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THE CAMPBELLS OF ARGYLL.
INTRODUCTION.
page 231
The origin of the Campbell family is hid in the mists of antiquity, and we shall
not run the risk of provoking the ire either of Goth or Celt by pronouncing an
opinion either on the notion of Pinkerton, who affirms that they are descended
from a Norman knight, named De Campo Bello, alleged to have come to England with
William the Conqueror, but of whose existence no trace can be found; or on the
tales of the Sennachies, that the great ancestor of the clan was a certain
Diarmid O'Dwbin, or O'Dwin, a brave warrior, who it is asserted was a
contemporary of the heroes of Ossian. Suffice it to say that the earliest figure
who emerges out of the Highland mist is GILLESPIC CAMPBEL, or Cambell, as the
name is invariably written in the earliest charters, who married the heiress of
Lochaw, and whose grandson, Sir Gillespic, witnessed the charter granted by
Alexander III. to Newburgh, March 12th, 1266, more than six hundred years ago
His son, SIR COLIN, who is reckoned the seventh of the chiefs of the Campbells,
was one of the nominees selected by Robert Bruce, in 1291, when his title to the
crown was to be investigated. The story runs that this Sir Colin was so
distinguished by his warlike achievements and the additions he made to the
family estates that he obtained the surname of 'More,' or 'Great,' and that from
him the chief of the clan is to this day styled in Gaelic MACCALIAN MORE, or the
son of Colin the Great. Sir Colin's second son founded the earliest branch of
the family—the Campbells, earls of Loudoun. His
eldest son, SIR NIGEL, or NEIL, was one of the first of the Scottish barons to
join Robert Bruce, and adhered with unwavering fidelity to that monarch's cause
throughout the whole of his chequered career. After the disastrous battle of
Methven, Bruce, with a small body of followers, took refuge in the Western
Highlands, and Sir Nigel, through his influence with Angus, Lord of the Isles,
secured a retreat for the hunted King in the remote district of Kintyre. Sir
Nigel shared in all the subsequent struggles of the Scottish patriots for the
recovery of their independence, and took part in the crowning victory of
Bannockburn. He was rewarded for his fidelity and his important services with
the hand of Lady Mary, Bruce's own sister, and with a grant of the forfeited
estates of David de Strathbogie, Earl of Athol. Sir Nigel was one of the
commissioners sent to York, in 1314, to negotiate a peace with England—was one
of the leading barons in the Parliament held at Ayr in 1315, when the
succession to the crown was settled, and obtained from his royal brother-in-law
a charter, under the Great Seal, of several estates. By his wife, Lady Mary
Bruce, Sir Nigel had three sons, the second of whom, John, was created Earl of
Athol, and succeeded to the extensive possessions of that earldom, in accordance
with the grant made by his uncle. He fell, however, at the battle of Halidon
Hill, July 19th, 1333; and, as he left no issue, his title reverted to the
crown. Sir Nigel's eldest son—
page 247
On the death of the great Marquis, ARCHIBALD, his eldest son, became the head of
the house of Campbell. In accordance with the Celtic custom of
'fostering,' Earl Archibald's early years were spent under the roof of his
kinsman, the accomplished Sir Colin Campbell of Glenorchy. The foster-mother of
the youthful heir to the chieftainship of the clan was Juliana Campbell,
daughter of Hew, Lord Loudoun, and wife of Sir Colin.
An interesting correspondence between the Marquis and the foster-father of his
son has been preserved, and throws light on the nature and obligations of the
relation of fosterage. The correspondence begins in 1633, with a letter from Sir
Colin to Lord Lorne, expressing his great gratification that the chief had given
him the preference over 'sundrie of his Lordship's friends who were most
desyrous to have his Lordship's eldest son in fostering, quich,' he says, 'I
acknowledge as a great testimonie both of your Lordship's trust and love; and I
hop in God evir so to approve myself to be most willing and desyrous to deserve
both.' Careful arrangements were made for the conveyance of the boy to his new
home. 'In regard,' says Sir Colin, 'that I am not weel able to travell myself so
far a journey, I intend to send my wyfe and some other of my friends to be his
convoy.' And he requests his Lordship to 'provyde some discrit woman and ane
sufficient man quha has both Irisch [Gaelic] and Englisch, and will have a care
not onlie to attend him, but sometimes lykewayes to learne him, and quhat else
may concern him, quhill he is in my company.' Great importance seems to have
been attached to the acquisition of the Gaelic language, for in December, 1637,
Lady Lorne writes to Glenorchy: 'I hear my sone begines to wearye of the Irish
langwadge. I entreat yew to cause holde hime to the speaking of itt, for since
he has bestowed so long tyme and paines on the getting of it, I sould be sorry
he lost it now with leasiness in not speaking of it.' A letter from the youth
himself shows the strength of his affection for his 'loving foster-father and
respected freind.' Sketches of Early Scottish History.
THE CAMPBELLS OF LOUDOUN.
INTRODUCTION.
page 257
THE Campbells of Loudoun are the oldest branch of the
house of Argyll, and are descended from Donald, second son of Sir Colin Campbell
of Lochaw, and brother of Sir Neil Campbell, the friend of King Robert Bruce.
The barony in Ayrshire, from which they derive their title, was originally the
possession of the Loudouns of Loudoun, one of the
oldest families in Scotland. Margaret of Loudoun, the
heiress of the estate, married Sir Reginald Crawford, High Sheriff of Ayr, and
was the grandmother of Sir William Wallace, the illustrious Scottish patriot.
