The manuscripts of His Grace the Duke of ... - Electric Scotland

property. Thomas, Earl of Mar, the last of the male line of his family^
was closely connected with William Douglas, the fir&t Earl of Douglas.
Thomas, Earl of Mar, had no children to succeed to his title and vast
estates. William Douglas was married to Margaret of Mar, his only
sister. On Mar's death, Douglas, his brother-in-law, succeeded by a
special provision made by the former to the title of Mar. He also
received with his wife the whole lands of the barony of Drumlanrig, and
obtained a charter from King David the Second, confirming to him the
barony of Drumlanrig. After the death of Thomas, Earl of Mar, the
Earl of Douglas was designated William, Earl of Douglas and Mar, in
numerous charters by ihe Crown to which he was a witness. William,
first Earl of Douglas and Mar of the Douglas line, died in the year
1384, leaving Margaret of Mar, Countess of Douglas, his widow, and
one son and one daughter. The son became James, Earl of Douglas
and Mar in succession to his father, and in the lifetime of his mother.
It was tliis James, Earl of Douglas and Mar, who was the hero of the
famous battle of OtterburrA or Chevy Chase in 1388. On his death at
that battle he left two sons. He provided the barony of Drumlanrig to^
the elder son William, and the barony of Cavers in the county of
Roxburgh to his second son, Archibald. The feudal writs by which the
barony of Drumlanrig was acquired from the last Earl of Mar of the
old line by William, Earl of Douglas, are still preserved in the charter
room of Drumlanrig, and are here specially reported on as truly
^.historical documents. They figured in the House of Lords as vital
documents in the keenly contested claims to the title of the Earl of Mar
made by Walter Coningsby, Earl of Kellie, as heir male of the Erskine
family, and by Mr. Goodeve Erskine as heir of line. A leading member
of the English Bar, Sir Roundell Palmer, aftei-wards the distinguished
Lord Chancellor, JSarl of Selborne, was counsel for Mr. Goodeve
Erskine. In the printed case lodged by that gentleman, and bearing
the name of Sir Roundell Palmer, it was stated without qualification
that Margaret of Mar, the sister of the last Earl of Mar, was succeeded
in the Mar title by her only son James as Earl of Mar. This alleged
fact was at the foundation of the claim that the heiress of the Mar
line inherited the Mar title and transmitted it to her son on her death.
The important documents here reported on establish the fact that
instead of predeceasing her husband, William, first Earl of Douglas, she
survived him and married as her second husband Sir John Swinton of
Swinton, while her son having survived his father inherited the two
titles of Douglas and Mar. These facts were clearly established when
the Drumlanrig charters in question were produced in the House of
Lords.
The earliest known mention of the barony of Drumlanrig is in the
time of King David the Second in a charter granted by that Sovereign
to William, Lord of Douglas, of the lands which belonged to James,
Lord of Douglas, his uncle, and Archibald of Douglas, his father.
This charter is dated 12 February 1354. Among the lands which it
enumerates as transmitted to William, Lord of Douglas, from these two
progenitors are the lands of the barony of Drumlanrig.* This was
during the Mar proprietorship of the land;?. The Mar Burn, Mar Park,
and other similar local designations, are traces of this ownership which
have come down to the present day.
There is not, however, so far as known, any trace of a Manor^
Mansion-house, or Castle erected in the barony of Drumlanrig at so
* The Douglas Book, Vol. IIL, p. 360.