Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Montgomerie, Hugh (1460?-1545)
MONTGOMERIE, HUGH, third Lord Montgomerie and first Earl of Eglinton (1460?–1545), eldest son of Alexander, second lord Montgomerie, by his wife Catherine, daughter of Gilbert, lord Kennedy, was born about 1460. His grandfather was Alexander, first lord Montgomerie [q. v.] He succeeded his father before 29 Aug. 1483. He was infeft in the lands of Ardrossan and other estates of the family 5 June 1484, and on 11 Oct. he executed a revocation of all acts made during his minority. He was one of the commissioners appointed by the treaty of Nottingham on 22 Sept. of the same year to settle disputes on the marches. Having supported the cause of the nobles against James III at the battle of Sauchieburn, 1 June 1488, he, on the accession of James IV, obtained a remission for throwing down the house of Turnelaw (Kerrielaw), and for all other offences committed by him up to 29 Aug. He had also a commission to repress crime in the districts of Carrick, Kyle, Ayr, and Cunningham. In the following year he was chosen a privy councillor, and appointed constable of the royal castle of Rothesay. On 4 July 1498 he obtained a grant of the bailiary of Cunningham, and was made chamberlain of the town of Irvine. The former grant gave rise to a long chronic feud between the Montgomeries and the Cunninghams, earls of Glencairn.
Montgomerie was created Earl of Eglinton between the 3rd and 20th Jan. 1506. He was one of those peers who after the battle of Flodden, 9 Sept. 1513, at which James IV was slain, met at Perth to arrange for the coronation of the infant prince, James V, and was nominated one of the guardians of the prince. On 28 Oct. 1515 he was made keeper of the isle of Little C umbrae, for the preservation of the game, until the king came of age. On 2 Feb. 1526-7 he was appointed justice-general of the northern parts of Scotland. He was one of the lords who attended the council of the king at Stirling in June 1528, after his escape from the Douglases. In November of the same year his house of Eglinton was burnt down by William Cunningham, master of Glencairn, and the charters of his lands having been all destroyed, the king granted him a new charter dated 23 Jan. 1528-9. On 18 Aug. 1533 Patrick, earl of Bothwell, great admiral of Scotland, appointed him admiral-depute within the bounds of Cunningham. During the absence of the king in France in 1536, to bring home his bride, the Princess Magdalen, he acted as one of the council of regency. He died in June 1545, and was succeeded in the earldom by his grandson Hugh (d. 1546). By his wife Helen, third daughter of Colin, first earl of Argyll, he had six sons and eight daughters: Alexander, master of Montgomerie, who died young; John, lord Montgomerie, killed in the skirmish in the High Street of Edinburgh called 'Cleanse the Causeway,' 2 May 1520, and father of Hugh, second earl; Sir Neil of Langshaw; William of Greenfield; Hugh, killed at the battle of Pinkie in 1547; Robert, first rector of Kirkmichael, and afterwards bishop of Argyll; Margaret, married to William, second lord Semple; Marjory, to William, second lord Somerville; Maud, to Colin Campbell of Ardkinglass; Isobel, to John Mure of Caldwell; Elizabeth, to John Blair of that ilk; Agnes, to John Ker of Kersland; Janet, to Campbell of Cessnock; and Catherine, to George Montgomerie of Skelmorlie.
[Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot.; Exchequer Rolls of Scotl.; Pitscottie's Chron.; Balfour's Annals; Sir William Fraser's Earls of Eglinton; Paterson's Hist. of Ayr; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), i. 496-8.]