Ayrshire, Its History and Historic Families

BY THE SAME AUTHOR The Kings of Carrick. A Historical Romance of the Kennedys of Ayrshire ------- 5/- Historical Tales and Legends of Ayrshire - - 5/- The Lords of Cunningham. A Historical Romance of the Blood Feud of Eglinton and Glencairn - - 5/- Auld Ayr. A Study in Disappearing Men and Manners - - Net 3/6 The Dule Tree of Cassillis ... - Net 3/6 Historic Ayrshire. A Collection of Historical Works treating of the County of Ayr. Two Volumes - Net 20/- Old Ayrshire Days Net 4/6 AYRSHIRE Its History and Historic Families BY WILLIAM ROBERTSON VOLUME II Kilmarnock Dunlop & Drennan, "Standard" Office- Ayr Stephen & Pollock 1908 CONTENTS OF VOLUME II PAGE Introduction i I. The Kennedys of Cassillis and Culzean 3 II. The Montgomeries of Eglinton - - 43 III. The Boyles of Kelburn - - - 130 IV. The Dukedom of Portland - - - 188 V. The Marquisate of Bute - - - 207 VI. The Earldom of Loudoun ... 219 VII. The Dalrymples of Stair - - - 248 VIII. The Earldom of Glencairn - - - 289 IX. The Boyds of Kilmarnock - - - 329 X The Cochranes of Dundonald - - 368 XI. Hamilton, Lord Bargany - - - 395 XII. The Fergussons of Kilkerran - - 400 INTRODUCTION. The story of the Historic Families of Ayrshire is one of «xceptional interest, as well from the personal as from the county, as here and there from the national, standpoint. As one traces it along the centuries he realises, what it is sometimes difficult to do in a general historical survey, what sort of men they were who carried on the succession of events, and obtains many a glimpse into their own character that reveals their individuality and their idiosyncracies, as well as the motives that actuated and that animated them. Many of them lived in very trying as well as troublous times ; in times when they had to balance considerations personal to themselves against the broader interests of State and the duty that they owed to the people. And on the whole a candid perusal of the record can hardly do anything else than satisfy the impartial mind that, according to their lights, they served their day and gener- ation well. The Author has by no means eschewed genealogy, but he has everywhere endeavoured to make it secondary to more important general considerations. HISTORY OF AYRSHIRE CHAPTER I THE KENNEDYS OF CASSILLIS AND CULZEAN The genesis of the Kennedys is, in the most literal sense, wrapt in the mists of antiquity. There is little reason to doubt that their progenitors were to be found in Carrick, and in other parts of ancient Galloway, ere yet the northern migration of the Norman Earls and Barons had begun, and it is by no means a wholly unwarrantable supposition that they were of that ancient race, the Picts, part of the great Celtic family who were already established in Scotland when the Roman soldiers were in occupation of the country southward of the Caledonian line, who remained in actual possession of the land while the legionaries were but strangers in it, and who resumed government after their own fashion when the needs of the world-empire of the period recalled its soldiers from these western shores in the vain hope that they might be able to preserve the heart of the citadel. This, we say, is not by any means an unreasonable or a groundless supposition. There were Earls in Carrick before those of Cassillis. Fergus, the Prince or Lord of Galloway, who died in 1161, had two sons, Uchtred and Gilbert. When William the Lion invaded Northumberland in 1174, they both followed in his train. Galloway broke into rebellion as the result of the complications that ensued on the monarch being taken prisoner, many loyal subjects were murdered, the King's officers were expelled, and Gilbert slew his brother, who had adhered to the King, 4 HISTORY OF AYRSHIRE with circumstances of savage brutality. By means of a money payment, which was in many instances abundant compensation for life taken in Scotland for hundreds of years after the twelfth century, Gilbert succeeded in restoring himself to favour with the Sovereign ; but he does not seem to have ever been a very loyal or a tractable subject, for in 1184 he was, under the protection of England, making devastating raids upon Scotland, rejecting terms of accommodation offered to him. When he died in 1185 he was succeeded by Duncan, his son, afterwards Sir Duncan de Carrick, and later still the first Earl of Carrick, an honour into which he entered on condition of resigning his claim to the lordship of Galloway. After the manner of the times, Duncan fought furiously ; and, also after the custom of the period, he condoned for his sins by being good to the Church. It