Segy, daughter of Thomas Wavance of Stevenston, and widow of the ninth Lord Halyburton of Dirleton, two sons, Patrick, ancestor of the Græmes of Inchbrakie, Perthshire; and Andrew, consecrated bishop of Dunblane in 1575, and the first protestant bishop of that see.

From the third son of the second Earl of Montrose came the Grahams of ORCHIL, and from the fourth son the Grahams of KILLEARN. From the second son of the third earl descended the Grahams of BRACO, who once possessed a baronetcy of Nova Scotia, conferred on the first of the family, 28th September 1625. From the third son of the same earl, the Grahams of SCOTTISTOUN derived their descent.

The Grahams of the borders are descended from Sir John Graham of KILBRYDE, called, from his bravery, Sir John “with the bright sword,” second son of Malise, Earl first of Strathearn, and afterwards of Menteith, by his wife, the Lady Ann Vere, daughter of Henry, Earl of Oxford.

Sir John “with the bright sword” was also ancestor of the Grahams of Gartmore in Perthshire. Sir William Graham of Gartmore, created a baronet of Nova Scotia in 1665, married Elizabeth, second daughter of John Graham, Lord Kilpont (son of the Earl of Airth), who was slain by one of his own vassals, James Stewart of Ardvoirlich, in the camp of the Marquis of Montrose, in 1644; and had a son, Sir John Graham, second baronet of Gartmore, declared insane in 1696. On his death, 12th July 1708, without issue, the baronetcy became extinct, and the representation of the family devolved upon his sister Mary, wife of James Hodge, Esq. of Gladsmuir, advocate. Their only daughter, Mary Hodge, married, in 1701, William, son of John Graham of Callingod, and had a son, William Graham, who assumed the title of Earl of Menteith.

The castle of Kilbryde, near Dunblane, built by Sir John “with the bright sword,” in 1460, was possessed by his representatives, the Earls of Menteith, till 1640, when it was sold. The Menteith Grahams were called the Grahams “of the hens,” from the following circumstances. An armed party of the Stewarts of Appin, headed by Donald Nan Ord,[251] called Donald of the Hammer, in their retreat from the disastrous field of Pinkie in 1547, in passing the lake of Menteith, stopped at a house of the Earl of Menteith, where a large feast, consisting principally of poultry, was prepared for a marriage party, and ate up all the provisions; but, being immediately pursued, they were overtaken in the gorge of a pass, near a rock called Craig-Vad, or the Wolf’s cliff, where a bloody encounter took place. The earl and nearly the whole of his followers were killed, and Donald of the Hammer escaped, amidst the darkness of the night, with only a single attendant. From the cause of the fight the Highlanders gave the name of _Gramoch na Geric_, or “Grahams of the hens,” to the Menteith branch ever after.

The clan Graham were principally confined to Menteith and Strathearn.

GORDON.

The GORDONS are an ancient and distinguished family, originally from Normandy, where their ancestors are said to have had large possessions. From the great antiquity of the race, many fabulous accounts have been given of the descent of the Gordons. Some derive them from a city of Macedonia, called Gordonia, whence they went to Gaul; others find their origin in Spain, Flanders, &c. Some writers suppose Bertrand de Gourdon who, in 1199, wounded Richard the Lion-heart mortally with an arrow before the castle of Chalus in the Limoges, to have been the great ancestor of the Gordons, but there does not seem to be any other foundation for such a conjecture than that there was a manor in Normandy called Gourdon. It is probable that the first persons of the name in this island came over with William the Conqueror in 1066. According to Chalmers,[252] the founder of this great family came from England in the reign of David the First (1124-53), and obtained from that prince the lands of Gordon (anciently _Gordun_, or _Gordyn_, from, as Chalmers supposes, the Gaelic _Gordin_, “on the hill”). He left two sons, Richard, and Adam, who, though the younger son, had a portion of the territory of Gordon, with the lands of Fanys on the southern side of it.

The elder son, Richard de Gordon, granted, between 1150 and 1160, certain lands to the monks of Kelso, and died in 1200. His son, Sir Thomas de Gordon, confirmed by charter these donations, and _his_ son and successor, also named Thomas, made additional grants to the same monks, as well as to the religious of Coldstream. He died in 1285, without male issue, and his only daughter, Alicia, marrying her cousin Adam de Gordon, the son of Adam, younger brother of Richard above mentioned, the two branches of the family thus became united.

His grandson, Sir Adam de Gordon, Lord of Gordon, one of the most eminent men of his time, was the progenitor of most of the great families of the name in Scotland. In reward of his faithful services, Bruce granted to him and his heirs the noble lordship of Strathbolgie (now Strathbogie), in Aberdeenshire, then in the Crown, by the forfeiture of David de Strathbogie, Earl of Athole, which grant was afterwards confirmed to his family by several charters under the great seal. Sir Adam fixed his residence there, and gave these lands and lordship the name of Huntly, from a village of that name in the western extremity of Gordon parish, in the Merse, the site of which is now said to be marked only by a solitary tree. From their northern domain, the family afterwards acquired the titles of Lord, Earl, and Marquis of Huntly, and the latter is now their chief title. Sir Adam was slain, fighting bravely in the vanguard of the Scotch army at the battle of Halidonhill, July 12, 1333. By Annabella, his wife, supposed to have been a daughter of David de Strathbolgie above mentioned, he had four sons and a daughter. The eldest son, Sir Alexander, succeeded him. The second son, William, was ancestor of the Viscounts of Kenmure.

