Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 1.djvu/127

 ALBANY COMPLETE PEERAGE 77 AIRTHRIE i.e. " AiRTHRiE," Viscountcy [S.] (Hope), cr. 1703, with the Earldom of HopETOUN [S.], which see. ALBANY i.e., those parts of Scotland that are north of the Firths of Clyde and Forth. DUKEDOM [S.] I. Robert Stewart, 3rd, but 2nd surv., s. of Robert, I. 1398. High Steward of Scotland, afterwards (1370-90) Robert II, by his ist wife, Elizabeth, da. of Sir Adam Mure, of Rowallan, was b. about 1340, and, while a young man (1361), became, in right of his wife, Earl of Menteith [S.]. By agree- ment, 30 Mar. 1371, with Isabel, sitojure Countess of Fife [S.], he became, on her resignation. Earl of Fife [S.], by which latter title he was generally known. Great Chamberlain [S.] 13 83-1 407. He made two successful raids into England, one in 1385, and another in 1388. On i Dec. 1388, the King (his father), being aged, and his eldest br. (afterwards John Allardice of Allardice, and d. Dec. 1720, leaving issue ; (2) Elizabeth m., Dec. 1663, Sir William Graham of Gartmore, Bart. [S.], and d. v.f., leaving issue, which, according to some accounts, became extinct on the death of her great-great-grand- daughter Marie Bogle in 182 1. The claim of the Allardice family to the title was opposed in 1839 by Nicholas Donnithorne Bishop, and Mary Eleanor his wife, da. and h. of James Andrew Bogle, alleged to have been a descendant of this Elizabeth Graham. — See Burke's Extinct Peerage, sub "Graham, Earl of Strathern," &c. In 1834 Robert Barclay-Allardice (whose mother, Sarah Ann, was da. and h. of James Allardice, great-grandson and h. of Sir John A. and Mary Graham abovenamed) claimed the dignity of Earl of Airth [S.] as h. of line of the grantee, contending that the word " heirs " in the patent of 1633 must be read as " heirs of the body." To which the Lord Advocate objected that the patent only annexed the new dignity of Airth to the old one of Monteith, and that no person could be Earl of Airth [S.] who was not a/so Earl of Monteith [S.]. The case was frequently heard in 1839, and was ad- journed 1 5 Aug. 1839. In 1840, the same claimant presented a petition for the dignity of Earl of Strathern and Monteith [S.], but no further steps were taken, and he d. in 1854. In 1870, Mrs. Barclay-Allardice, his only surv. child, claimed the dignity of Countess of Airth [S.], and was opposed by W. C. Bontine (formerly Graham), who claimed to be h. male of the body of the ist Earl of Menteith, or Monteith [S.], and asserted this Earldom to be united with the Earldom of Airth. The case was last heard 21 July 187 1. See Hewlett, pp. 74-76. G.E.C. Mrs. Barclay- Allardyce d. 7 Aug. 1903, and in Nov. 1904, her s., Robert B.-A. was contemplating the assertion of his claim as h. of line. From press notices of that time it would appear that Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham, ist s. of W.C. Bontine mentioned above, was prepared to contest the claim on the same ground as his father had done. Another claimant was also announced in the Daily Mail of 19 Nov. 1904, as intending to assert his claim as h. male, namely George Marshall Graham, ^.18 Nov. 1852, at Edinburgh, and then of Kansas City, U.S.A., s. and h. of James G. of Leichtown, Menteith, co. Perth, {ex infirm. J. H. Round.) V.G.