11 FEBRUARY 1865, Page 12

A NUMBER of charters were granted to the first Earl

of Roxburghe, particularly of the Royal burgh of Canon- gate, united with the barony of Bronghtoun, August 15, 1630. He was sent down in 1637 to Scotland by the King to endea- vour to prevent the progress of the Covenanting movement, but left Scotland when the General Assembly prolonged its sittings in spite of the Kings orders to the contrary, and repaired to the King. After the pacification at Berwick in 1639 he returned to Scotland. He still seems to have held off from the Covenanting party, though there were some suspicions of his fidelity to the King's cause. He did not, however, take the Covenant till the autumn of 1641, during Charles's visit to Scotland, and at the King's express command. At the time of the " Incident " he fell on his knees in the presence of the Estates and protested his ignor- ance of the whole affair. He seems to have acquiesced in the pro- ceedings of the Covenanting party from that time down to the year 1643, when he was one of the Loids accused of writing a letter to the Queen from Derby, informing her of the design of the Scots to join the English Parliament against the King. But this was passed over. He made a resignation of all his estates and titles.to the Crown in July, 1643, for a new investiture to him and the heirs male of his body, failing which to his heirs and assigns to be nominated by him during his lifetime. This nomination he executed at Cessford, March 22, 1644. He had been twice married, first to Margaret, only daughter of Sir William Maitland of Lethington, by whom he had four children—a son, William, Lord Ker, who died on his travels abroad before August, 1618, and three daughters, the eldest of whom, Lady Jean Ker, married John Drummond, second Aarl of Perth. The second wife of the Earl of Roxburghe was Jane, sister of his son-in-law, the second Earl of Perth. She was a lady of considerable talent, and governess to the children of James VI. She died in October, 1643, and her funeral was made the rendez- vous for the Scotch Royalists to plan, it is said, a massacre of the Covenanters, probably only their overthrow, but their numbers were found too inconsiderable. By her the Earl of Roxburghe had one son, Henry, Lord Ker. He was with his father in the King's forces in 1639, but quitted them and joined the Cove- nanters in sight of the King, which it was thought he would not have done without his father's connivance, "he being such an awful man." But he entered into the association formed in favour of Charles I. and to overawe the Covenanters in January, 1641. He died in January, 1643, leaving by his wife, Lady Margaret Hay, only daughter of William, tenth Earl of Errol, four daugh- ters—JEAN, Anne, MARGARET. and Sophia. The reader will now understand the nomination made by the Earl of Roxburghe in 1644, by which the estates and titles were limited to his grand- son, Sir Wumahr DRUMMOND, youngest son of the Earl of Perth, and the heirs male of his body, under certain conditions, one of which was that he should marry Jean Ker, the eldest daughter of Henry, Lord Ker, or failing her, her younger sisters in their order.. There was a limitation in default of the above to the second, third, and fourth sons of Lady Jean Drummond, eldest daughter of the Earl of Perth, by John Lord Fleming, under the same con- ditions. This nomination was found defective, and on the 31st of July, 1646, the Earl of Roxburghe obtained another charter- under the Royal Seal, in virtue of which he executed, February 23, 1648, a disposition vfisich placed Sir William Drummond and the younger sons of Lady Fleming in the line of succession as before,. failing whom the right of the said estate to pertain to the eldest daughter of Henry, Lord Ker, and her heirs male, she marrying " a gentleman of honoured and haill descent," failing all whom " to• our nearest and haill heirs male whatsoever." This nomination was ratified by Act of Parliament, June 10, 1648. The Earl was deprived of his office of Lord Privy Seal for (February 13, 1649) supporting Hamilton's " Engagement " for the invasion of Eng- land in 1648, and he died January 18, 1650. He was succeeded as second Earl of Roxburghe, agreeably to the above limitation, by his grandson Sir William Drummond, who had married his cousin Jean, eldest daughter of Henry, Lord Ker, as therein stipulated- He had served in early life with reputation in the wars in Holland, and on his accession to the title of Roxburghe acted as one of the• Committee of Estates as a supporter of the King of Scots in 1650,. but early in 1651 recommended Charles to make terms with Crom- well, to which the King returned no answer, but said after he had left that he did not know whom to trust now Roxburghe had failed him. The Earl, however, continued to adhere to the Royal cause, and was fined 6,0001. by Cromwell's Act of Grace and Pardon in 1654. In 1683 he obtained a ratification of his grand- father's settlement from the then heir male of the Kers of Cessford,. and died July 2, 1675.