Sir John Gordon, his great-grandson, got a new charter from King Robert the Second of the lands of Strathbogie, dated 13th June 1376. He was slain at the battle of Otterbourne in 1388. His son, Sir Adam, lord of Gordon, fell at the battle of Homildon, 14th September 1402. By his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Keith, great mareschal of Scotland, he had an only child, Elizabeth Gordon, who succeeded to the whole family estates, and having married Alexander Seton, second son of Sir William Seton of Seton, ancestor of the Earls of Winton, that gentleman was styled lord of Gordon and Huntly. He left two sons, the younger of whom became ancestor of the Setons of Meldrum.

Alexander, the elder, was, in 1449, created Earl of Huntly, with limitation to his heirs male, by Elizabeth Crichton, his third wife, they being obliged to bear the name and arms of Gordon. George, the sixth earl, was created Marquis of Huntly, by King James, in 1599. George, the fourth marquis, was made Duke of Gordon in 1684. George, fifth duke, died without issue on 28th May 1836. At his death the title of Duke of Gordon became extinct, as well as that of Earl of Norwich in the British peerage, and the Marquisate of Huntly devolved on George Earl of Aboyne, descended from Charles, fourth son of George, second Marquis of Huntly, while the Duke of Richmond and Lennox, son of his eldest sister, succeeded to Gordon castle, Banffshire, and other estates in Aberdeenshire and Inverness-shire.

The clan GORDON was at one period one of the most powerful and numerous in the north. Although the chiefs were not originally of Celtic origin, as already shown, they yet gave their name to the clan, the distinctive badge of which was the rock ivy. The clan feuds and battles were frequent, especially with the Mackintoshes, the Camerons, the Murrays, and the Forbeses. Their principal exploits have been noticed in the first volume.

The Duke of Gordon, who was the chief of the clan, was usually styled “The Cock of the North,” His most ancient title was the “Gude-man of the Bog,” from the Bog-of-Gight, a morass in the parish of Bellie, Banffshire, in the centre of which the former stronghold of this family was placed, and which forms the site of Gordon castle, considered the most magnificent edifice in the north of Scotland. The Marquis of Huntly is now the chief of the clan Gordon. Of the name of Gordon, there are many ancient families belonging to Aberdeenshire, Banffshire, and the north of Scotland.

CUMMING.

The family of CUMYN, COMYN, CUMIN, CUMMIN, or CUMMING, merit notice among the septs of the north of Scotland, from the prominent figure which they made there in early times. But almost all authors agree in representing them as having come from England, and having been of either Norman or Saxon descent originally. The time when they migrated northwards is also well marked in history. The event occurred in the reign of David I. That prince still claimed a large part of the north of England, and, besides, had engaged deeply in the contests betwixt King Stephen and the Empress Matilda, which agitated South Britain in the twelfth century. He was thus brought into frequent contact with the barons of Northumberland and the adjoining districts, some of whom were properly his vassals, and many of whose younger sons followed him permanently into Scotland. In this way were founded various northern families in the time of King David, and among others, seemingly, the Cumyns. William Cumyn is the first of the name authentically mentioned in the Scottish annals. He had been trained clerically by Gaufred, bishop of Durham, some time chancellor to Henry I.; and his abilities and experience appear to have recommended Cumyn to David of Scotland for the same high office in the north. He was nominated chancellor of Scotland in 1133; though we find him seizing on the bishopric of Durham in 1142, under countenance of a grant from the Empress Maude. But he soon after resigned it to the proper incumbent, reserving only certain of the episcopal estates for behoof of his nephew and heir, Richard.

Richard Cumyn, properly the founder of the line of the Scottish Cumyn, rose high in the service of William the Lion, and long acted as chief minister and justiciary of Scotland. During his life he held the lands of Northallerton and others, secured to him by his uncle in England; and he also obtained estates in Roxburghshire, the first property of the family in Scotland. That the Cumyns must have been of high importance in England is proved by, and in part explains, their sudden elevation in the north. Richard Cumyn even intermarried with the royal family of Scotland, wedding Hexilda, great-granddaughter of the “gracious” King Duncan of “Macbeth.”[253]

In the reign of Alexander III., as stated by Fordun, there were of the name in Scotland three Earls--Buchan, Menteith, and Athole, and one great feudal baron, Cumyn lord of Strathbogie, with thirty knights all possessing lands. The chief of the clan was lord of Badenoch and Lochaber, and other extensive districts in the Highlands. Upwards of sixty belted knights were bound to follow his banner with all their vassals, and he made treaties with princes as a prince himself. One such compact with Lewellyn of Wales is preserved in Rymer’s Fœdera.

