Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 5.djvu/305

 MENTEITH. 303 [The question of heirship is in this case a di/lieult matter. The issue male of the 3d Earl and subsequent Earls appears to be extinct, but male descendants of the 1st and possibly of the 2d Earl not improbably exist. With respect to the heir ycncrul, the seniority of the two elder( a ) sisters of the Sth Earl was doubtful, but the issue of one (Lady Klizalteth Graham) became extinct in 1S03, so that the heir of line of the other sister (Lady Mary Allardice) would be such heir. The dignity was, however, assumed as below.] XXI. 174-'/, 9. "William Graham, younger of the two sons to of William Guaiiam, of Edinburgh, Writer to the Signet, by 1783. M»rji only da. and h. of James Honui;, of Gladsmuir, by Mary, sister of Sir John Graham, Bart, (who was cognosced insane in 1090, and who d. July 170S), and the only child that had issue of Sir William Giiaha.m, Hart., of Gartmore, by Elizabeth, one of the two elder sisters of William (Graham), 8th Earl ok Mkntmth [§.], abovenamed, was b. about 1715 ; tut. his elder br. (James Graham) before Hay 17-10 ; assumed the title of HAUL OF MENTEITH [S.l on the presumption (1) that his maternal great grandmother, the abovenaiued Elizabeth, was eldest of the sisters of William, Eara OF AlRTB AMD Mkntkith [S.], and (2) that the Earldom of Mentcith was destined to the heir of line. He ruled as such Earl at the election of Peers [S.]. in Oct. 1741, Aug. 1717, March 1719. July and Nov. 1752, and May 1761, but his assumption of that dignity was prohibited by an order of the House of Lords, 2 March 1702, tho' he, notwithstanding, continued to make use of the same. He, who was called " the beggar Earl," and who subsisted by charity, uum., 30 June 17S3,( b ) a wanderer by the way-side at Bonhill, and was bur. there, (') aged about 70. {«) There was a third sister, Catherine, who m. (— ) Sellick and had two daughters both living in 1717, and one as late aa 1733. (>') He had three sisters all of whom d. before him, two of them dying s.p., but one, Mary, wife of John Bogle (who d. 1 May 17S7, at a great age), left one son and two daughters. Of these three children, Giizell d. num. before 1S02, but John Bogle, the son, who was a miniature portrait painter in Edinburgh and London, represented his maternal great-great grandmother (his mother's mother's mother's mother) Elizabeth, one of the two sisters of the last Earl of Airth and Menteith, and any claim accruing thro' her to the Menteith Earldom. He d. s.p. in Edinburgh in 1S03, when Mary (who styled herself '' Lady Mary Bogle ") his only surv. sister, beeame such repre- sentative. She d. nam. 12 Nov. 1821, when the issue of the said Lady Elizabeth Graham became extinct. ( c ) In 1831, the Earldom of Airth, and in 1510, the Earldoms of Strathern and Menteith were claimed by Robert Barclay-AUardicc, s. and h. of Robert Barclay - Alhvrdice (formerly Barclay) of Uric. eo. Kincardine, by Sarah Ann (rf. 1833, aged 70) da. and h. of James Allardice, of Allardice {d. 1705, aged 3S),s. and and h. of another James A. (d. 1728, aged 35), s. and h. of Sir George Allardice (d. 170!), aged 37), the only s. that had issue of Sir John Allardice (d. 1670), by Mary (formerly Lady Mary Graham, Spinster) one of the sisters of the last Earl of Airth and Menteith. The said lady Mary Allardice (who d. in 1720, having survived both her sons) always asserted her right to be Countess of Menteith, as eldest of the sisters and coheirs of the late Karl. Her issue since the extinction of the issue of her sister (Lady Elizabeth Graham), in 1821 are, since that date, the undoubted heir of line, even if not the sole heir to the said Earl. Her great-great-great grandson, Robert Barclay-Allardice abovenamed, the claimant in 183-1 ami 1S-10 to the Earldoms as above stated, d. in 1854, but the claim was continued by Margaret his only da. and h. (Mrs. Barclay- Allardice) and was heard in 1870 and 1S71, tho' no decision thereon was made. The claim was opposed by William Cuiminghame Routine, formerly Graham, of Ardoch and Gartmore as heir male of the body of the 1st Earl of Mentcith, thro' Sir John Graham of Kilbryde, the second son of that Earl.