He had four sons, the eldest of whom, Robert, succeeded him as third Earl of Roxburghe, the two next died without issue, and the fourth, John, became Lord Bellenden, and was the ancestor, as we: shall see, of a new line of the Roxburghe peerage. Robert, the- third Earl, was one of the Privy Council of Charles IL, but coming- down to Scotland in 1682 he was lost in the Gloucester frigate- near Yarmouth on the 7th of May. His two eldest sons, Robert and John, succeeded him as fourth and fifth Earls of Roxburghe it his third, William, was a Lieutenant-General in the army, served under Marlborough with reputation, was wounded at Sheriff- muir, and was a Groom of the Bedchamber to the Prince of Wales in 1714, several times chosen as a member of Parlia- ment, and died in 1741 unmarried. Robert, the fourth Earl,. died in his nineteenth year on his travels abroad unmarried,. June 13, 1696. His brother John, the fifth Earl, was an ex- tremely accomplished man, and was one of the associated lords in Scotland called " the Squadron " who supported the Union and the Protestant succession, and are greatly praised by Burnet for their disinterested patriotism ; of course their opponents tell another story. In 1704 Roxburghe was appointed one of the Secretaries of State, and on the 25th of April, 1707, was created Duke of Roxburghe, Marquis of Beaumont and Cessford, Earl of Kelso, Viscount Broanorth, and Lord Ker of Cesaford and Caver-

a Whig in politics, and has two sons. him to the possession of his whole estate. At the execution of the

Having traced the Kers of Cessford to their present represen- Regent Morton in that year "it was remarked that Fernihirst tative, we turn to the Kers, or as they afterwards spelt the name, stood in a window opposite the scaffold. He was recognized by Kerrs, of FERHIHIRST, with whom is blended a branch of the Cess- his huge ruffles, and seemed to take delight in the spectacle." He ford Kers. The first of this line to whom we can trace is RALPH attached himself to the party of the Stewarts-Lennox and Arran KER, who settled in Teviot Dale about the year 1330, and -and was once again obliged to fly from the country, but in getting possession of the lands lying between the water of Jed and November, 1583, he obtained an ample remission under the Great the lands of Straseburgh, of which the superiority was in the Earls Seal. In midsummer, 1585, in a fray between him as Scotch

of Douglas, called them KEasnauon. He died about the year Warden of the Borders and Sir John Forster, the English Warden, 1350, , and was succeeded by his son, Thomas, who purchased Sir Francis Russell, son of the Earl of Bedford, was killed, and the lands of Crailling from the Homes. His eldest son, Robert, Fernihirst being a great friend of Arran,-the head of the anti- was cupbearer to Robert If., and was succeeded by his son English party,-a great outcry was made by Elizabeth at what she Thomas, who died about the year 1430, and whose son Andrew called a murder by Fernihirst at Arran's instigation, and to appease was one of those who accompanied the Earl of Douglas to her Fernihirst was committed to ward at Aberdeen, where he died Rome in 1450, and was succeeded by his son Ralph, who died in March, 1586.

about 1460. To him succeeded his son Andrew and his grandson Scotch readers will remember him chiefly as one of Queen Mary's Thomas, the latter of whom built a house in the middle of Jed- most devoted friends, but English readers will feel most interest in

burgh Forest, and gave it the name FERNIHIRST, of which place him as the father of Robert Ker, Kerr, or as the English spelt it, he is designated in the records of Parliament, 1476. He had Carre, Earl of Somerset, the well-known favourite of James I. of a charter of the barony of Fernihirst from Archibald, Earl England. He was Sir Thomas's third son by his second marriage

of Angus, and died in 1499. His eldest son, Sir Andrew Ker to Janet, sister of Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch. He first served

of Fernihirst, had charters of half the barony of Oxenham King James in the quality of a page in Scotland, and accompanied from his maternal relative, Robert Colvill of Ochiltree, on the him into England, and had the Order of the Bath given him at the 5th of May, 1509, and of the other half of the same barony coronation. After this he spent four years in France, perfecting from Margaret Colvill, December 31, 1511. He was a man himself in languages and manly accomplishments, and returned to of considerable talent, and of great activity on the Borders Court in 1607. At a tilting match Richard, Lord Dingwall, made

torn, to him and the heirs male of his body, which failing, to his during the reigns of James IV. and V. In 1516 he was seized other heirs, according to the limitations of the Earldom of Rox- by the Regent Albany during an expedition to repress the disorders burghe. He was one of the representative peers of Scotland from of the Marches, and condemned to death, but respited by him. In the year 1707, one of the Lords of Regency before the arrival of 1523 the Earl of Surrey and Lord Dacre besieged him in his castle