was he who granted the lands of Little Maybole to the monks of Melrose, and who founded. and richly endowed the Abbey of Crossraguel. After him in the Earldom came Neil, who also was a great benefactor to the Church, and who was one of the Regents of Scotland and Guardians of Alexander III. and his Queen. By his wife, who is believed to have been a daughter of Walter, the High Steward of Scotland, he left four daughters, the oldest of whom, Marjorie, or Margaret, is the only one known to history. Marjorie first wedded Adam de Kilconcath, who in her right was third Earl of Carrick. In 1269 he went to the Holy Land to fight in the Crusade under the banners of Louis IX. of France, and the following year he died at Acre, in Palestine. The year afterwards the widowed Countess happened to encounter Robert Bruce, son of Robert Bruce, Lord of Annandale and Cleveland, hunting in her domains, conveyed him with some violence to her home at Turnberry, and wedded him. The King, Alexander III., was angry, for she was a ward of the Crown, but a substantial money payment was sufficient to assuage the royal wrath, and the. Earldom of Carrick passed away from the original family. THE KENNEDYS 5 The Bruces were of Norman lineage. The young Lord of Annandale who became Earl of Carrick in right of his wife, who died in 1292, was one of the claimants for the Scottish Crown, and, refusing to do homage to Baliol, handed over the Earldom to his son (afterwards Robert I.), and retired for a while to Norway with his daughter Isabella, who is said to have afterwards married John Fitzmarmaduke. Returning to England in 1294, he was appointed Governor of the castle of Carlisle. Having sworn fealty to Edward in 1294, the same year he accompanied that monarch in his expedition to Scotland against Baliol. He died in 1304. This Earl had a notable family. In addition to Robert and his only less famous brother Edward, there were Thomas and Alexander, both of whom were executed at Carlisle, 1306-7. The former had been taken prisoner by Sir Dougal M'Dowal at Lochryan ; the latter was a learned man, and had been Dean of Glasgow. Sir Nigel defended the castle of Kildrummie for his brother until it was set on fire and he was compelled to surrender in September, 1306. He was taken to Berwick, and there executed. Next there was Isobel, who was married to Eric, King of Norway. Mary, the seventh child, was long a prisoner in Roxburgh Castle and at Newcastle. She was afterwards married to Sir Neil Campbell of Lochow, ancestor of the house of Argyll, and, after his death, to Alexander Fraser, Great Chamberlain of Scotland, and died about 1323. Christina came next. She shared her sister Mary's imprisonment, and the family courage, for the made a gallant defence of the Castle of Kildrummie against the Earl of Athole and the English party, till relieved by Sir Andrew Moray and Sir William Douglas of Liddesdale. Matilda married Hugh, Earl of Ross, and Margaret Sir William de Carlyle. When Robert the Bruce became King he passed the Earldom on to his brother Edward, who, after a successful campaign, was crowned King of Ireland, 1316, and was ultimately slain, two years later, by the English at the battle of 6 HISTORY OF AYRSHIRE Dundalk. The Earldom passed to David, son of King Robert, and in 1329, the year after he ascended the throne, to Alexander, a son of Edward, who was slain at the battle of Halidon Hill, 1233. His widow was afterwards married no fewer than four times. With Alexander, the Earldom in the direct line of the Braces ended. From them it passed to the Stewarts, and became one of the honours of the eldest son of the King, and from their day till now it has so remained, the Prince of Wales being also Earl of Carrick. There are various tangible reasons for concluding that the Kennedys were directly connected with the Carrick and Galloway lords. They were associated with the Cumyns, the Justiciaries of Galloway, in which district Carrick lay, who first possessed the barony of Lenzie, which was afterwards held by the Kennedys. There was a notable similarity in their Christian names. John Kennedy of Dunure, who it is supposed may have been the first to have changed the name from Carrick to Kennedy, early in the fourteenth century, was consanguineus regis—of blood to the King—when Earl of Carrick, in all probability from some intermarriage of the two families. To the Kennedys was entrusted the high privilege of the keeping of the Castle of Loch- doon, and the leading of the men of Carrick ; and it is well known that the old Celtic chieftainship could only go in the male line.

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