Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 42.djvu/34

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Ogilvy
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Ogilvy


all his houses razed to the ground, so that, remarks a letter-writer of the period, 'they have not left him in all his lands a cock to crow day' (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1640-1, p. 58). He went to court in April 1640 to avoid taking the covenant, but, returning to Scotland, was present in the covenanting Parliament of 1643. In the following year he and his three sons joined Montrose; they were consequently forfeited by parliament on 11 Feb. 1645, exempted from pardon in the treaty of Westminster, and excommunicated by the kirk on 27 July 1647. But having obtained on 23 July 1646 an assurance and remission from Major-general Middleton [see Middleton, John, first Earl of Middleton], who was authorised to pacify the north of Scotland in this way, parliament was obliged, though unwillingly, to rescind his forfeiture on 17 March 1647. He did not afterwards take any active part in public affairs, and died in 1666 (Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, viii. p. 227).

He married about 1614 Lady Isabel Hamilton, second daughter of Thomas, first earl of Haddington, by whom he had three sons and two daughters. The sons were: James, second earl [q. v.], and Sir Thomas and Sir David Ogilvy. One daughter, Isabel, cleverly enabled her brother James to escape from the castle of St. Andrews on the eve of his intended execution; she died unmarried. Her sister, Elizabeth, married in 1642 Sir John Carnegie of Balnamoon, Forfarshire (Fraser, Earls of Southesk, p. 431).

[Cal. State Papers. Dom. 1639-1641, passim; Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, 1625-1666, passim; Balfour's Annals, iii. 268; Douglas's Peerage, ed. Wood, i. 32,33; Gardiner's Commonwealth, i. 373.]

H. P.

OGILVY, JAMES, second Earl of Airlie (1615?–1704?), the eldest son of James, first earl [q. v.], was probably born about 1610. Sharing ardently the royalist sympathies of his father, he, while Lord Ogilvy, took a very active part on behalf of Charles I during the Scottish wars. In 1640 he held Airlie Castle against Montrose, then a covenanter; but, being obliged to surrender, he was permitted, with his wife, to escape, an incident for which Montrose was sharply challenged by the tables (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1640, p. 53). Refusing to obey the order of the Scottish parliament to appear before them and give caution for keeping the peace, Ogilvy was declared a rebel, and was specially exempted from pardon. In February 1643 he accompanied Montrose to Charles I's court, to concert measures for waging war against the Scottish covenanters (Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, vol. vi. pt. i. pp. 14, 22, 126, 209, 215, 279). On 26 July 1643 he was charged with high treason in his absence, but continued a close companion of Montrose, acting as one of his aides-de-camp. In August 1644 he was sent with despatches to the king, and fell into the hands of the English parliamentary troops near Preston in Lancashire (Rushworth, v. 745). He was taken prisoner to Edinburgh, and remained incarcerated in the Tolbooth there for more than a year, undergoing frequent examination, but constantly declining to acknowledge the authority of the covenanters. He was frequently visited by his mother, sister, and wife, who in August 1644 petitioned for his removal from the then plague-infected town, and obtained an order for his removal to the Bass Rock.

Before, however, this change could be effected, Montrose had inflicted a severe defeat on the covenanters at Kilsyth (15 Aug. 1645), which practically placed the country at his disposal, and he sent orders to Edinburgh for the release of Lord Ogilvy and other prisoners, which were at once obeyed. Rejoining Montrose, Ogilvy resumed active service, and was present at the battle of Philiphaugh (13 Sept. 1645), where, the royalist army being routed, he was again captured, and, after confinement in several prisons, was on 16 Jan. 1646 tried at St. Andrews and condemned to death. The day appointed for his decapitation was the 20th of that month; but on the preceding eve his elder sister changed clothes with him in his prison in the castle of St. Andrews, and he escaped. A thousand pounds sterling was offered for his capture dead or alive, but the reward was ineffectual: and in the following July he secured a pardon from Middleton, which the parliament were obliged to confirm. He also gave satisfaction to the kirk, and was released from excommunication. In May 1649 he took part in Pluscarden's rising in the north.

Upon the coronation of Charles II at Scone in 1650 Ogilvy took service in the Scottish army, and was captured by Cromwell's troopers near Alythin Forfarshire,with the committee of estates, on 28 Aug. 1651. He was then sent prisoner from Dundee to Tynemouth Castle, and thtnee to the Tower of London (Balfour, Annals, iv. 1, 128, 210, 314). A year later he was liberated on condition that he would not leave London without permission; but, on a general order, he was soon recommitted to the Tower. In one of his petitions to Cromwell he states that he was seized by a party of horse, under General Monck, while peaceably residing at his mansion-house in Scotland, and protests