George I., and by him appointed in 1714 Keeper of the Privy of Fernihirst, and he was obliged to surrender it to them after a Seal in Scotland. He served as a volunteer under the Duke of stout defence. He was subjected to a summons of treason by the Argyll during the Rebellion of '15, and was at Sheriffmuir, was Douglases for engaging in factions against the King at the time constituted Secretary of State for Scotland in 1716, served several when Bucclench made his bold attempt to rescue James V. from times as one of the Lords Justices during the King's absences, and their hands, but was acquitted in Parliament on the 20th of July, was made a Knight of the Garter in October, 1722. In August, 1526, after their fall. He had on the 10th of August in the same 1725, he was dismissed from his office of Secretary for joining with year a charter from Margaret Halyburton, youngest daughter and Lords Carteret and Cadogan in an attempt to upset Walpole and coheiress of the lord of Dirletou, of her part of West Fentoun in the Townshend, and for alleged encouragement of the discontent in barony of Dirleton, and of the Lands of Segy in Kinrossshire. On Scotland against the malt-tax. He passed the rest of his days in the forfeiture of the Earl of Angus he had a charter of the retirement till his death at his seat FLOURS on February 24, 1741. barony of Fernihirst from the King, September 5, 1528, and of He was succeeded by his only sou Robert, second Duke of Rox- the lands of Bethroull on the 20th of April in the same year. burghe, who in 1722 was created a British peer as Earl and He was one of the guardians of the Middle Marches and one Baron Ker of Wakefield. He had 2,1001. compensation under the of the commissioners for peace with the English, but was seized Act of 1747 for abolishing heritable jurisdictions, but only sur- and imprisoned by James during his judicial progress through the vived to the 23rd of August, 1755, and was succeeded by his eldest Marches in 1528, along with Buccleuch and others, for abetting son John, third Duke of Roxburghe, also an accomplished and the malefactors. In 1542, however, he obtained the office of particularly elegant man. He was a Lord of the Bedchamber to Bailiary of Jedburgh Forest, and died in 1545. He was suc- George III. in 1767 and Groom of the Stole November 30, 1796, ceeded at Fernihirst by his eldest surviving son, Sir John Ker, when he was sworn a Privy Councillor. From this date his who had a charter of some lands at Langton in Roxburghshire politics may be seen to have been Tory. He had the Garter in in January, 1525, was Warden of the Middle Marches, and was June, 1801, and was allowed as a special mark of Royal favour to knighted in 1548 by the Duke of Chastelherault for his services on keep at the same time the Order of the Thistle, with which he had the Border. In 1549, with the assistance of the French, he re- been previously honoured. The Duke, however, will be chiefly took his castle of Fernihirst from the English by storm. He known to posterity as a great collector of books, he having formed was engaged with Ker of Cessford in the nocturnal attack on one of the largest and most valuable libraries in Britain at his Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch in 1532, in which the latter fell, house in St. James's Square. The " Roxburghe Club " arose as a and obtained a formal remission for the same. He married consequence of the great sale of these books which afterwards took Catherine, eldest daughter of Sir Andrew Ker of Cessford, and place. The Duke died March 19, 1804, when his British titles died in July, 1562, leaving by her four children, of whom the became extinct, but his Scottish honours and entailed estates eldest son, Sir Thomas, succeeded him at Fernihirst He was devolved on William, seventh Lord Bellenden, the descendant of a strong Roman Catholic, and a determined adherent of Queen John, the fourth son of the second Earl of Roxburghe, which John Mary. When she and Darnley in October, 1565, marched to had succeeded to the title and property of his cousin, William, Lord Dumfries against the rebel lords, she placed herself formally under Bellenden. William, fourth Duke of Roxburghe, however, only the protection of Fernihirst, commanding him to display the Royal survived to the 23rd of October, 1805, when he died childless, and banner at the head of his followers. He was known to have been the whole male line of William, second Earl of Roxburghe, failed. privy to the murder of Darnley, and joined the Queen after her A competition then ensued for the Dukedom and estates among escape from Lochleven in May, 1568. The day after the murder various candidates, but ultimately the succession was adjudged to of the Regent Moray in January, 1570, he made the raid into Sir James Norcliffe INNEs, Baronet, as heir male of the body of England with Buccleuch which has been already alluded to, and Margaret Ker, third daughter of Henry, Lord Ker, son of the in retaliation his castle of Fernihirst was demolished by the Earl first Earl of Roxburghe, who had married Sir James Jones of of Sussex and Lord Hunsdon in the April of the same year. In Innes in the county of Elgin, Baronet, the head of a family tracing September, 1571, he was one of the daring party who made the their descent from Berowald the Fleming in the reign of Malcolm attack on Stirling in which the Regent Lennox was killed, he IV., and who prided themselves on three things,-first, that their having been forfeited and his estate confiscated in the August of inheritance never went to a woman ; next, that none of them ever that year. He carried his family charter-chest to the castle of Edin- married an ill wife ; and thirdly, that no friend ever suffered for burgh, and joined Kirkaldy of Grange in its defence, but when the their debt. James, fifth Duke of Roxburghe, assumed the name castle surrendered in 1573 Morton is said to have seized the chest of Ker in addition to that of limes on succeeding to the Ker titles and to have never restored it. After this Sir Thomas Ker was a and estates. He died July 19, 1823, and was succeeded as sixth banished wanderer in France, Spain, and Holland, but never ceased and present Duke by his only son James Henry, who in 1838 was plotting in the interest of Mary and the Catholic faith. In 1579 created Earl Innes in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. He is James VI. gave him leave to return home, and in 1581 restored

