cairn, made a descent on the west of Scotland, he found that Glencairn and his son declined meanwhile to give to the cause of Henry any active support. Their defection at such a critical moment necessarily rendered the expedition of Lennox abortive, and the supineness of ‘the old fox and his cub’ was bitterly inveighed against by Wriothesley the chancellor. Glencairn pleaded with considerable show of reason the difficulties of his position as his excuse, and although his apology was not accepted, he shortly afterwards gave a proof of his unabated attachment to the English cause by his treacherous flight with the Earl of Angus and others who led the Scottish vanguard, when a sally of a by no means overwhelming character was made against them by the English at Coldingham (Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 38). Uncertain, however, of Henry's sentiments towards them, and possibly in any case deeming it advisable to temporise with the queen-regent, Glencairn, with Angus and others, now intimated their determination to support her against Henry, and at a parliament held at Edinburgh in the following December they were formally absolved from the charge of treason. Glencairn died in 1547. He was twice married: first, to Catherine, second daughter of William, third lord Borthwick, by whom he had no issue; and secondly, to Margaret (or Elizabeth), daughter and heiress of John Campbell of West Loudoun, by whom he had five sons and a daughter. He was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son Alexander [q. v.]
[Register of the Great Seal, vol. i.; State Papers, Scottish Ser. vol. i.; Sadler's State Papers; Knox's Works, ed. Laing, vol. i.; Calderwood's History of the Church of Scotland; James Melville's Diary; Diurnal of Remarkable Occurrents (Bannatyne Club); Douglas's Scotch Peerage (Wood), i. 634–5.]
CUNNINGHAM, WILLIAM, ninth Earl of Glencairn (1610?–1664), was the eldest son of William, eighth earl, and of Lady Janet Kerr. In 1639 he was on the king's side, having ‘deserted his country’ (Baillie, Letters and Journals, i. 206). In 1641 he was a privy councillor and a commissioner of the treasury; and in 1643 he joined Hamilton, Lanark, and Roxburgh in opposing the sending of a Scotch army to help the English parliament (Douglas, Peerage of Scotland), but on the other hand appears to have supported the general assembly in refusing to give any active assistance to the king (Baillie, ii. 45). He was at Kilsyth in 1646, and in the same year was appointed by the parliament lord justice-general (ib. ii. 419). In 1648 he entered into the engagement for the rescue of the king, and was deprived of his office by the Act of Classes in the same year (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. 1649, p. 242). He is mentioned at this time as being an able speaker and as holding moderate views (Baillie, iii. 35, 37). On 2 March 1649 the parliament passed a decreet against him, annulling his patent of earldom, passed in 1488. In 1651 he was a member of the committee of estates (Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. p. 645). In 1653, during the English occupation, he received a commission from Charles II to command the king's forces in Scotland, and in August left Finlayston for Loch Earn, where he was joined by Atholl and other chiefs with the clan of the Macdonalds, and for a while made head against Monck. Marching by way of Strathspey he fell upon the lowlands, but failed in his attempts upon Ruthven Castle (Thurloe, Hist. Mem. i. 495), and in other respects was able to do but little to disturb Monck. He was greatly hampered by the jealousies of his colleagues, especially of Lord Balcarres, and a quarrel with Lorne led to the desertion of the latter and other chiefs with all their men. In January he could muster only 4,320 men, many being armed only with cudgels, and those with guns having no ammunition (ib. ii. 4). An after-dinner quarrel with Monroe led to a duel first on horseback and then on foot, in which he defeated his antagonist, ‘to his great commendation’ (Baillie, iii. 255). Middleton taking the supreme command in 1654, Glencairn served under him in a subordinate post. In February he and Kenmure were badly beaten near Dunkeld by the English general Morgan (Thurloe, ii. 95). Shortly afterwards he was reported by Broghill to Thurloe as ‘trinketing in England as well as at home’ (ib. iv. 49). Betrayed by his agent, Major Borthwick, he was arrested by Monck's orders in December 1655, and imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle. He was excepted out of Cromwell's ‘grace and pardon,’ and would probably have lost his life but for the intercession of James Sharp. In 1656 his forfeiture of estates was discharged by capitulation (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. p. 242). After Cromwell's death, when Monck was securing Scotland before marching to London, he was one of the peers summoned to the convention in 1659; and he was among those who urged Monck to declare for a free parliament. He was one of the Scotch commissioners to Monck in London. At the Restoration he went to court, was sworn a privy councillor and high sheriff of Ayr, and on 19 Jan. 1661 was appointed lord chancellor of Scotland; he had also been
