Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

Cclii WILLIAM, KIltST MAKQUIS OF ANNANDALl::, 1672-1721.
Eavl of Annaudale aud Hartfeli by the death of his father. Three days after
that event, on 20th July 1672, a meeting was held at Leith of the friends of
the Aunandale family to consider the afTairs of the Annan dale estate. The
Duke of namiltou, the Earl of Dundonald, and the now Dowager-Countess of
Annaudale, who were present at the meeting, gave orders to the ehamberlain
of Aunandale to prepare a rental of the estate for the year 1C72, and a list
of the late earl's debts, and to furnish other information on matters which
they specified.^ The rental was prepared, and shows a total of £11,757, 8s.
Scots, payable out of twenty-three baronies and separate estates.^
At a subsequent meeting on 7th July 1G73, the Duke of Hamilton held
a consultation with Sir Kobert Sinclair, Sir George Lockhart, and Sir John
Harper, advocates. The countess-dowager was now dead, aud the Earls of
Qneensberry and Dundonald had not accepted the office of tutor under the
will; aud the question which his Grace submitted to the advocates was
Could he act as sole tutor to the Earl of Annandale and Hartfeli ? The
lawyers returned an affirmative answer, adding that if his acting as tutor
was questioned, the nomination in the will would sustain him. The Duke of
Hamilton hereupon accepted the ofGce of sole tutor. Thereafter his Grace
and his duchess Anne, in her own right heiress of Hamilton, acted in every
way as parents to Earl William and his younger brother, John Johnstone,
their two orphan nephews.
The Duke and Duchess of Hamilton placed the earl and his brother,
while resident at Hamilton Palace, under tlie charge of Jlargaret Hamilton,
a superior person and servant to the duchess. In October 1674, they sent
the two boys to Glasgow to pursue their education at the Grammar School
there. In the meantime JMaigaret Hamilton having married Mr. John
Bannatyne of Corehouse, in the county of Lanark, and having gone with her
husband to reside in Glasgow, the earl and his brother lodged in the house of
1 Minute-Eook in Arnandale Chart-er-chest.
Dui>licate Rental, IStli February 1C73, iUd.
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