[243] See portrait, vol. i. p. 679. Details concerning this true patriot and upright judge will be found in the account of the rebellion of 1745.
[CHAPTER IX.]
Stewart—Stewart of Lorn—Appin—Balquhidder—“Donald of the hammer”—Stewarts of Athole—Grandtully—Balcaskie—Drumin—Ardvoirlich—Steuart of Dalguise—Ballechin—Fraser—Fraser of Philorth—Lovat—Ballyfurth and Ford—Beaufort—Castle Fraser—American Frasers—Menzies—Castle Menzies—Pitfoddels—Chisholm—Cromlix or Cromleck—Murray—Athole—Tullibardine—Ochtertyre—Drummond—Bellyclone—Græme or Graham—Kincardine—Earl of Montrose—Gordon—Earl of Huntly—Duke of Gordon—“The Cock of the North”—Cumming—Ogilvy—Ferguson.
It now only remains for us to notice shortly several of those families, which, though generally admitted not to be of Celtic origin, yet have a claim, for various important reasons, to be classed among the Highland clans. Most of them have been so long established in the Highlands, they have risen to such power and played such an important part in Highland history, their followers are so numerous and so essentially Gaelic in their blood and manners, that any notice of the Highland clans would be incomplete without an account of these. We refer to the names of [Stewart], [Fraser], [Menzies], [Chisholm], and several others. To the uninitiated the three last have as genuine a Gaelic ring about them as any patronymic rejoicing in the unmistakable prefix “Mac.”
STEWART.
It is not our intention here by any means to enter into the general history of the Stewarts—which would be quite beyond our province, even if we had space—but simply to give a short account of those branches of the family which were located in the Highlands, and to a certain extent were regarded as Highland clans. With regard to the origin of the Stewarts generally, we shall content ourselves with making use of Mr Fraser’s excellent summary in the introduction to his “Red Book of Grandtully.”
Walter, the son of Alan or Fitz-Alan, the founder of the royal family of the Stewarts, being the first of that family who established himself in Scotland, came from Shropshire, in England. Walter’s elder brother, William, was progenitor of the family of Fitz-Alan, Earls of Arundel. Their father, a Norman, married, soon after the Norman Conquest, the daughter of Warine, sheriff of Shropshire. He acquired the manor of Ostvestrie or Oswestry in Shropshire, on the Welsh border. On the death of Henry I. of England, in 1135, Walter and William strenuously supported the claims of the Empress Maud, thus raising themselves high in the favour of her uncle, David I., king of the Scots. When that king, in 1141, was obliged to retire to Scotland, Walter probably then accompanied him, encouraged, on the part of the Scottish monarch, by the most liberal promises, which were faithfully fulfilled; whilst his brother William remained in England, and was rewarded by Maud’s son, Henry II. of England. From the munificence of King David I. Walter obtained large grants of land in Renfrewshire and in other places, together with the hereditary office Senescallus Scociæ, lord high-steward of Scotland, an office from which his grandson, Walter, took the name of Stewart, which the family ever afterwards retained. King Malcolm IV., continuing, after the example of his grandfather, King David, to extend the royal favour towards this English emigrant, confirmed and ratified to Walter and his heirs the hereditary office of high steward of Scotland, and the numerous lands which King David I. had granted. In the annals of the period, Walter is celebrated as the founder, probably about 1163, of the monastery of Paisley, in the barony of Renfrew. At or after the time of his establishing himself in Scotland, Walter was followed to that kingdom by many English families from Shropshire, who, settling in Renfrewshire, obtained lands there as vassals of the Stewarts. Walter married Eschina de Londonia, Lady of Moll, in Roxburghshire, by whom he had a son, Alan; and dying in 1177, he was succeeded in his estates and office as hereditary steward of Scotland by that son.
Having thus pointed out the true origin of the family of the Stewarts, our subject does not require us to trace the subsequent history of the main line.
Walter’s son and successor, Alan, died in 1204, leaving a son, Walter, who was appointed by Alexander II. justiciary of Scotland, in addition to his hereditary office of high-steward. He died in 1246, leaving four sons and three daughters. Walter, the third son, was Earl of Menteith. The eldest son, Alexander, married Jean, daughter and heiress of James, lord of Bute, and, in her right, he seized both the Isle of Bute and that of Arran.