Re: Monteith; Origin of the name.
-
In reply to:
Monteith; Origin of the name.
Elton L. Powell 7/09/03
Here is the history of the name (It was an Earldom):
Walter Stewart was the first Earl of Menteith of his name. He was the father of
Alexander, Earl of Menteith, who was dispossessed of the earldom by
the English; and it was for a time divided between Sir John Hastings,
the competitor for the Crown of Scotland, and his brother, Sir Edmund
Hastings, who married Lady Isabella Comyn. The successful
termination of the War of Independence at the battle of Bannockburn
restored the earldom to the Stewarts, and it was reunited under the
younger son of Alexander, Murdach, the eighth Earl, who enjoyed the
title after the death of his brother Alan, the seventh Earl.
The male line of the Stewart Earls failed in the fourth generation, when
Lady Mary, the daughter and heiress of Alan, carried the earldom by
marriage to Sir John Graham, a gallant warrior, who did not long enjoy
it, being cruelly put to death by the English after the battle of Durham.
Their daughter and heiress, Lady Margaret Graham, married in
succession four husbands, Sir John Moray Lord of Bothwell, Thomas
thirteenth Earl of Mar, Sir John Drummond of Concraig, and Sir
Robert Stewart. Her fourth husband, Sir Robert Stewart, after the death
of the Countess Mary, was created Earl of Menteith, afterwards Earl of
Fife and Duke of Albany, and became Regent of Scotland. Their son,
Murdach Earl of Menteith and second Duke of Albany, succeeded his
father as Regent of Scotland; and the sad fate of himself and his family
at the hands of King James the First is matter of history. The earldom
of Menteith was then forfeited to the crown.
The Graham Earls of Menteith, who acquired the earldom as
diminished by James the First, enjoyed it for nine
generations—upwards of two centuries and a half. The most
conspicuous of this line was William Graham, the seventh Earl, who
was a distinguished statesman in the reign of King Charles the First.
He attained a high political position as Earl of Menteith, being made
Justice-General of Scotland and President of the Privy Council. He
also laid claim to and obtained the earldom of Strathern, as the lineal
heir of Prince David, son of King Robert the Second. But this claim,
and an alleged rash boast that he had the reddest blood in Scotland, and
a better right to the Crown than the King himself, so alarmed Charles
the First that he revoked the grant of Strathern, even sought to suppress
inpart his title of Menteith by a new title of Earl of Airth, and deprived
him of all his high judicial offices. The eldest son and heir-apparent of
that Earl, John Lord Kilpont, was killed by James Stewart of
Ardvoirlich while they were fellow-officers in the army of Montrose at
the Kirk of Collace shortly after the battle of Tippermuir. The only son
of lord Kilpont succeeded his grandfather as eighth Earl of Menteith,
and died in 1694, without issue. Since that time the titles of Earl of
Menteith and Airth have lain dormant, with the exception of the
occasional illegal assumption of the title of Menteith by William
Graham, who was known as the "Beggar Earl". His history has a touch
of the romantic. At an election of Peers on 12th October 1744, being
then a student of medicine, he answered to the title of Earl of Menteith,
in respect of him being executor confirmed to William the last Earl of
Menteith and Airth, who died in 1694.
More Replies:
-
Re: Monteith; Origin of the name.
Eugene Graham 4/04/06
-
Re: Monteith; Origin of the name.
Elton L. Powell 7/16/03
-
Re: Monteith; Origin of the name.
James Steed 7/17/03
-
Re: Monteith; Origin of the name.
James Monteith 1/17/05
-
Re: Monteith; Origin of the name.
Sharron Johnson 8/02/05
-
Re: Monteith; Origin of the name.
-
Re: Monteith; Origin of the name.
-
Re: Monteith; Origin of the name.