a Whig in politics, and has two sons. him to the possession of his whole estate. At the execution of the

he is designated in the records of Parliament, 1476. He had Carre, Earl of Somerset, the well-known favourite of James I. of a charter of the barony of Fernihirst from Archibald, Earl England. He was Sir Thomas's third son by his second marriage of Fernihirst, had charters of half the barony of Oxenham King James in the quality of a page in Scotland, and accompanied from his maternal relative, Robert Colvill of Ochiltree, on the him into England, and had the Order of the Bath given him at the choice of him to present his shield and device to the King, but while he was dismounting his horse threw him and broke his leg. It is unnecessary to detail on how the King's attention drawn to him by this accident laid the foundation of his fortunes, or how he and his wife, the divorced Countess of Essex, were ultimately tried and condemned for the murder of his friend, the scholar-courtier, Sir Thomas Overbury. It is very doubtful whether the Earl of Somerset himself took any active part in this murder, though it is probable he was cognizant of the attempts at poison (whether they were the cause of death or not) of his infamous wife. It is evident that the King was afraid of driving him to extremities, and that he was in possession of important State or private secrets. He was pardoned October 7,16.34, and survived till July, 1645, just living to see the son of his old master reduced to extremities by the battle of Naseby. He had himself adhered to the Parliament, though of courts, taking no active part. His connection with the Russells, his only daughter, Anne, marrying the Earl of Bedford's eldest son and becoming the mother of the celebrated William Lord Russell,—may have contributed, with his hatred of Buckingham, to this choice of parties. His sacrifices for his daughter to accom- plish this match, and his careful and admirable education of her, arc the redeeming points in a character concerning which in other respects little good can be said.

The Earl of Somerset's eldest half-brother (whose mother was a daughter of Kirkaldy of Grange), Sir Andrew Kerr, succeeded at Fernihirst, and had a charter of East and West Nisbets, September 5, 1584, and another of the office of bailiary of the lands and baronies belonging to the monastery of Jedburgh, March 15, 1588, He was made one of the Gentlemen of the Bedchamber to James VI. in 1598, and had a charter to him and his son, Sir Andrew, of half the barony of Maxwell, in Roxburghshire, December 4, 1612, and of other lands in the following years, and on the 2nd of February, 1622, was created a peer as Lord Jedburgh, to him and his heirs male and successors in the family of Fernihirst, bearing the name and arms of Kerr. He dial in 1631 without surviving issue, and was succeeded by his next brother, Sir James Kerr of Crailling, who had a charter of the barony of Grubet, June, 1627, but did not assume the title of Lord Jedburgh, and dying in 1645

was succeeded by his son Robert, third Lord Jedburgh, who ob- tained from Charles IL in July, 1670, a confirmation of the lord-

ship of Jedburgh to him and the heirs male of his body, which failing to William, Master of Newbattle, and the heirs male of his body, failing which to the Master of Newbattle's heirs male whatso- ever. He had a charter of the lands of Overcrailling and Rickleton, is Roxburghshire, September 30, 1678, and died August 4, 1692, without issue, on which the title of Lord Jedburgh, with the barony of Fernihirst, devolved on William, Lord Newbattle, eldest son of Robert, fourth Earl of Lothian, son of Anne, Countess of Lothian, the heiress of the Cessford branch, of which we have already spoken. Robert, Earl of Lothian, who by the death of his kins- man, Lord Jedburgh, became the representative of the male line of Fernihirst, was the descendant of Robert Ker of Ancruw, third son of that Sir Andrew Ker of Fernihirst who co-operated with Buccleuch against the Earl of Angus and the Douglases.

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A NUMBER of charters were granted to the first Earl