The Cummings, as the name is now spelled, are numerous in the counties of Aberdeen, Banff, and Moray; but a considerable number, in consequence of being prevented, for some reason, from burying their relatives in the family burial-place, changed their names to Farquharson, as being descended from Ferquhard, second son of Alexander the fourth designed of Altyre, who lived in the middle of the fifteenth century. It is from them that the Farquharsons of Balthog, Haughton, and others in the county of Aberdeen derive their descent.

From Sir Robert Comyn, younger son of John lord of Badenoch, who died about 1274, are descended the Cummings of Altyre, Logie, Auchry (one of whom in 1760 founded the village of Cuminestown in Aberdeenshire), Relugas, &c.

OGILVY.

OGILVY is a surname derived from a barony in the parish of Glammis, Forfarshire, which, about 1163, was bestowed by William the Lion on Gilbert, ancestor of the noble family of Airlie, and, in consequence, he assumed the name of Ogilvy. He is said to have been the third son of Gillibrede, or Gilchrist, maormor of Angus. In the charters of the second and third Alexanders there are witnesses of the name of Ogilvy. Sir Patrick de Ogilvy adhered steadily to Robert the Bruce, who bestowed upon him the lands of Kettins in Forfarshire. The barony of Cortachy was acquired by the family in 1369-70. The “gracious gude Lord Ogilvy,” as he is styled in the old ballad of the battle of Harlaw, in which battle the principal barons of Forfarshire fought on the side of the Earl of Mar, who commanded the royal army, was the son of Sir Walter Ogilvy of Auchterhouse, slain in a clan battle with the Robertsons in 1394.

“Of the best amang them was
The gracious gude Lord Ogilvy,
The sheriff-principal of Angus,
Renownit for truth and equity--
For faith and magnanimity
He had few fellows in the field,
Yet fell by fatal destiny,
For he nae ways wad grant to yield.”

His eldest son, George Ogilvy, was also slain.

Lord OGILVY, the first title of Airlie family, was conferred by James IV., in 1491, on Sir John Ogilvy of Lintrathen.

James, seventh Lord Ogilvy, was created Earl of Airlie, in 1639.

The title of Lord Ogilvy of Deskford was conferred, 4th October 1616, on Sir Walter Ogilvy of Deskford and Findlater, whose son, James, second Lord Deskford, was created Earl of Findlater, 20th February 1638. He was descended from Sir Walter Ogilvy of Auchleven, second son of Sir Walter Ogilvy of Lintrathen, high treasurer of Scotland.

The clan Ogilvy are called “the _Siol Gilchrist_,” the race or posterity of Gilchrist. In 1526, the Mackintoshes invaded the country of the Ogilvies, and massacred no fewer than 24 gentlemen of the name. A feud between the Campbells and the Ogilvies subsisted for several centuries. In Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials we find James Ogilvy complaining, on 21st October, 1591, that a body of Argyll’s men had attacked him when residing peaceably in Glenisla, in Forfarshire, which anciently belonged to the Ogilvies, killed several of his people, ravaged the country, and compelled him and his lady to flee for their lives.

The Ogilvies had their revenge in 1645, for the burning of “the bonnie house of Airlie,” and the other strongholds of the Ogilvies, when Castle Campbell, near Dollar, or the Castle of Gloom, its original name, was destroyed by them and the Macleans, and the territory of the Marquis of Argyll was overrun by the fierce and ruthless clan that followed Montrose, and carried fire and sword throughout the whole estates of the clan Campbell.

FERGUSON.

BADGE--Little Sunflower.

Ferguson, or Fergusson, is the surname (son of Fergus) of a Highland sept (whose arms we have been unable to obtain), which had its seat on the borders of the counties of Perth and Forfar, immediately to the north of Dunkeld, and the distinctive badge of which was the little sunflower. In the Roll of 1587, they are named as among the septs of Mar and Athole, where their proper seat as a clan originally lay, having chiefs and captains of their own. In Galloway, the Craigdarroch Fergussons have flourished from an early date, and in Fife the Fergusons of Raith have long held a high position as landholders.

FOOTNOTES:

[244] For portrait of Henry, Cardinal Duke of York, v. vol. i. p. 745.

[245] The History of Donald of the Hammers, written by Sir Walter Scott, will be found in the fifth edition of Captain Burt’s Letters.

[246] The late Sir William Steuart spelled his name with the _u_, though we are not aware that any of his ancestors did.

[247] Fraser’s _Red Book of Grandtully_.

[248] Anderson’s _History of the Fraser Family_.

[249] For an account of this fight, called _Blair-nan-leine_, or “Field of Shirts,” so disastrous to the Frasers, see the former part of this work.

[250] By mistake, these are in our report called “chiefs;” subordinate chiefs are correctly called “chieftains.”

[251] See our Account of the Stewarts.

[252] _Caledonia_, vol. ii. p. 387.

[253] See Smibert’s _Clans_.

PART THIRD.

HISTORY OF THE HIGHLAND REGIMENTS.