Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland .. - National Library of Scotland

;HisMORAY, PROVINCE OFMORAY, PROVINCE OFIlut the prelude to fresh plundering and spoiling, duringwhich Elgin was partially burned, and then the Royalistarmy passed on its way southward to the final disasterat Philiphaugh. Much, however, as the district thussuC'ered, the adherence of the men of Moray to Presbyterianismwas political rather than religious, and theyconsequently never showed that zeal for the cause whichmarked the people of the southern and western countiesof Scotland. The other historical events connected withthe province, such as the landing of Charles II. at Garmouthand the battle of Cromdale, are noticed in detailin conjunction with the different places with which theyare more particularly connected, and need not now befurther alluded to. In 1746 the Highland army on theirnorthward retreat broke up into three divisions, one ofwhich followed the Highland road by the upper watersof the Spey, and by Duthil on to Inverness ; a secondmarched by the braes of Angus and Strathdon to Elgin,where they were joined by a third body, which had retiredalong the great coast road ; and the whole army wasreunited at Inverness. The Duke of Cumberland enteredthe province on 12 April, and on the 16th was fought theBattle of CuLLODEN, the last in which opposing armiesmet in array on British soil. After their defeat the Highlandersretired south-eastward by Moy and Badenoch tothe place of their final dispersion at Clovn. The clandistribution to the SW of the Highland line was : theGrants, Sliaws, and Macphersons along Strathspeythe Mackintoshes along the upper portions of thevalleys of the Findhorn and Nairn ; the Erasers to theSE and N of Loch Ness, and also in Strath Affric andGlen Cannich ; the Chisholms in Strath Farrer andStrath Glass; the Grants to the NW of Loch Ness; andto the S of them the Glengarry Macdonalds.The division into the present shires seems to havetaken place in the second half of the 13th century, butfor long after that their boundaries were somewhatvariable. From the time of Queen Mary no Scottish orBritish sovereign visited the province till 1872, whenQueen Victoria passed through on her way to DunrobinCastle on a visit to the Duke of Sutherland, and sheagain traversed the ' laich on her way ' to Loch Mareein 1877.The Earldom of Moray was long one of the mostimportant in Scotland. The first Earl, Angus, was, as"we have seen, in direct descent from the old CelticMormaers ; but after his death in 1130 no Earl was-allowed to exist for nearly two centuries, the managementof the province being kept in the hands of theCrown, or committed forbriefperiods to different Scottishnobles, as when, during the early part of the 13thcentury, we find Malcolm, Earl of Fife, thus acting at-one time, and William Cumyn at another, each beingsimply styled Gustos Aforavicc. This state of matterscame to an end about 1313 or 1314, when Robert Brucegranted the whole of the province to his nephew andtrusted friend Sir Thomas Randolph. The charter,which bears no date, but which must have been granted.shortly before the convention at Ayr in 1315, definesthe estate as including the lands of Fochabers andBoharm beyond the Spey, thence extending up thatliver to Badenoch, including Kincardine, Glencairn,Badenoch, Maymez, Locharkedh, Glengarry, and Glenelg,passing along the NW border of Argyllshire to thewestern sea, bounded on the N by the Earldom of Rossto the river Farrar, and thence down that stream andthe Beauly to the ilora-y Firth. The estate and thetitle of the Earldom were, according to the originalprinciple of peerages, inseparable, the title becomingextinct upon the alienation of the estate. Randolphdied in 1332, and was succeeded by his eldest son,Thomas also, who was killed at Dupplin in 1332,28 days after his succession. The second son, John,•who then succeeded, was taken prisoner by the Englishat the battle of Kilblain in 1335, but was exchangedfor the Earl of Salisbury in 1341. Becoming Warden•of the West Marches, he accompanied David II. on hisexpedition into England, and was killed at the battleof Durham in 1346. There being no male heir theEarldom then reverted to the Crown, but PatrickDunbar, who was married to the daughter of the firstEarl—Black Agnes, whose name is well known in connectionwith her defence of Dunbar Castle—was generallystyled Earl of Mar and Moray. His second son, JohnDunbar, who was married to Marjory, daughter ofRobert II., was made Earl of Moray in 1372; but hisdomains were lessened by the large districts of Badenoch,Lochaber, and Urqnhart, which were constitutedinto a lordship for the King's son, Alexander, betterknown as the Wolf of Badenoch. The succeedingEarls were Thomas, the son of John, his son also calledThomas, and James, the cousin of the third Earl, withwhom the male line became again extinct,* and thethe husband ofsuccession passed to Archibald Douglas,the younger of the two daughters left by ThomasDunbar. Supported by the influence of his brother,the Earl of Douglas, he obtained the Earldom in 1446 ;but having joined the family rebellion of 1452, andbeing killed in 1455, the title and possessions againpassed to the Crown, with whom they remained till1501, when the honour was granted to James Stewart,an illegitimate son of James IV., who died in 1544without issue. From 1548 to 1554 the Earldom wasgranted to the Earl of Huntly, but was again, from1554 to 1562, in the possession of the Crown. In thelatter j'ear it was bestowed on James Stewart, afterwardsthe well-known Regent, and in his line it still remains.In 1563 he obtained a second charter limiting thesuccession to heirs male, in 1566 a fresh one openingthe succession to heirs general, and in 1567 a ratificationby the Estates of the deed of 1563. At his death heleft two daughters, and James Stewart, Baron Doune, whomarried the eldest. Lady Elizabeth, assumed the title ofEarl of Moray. This Earl figures in history as the BonnieEarl of Moray, and is the hero of the ballad of that name.*He was a braw g;allant.And he played at the gluveAnd the bonnie Earl of MorayHe was the Queene's luve.*He was in 1592 murdered at Donibristle by the Earl ofHuntly, who was nominally acting on a commission topursue the Earl of Bothwell and his associates, of whomMoray was alleged to be one, but is supposed in realityto have been instigated to the deed by King James VI.'It was,' says Sir James Balfour, 'given out andpublickly talked that the Earle of Huntly was only theinstrument of perpetratting this facte to satisffie theKinges jelosie of Murray, quhom the Queine, morerashlie than wyslie, some few dayes before had commenditin the Kinges heiringe, with too many epithettsof a proper and gallant man. ' son and successorwas by the King's special efforts reconciled to Huntly,and married his daughter. Lady Anne Gordon. Heobtained in 1611 a fresh charter of the Earldom withentail to male heirs only. His grandson, Alexander,fifth Earl, was Secretary of State and Lord High Commissionerbetween 1680 and 1686. Francis, the ninthEarl (1737-1810), was noted as an agriculturist, and issaid to have planted on his estates upwards of thirteenmillions of trees. The present Earl, George (b. 1814),succeeded in 1872. The other titles are Baron Doune(1581) and Baron St Colme (1611), both in the peerageof Scotland, and Baron Stewart of Castle Stewart (1796)in the peerage of Great Britain. The family seats areDaknawav Castle in Elginshire, Donibristle Castle inFifeshire, Castle Stewart in Inverness-shire, and DouneLodge in Perthshire.Of the early religious state of the province almostnothing is known. St Columba's visit to Inverness isnoticed in that article, and other traces of the Culdeechurch and its influence remain in the gifts alreadymentioned made by some of the early Mormaers to theclerics of Deer as well as in the associations of the names* The fourth Earl had a son. Sir Alexander Dunbar of Westfield,by his first marriage with his cousin Isabella Innes of Innes. butas she was within the forbidden degree, and died before a Papaldispensation could be procured, this son was deemed illegitimate,and very wrongly barred from the succession.67