LOTHIAN. 145 an extra. Lord of Session [S.], 158-1, and, having had his lands of Newbottle erected into a Barony, (") was cr. a Lord of Pari., as LORD NEWBOTTLE [S.], 28 Oct. 1587( 6 ), or 15 Oct. 1591, ( c ) with rem. to his heirs male and assignees. He was cr., 10 July 1600, EA11L OF LOTHIAN [S.], with rem. to his heirs male. He m. Margaret, da. of John (Maxwell), Loud Herries [S.1 by Agnes, suo jure Baroness Hf.rries of Terrkglks [S.] He d. 8 April 1000. His widow, by whom he is said to have had 31 children,!' 1 ) d. at Preston Grange, 8 Jau. 1617.(0) Will dat. 7 Jan. 1017, confirmed at Edinburgh, 18 May 1019. II. 1609, 2. Robert (Kerr), Eaul of Lothian and Lord New- to bottle [S.], s. and h. ; was appointed (v.p.) Master of the Requests, 16*24. 1006 ; sue. to the peerage [S.], 1609. Having no male issue, he is said to have surrendered his dignities to the Crown and to have received a new grant thereof to the heirs general of his body.( f ) He m. Annabella, 2d da. of Archibald (Campbell), 7th Earl of Argyll [S.], by his first wife, Anne, da. of William (Douglas), Earl of Morton [S.] He d. s.p.m., 15 July 1621, being found dead in his bed with his throat cut. His widow living in 1628, retired to France. » » • » * « * (*•) See vol. iv, p. 247, note " a," sub " Holyroodhouse," and p. 408, note " b," sub "Kiutoss," as to the grants of religious houses with a peerage [S]. ( b ) In the creations given in Wood's " Douglas " (vol. ii, p. 672), the date is given as 28 July 1587, and reference made to " Mag. Sig. L. xxxvii. No. 92," but iu the account by Mr. Stodart (see p. 144, note "e") the date is given (as also elsewhere) as 15 Oct. 1591, it being added that this is " the first peerage conferred on the family of Kerr." (°) See p. 144, note " e." ( d ) Of these children but five sons reached maturity, all of whom d. s.p.m. James (the 4th) is named in the charter of novodannis, 1621, and John (the 5th and yst.), was alive in 1627. The eldest son was Earl Robert as mentioned in the text ; the 2d son, Sir William Ker, assumed the Earldom in 1624. (See p. 144, note "e"), but d. before 1650 ; while the 3d son (the survivor), Sir Mark Kerr, of Mauldsie, became in 1650 (on the death of the Earl of Roxburghe [S.] ) the head of the family of Kerr, of Cessford, being also heir male to the Earldoms of Roxburgh and Lothian, a position, which on his death s.p.m. brfore 1663, devolved on Sir Walter Kerr, of Fawdonside. At that date (1003) the heirs male of thebody of the 1st Earl of Lothian (who, presumably, were the heirs indicated in the patent of 1600) became extinct. ( e ) She is accused, by Scotstarvet, of witchcraft and even of having caused the death of her husband. ( r ) If the resignation was a valid one it would have carried the Earldom (together with its old precedence) to the da. and heir of line of the resigner, and there would have been no occasion for the new grant of the Earldom iu 1631 to her husband. The matter is fully discussed in " Riddell," pp. 73-79. See also p. 146, note "a" for some implied doubt of its validity in the letter of Charles I. of 1631. In this letter, the King expressly states that he has seen the "patent" of "the Earldom of Lothian and Lordship of Newbottle " granted by King James to Earl Robert "and the act of Pari, [no date3 are mentioned] confirming the same." No such patent or act are, however, known of, while, on the contrary, there is a charter under the great seal, 29 March 1021, limiting (on the resignation of Earl Robert) the Lordship of Newbottle and family estates " -precisely as by the deeds iu Charles the First's letter but without carrying the honours" and this charter is confirmed by act of Pari. 4 Aug. following. The Lothian patent of 167S which ratifies the grant [the date being still unsupplied] speaks of it not as a "patent " (as called by Charles I.) but as a " c/iartcr under the great seal," which (says Riddell) " identifies it with the preceding grant of 1621," and (he adds), "the only subjects, therefore, I conceive that went to heirs female were the lands, the honours still continuing in their former state." Mr. Stodart, in one of his many excellent articles on the families of " Kerr " [Marshall's " Qenculorjist, vol. ii, p. 380," &c], puts the matter very plainly as under ; " The second Earl of Lothian held both his titles and estates under a destination to heirs male till 1621 when he executed a resignation and obtained a charter of novodamus 29 March, ratified by act of Pari, following, conveying the estates (composing the Lord- Bhip of Newbottle) to himself and the heirs male of his body [with rem. to] his eldest heir female without, division, and [to] his brother, James, [his cousins] Robert, Earl of Roxburghe [and] Sir Walter of Fawdonside, and their heirs male. It is L