The barony passed to the Campbells in the reign of Robert Bruce by the marriage
of Sir Duncan, son of Donald Campbell, to Susanne Crawford, heiress of Loudoun,
and fifth in descent from Sir Reginald Crawford. Sir Hugh Campbell, Sheriff of
Ayr, was created a Lord of Parliament by the title of Lord Campbell of Loudoun,
by James VI., in 1601. His granddaughter, Margaret Campbell, who inherited his
title and estates, married Sir John Campbell of Lawers, a scion of the Glenorchy
or Breadalbane family. He was created—
page 259
EARL OF LOUDOUN, and Baron Tarryhean and Mauchline by
Charles I., 12th May, 1633; but in consequence of his opposition to the measures
of the Court, the patent was stopped at the Chancery, and the title was
suspended until 1641. Following the lead of the chief of his house, the Earl
took an active part in the opposition to the attempt of Charles I. to force the
new Liturgy upon Scotland, and was a member of the celebrated General Assembly
which met in Glasgow in 1638. In the following year he took and garrisoned the
castles of Strathavon, Douglas, and Tantallon for the Covenanters. He was one of
the seven Scottish noblemen who signed the letter addressed to the King of
France, entreating his assistance, and was in consequence arrested on a
charge of treason and committed to the Tower. He regained his liberty through
the influence of the Marquis of Hamilton, and was permitted to return to
Scotland. He became one of the most active leaders of the Covenanting party,
commanded the van of their army at the battle of Newburn, and was one of the
commissioners who negotiated the treaty of Ripon. He presided at the opening of
the Scottish Parliament, 15th July, 1641, and when the King visited Scotland in
the following month Loudoun's title of Earl was allowed
with precedence from 1633, and he was appointed High Chancellor of Scotland and
First Commissioner of the Treasury. But these favours failed to win him over to
the royal side, and he continued to support with great vehemence all the
measures adopted by the Presbyterian party. He took a prominent part in
promoting the 'Act of Classes,' excluding all who had taken part in the
'Engagement' from offices of trust and from Parliament. Much to his discredit,
when the Marquis of Montrose was brought to the bar of the Parliament House to
receive sentence of death, the Chancellor bitterly upbraided him for his
violation of the Covenant, his league with Irish rebels, and his invasion of the
country. The behaviour of Loudoun on this occasion—so
unbecoming his high office—and the virulent abuse which he poured upon the
great Royalist, may be accounted for, but not justified, by the sanguinary
defeat of the clan Campbell at the battle of Inverlochy, where his elder
brother, the Laird of Lawers, fell. The Earl, however, after the execution of
Charles I., embraced the cause of his son, and was in consequence, along with
his son, Lord Mauchline, excepted out of Cromwell's Act of Grace and Pardon in
1654; but £400 a year was settled out of his estates on his wife. At the
Restoration he was deprived of his office of Chancellor, and fined £12,000
Scots. He died in 1663. His son—
page 261
JAMES MURE CAMPBELL, grandson of the second Earl of Loudoun.
His father, Sir James Campbell of Lawers, was a distinguished military officer,
who served under the Duke of Marlborough, and contributed greatly to the victory
of the allied forces at Malplaquet, 11th September, 1709. He distinguished
himself also at the battle of Dettingen, 16th June, 1743, and was mortally
wounded at Fontenoy, where he commanded the British cavalry. His son James, the
fifth Earl, assumed the name of Mure on succeeding to the estate of his
grandmother, the Countess of Glasgow, heiress of the[p.261] ancient family of
Mure of Rowallan. He attained the rank of major-general in the army, and died in
1786, leaving an only child—
FLORA MURE CAMPBELL, Countess of Loudoun, who married
in 1804 the Earl of Moira, created Marquis of Hastings in 1816, who was an
eminent statesman, and held for some years the office of Governor-General of
India. The Marquis died in 1836 at Malta, of which he was governor and
commander-in-chief. He had promised his wife that they should lie in the same
grave. As this could not in the circumstances be carried into effect, he desired
his right hand to be amputated at his death and sent home, that it might be
buried with the Marchioness. It was deposited in the family vault in Loudoun
Kirk, and when she died in 1840 it was laid in the grave beside her body. The
eldest of her three daughters was Lady Flora Hastings, and her only son became
second Marquis of Hastings and sixth Earl of Loudoun.
His eldest son, an officer in the army, was drowned at Liverpool in 1851 in his
nineteenth year, and was succeeded by his brother, a poor unhappy and misguided
youth, who made shipwreck of title, character, and estates. On his death in
1868, his sister, Edith Maude, wife of Charles Frederick Clifton, a member of an
old Lancashire family, became Countess of Loudoun. She
died in 1874 in her forty-first year, and directed by her will that her right
hand be cut off and buried in Donington Park, the ancient possession of the
Hastings family, which had been alienated by her brother, and the spot to be
marked by a stone with the inscription, 'I byde my time.' Before her death she
had succeeded in proving her right to no less than four ancient peerages—Botreaux,
Hungerford, De Malynes, and Hastings, which had fallen into abeyance. They have
descended to her son, the ninth Earl of Loudoun. Her
eldest daughter married, in 1877, the fifteenth Duke of Norfolk.
THE CAMPBELLS OF BREADALBANE.
INTRODUCTION.
page 261
According to the 'Doomsday Book,' the Loudoun estate
consists of 18,638 acres, with a rental of £15,286 a year, and in addition the
minerals yield £2,259 a year.
THE CAMPBELLS OF BREADALBANE.
INTRODUCTION.
page 264
Sir Colin was four times married. His second wife was one of three daughters and
co-heiresses of the Lord of Lorne, with whom he received a third of the estates
of that ancient and powerful clan, still possessed by his descendants, and
thenceforward quartered the galley of Lorne with his paternal coat of arms. His
nephew, the first Earl of Argyll, to whom he was guardian, married another of
these heiresses. By his fourth wife, a daughter of Stirling of Keir, Sir Colin
had a son named John, who was the ancestor of the Earls of Loudoun.
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