Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 1.djvu/204

 154 COMPLETE PEERAGE angus XVII. 1377. 4. Margaret (Stewart), j«oy«r£' Countess OF Angus [S.], eldest sister and h. of line. She ;»., between 1361 and 1374, as his 2nd wife, Thomas, 13th Earl of Mar [S.], the last Earl of Mar in the direct male line, who d. s.p., 1377. Probably in her husband's lifetime, (") but certainly very shortly afterwards, she became mother of a s., known as George Douglas, begotten by her late husband's br.-in-law, William (Douglas), ist Earl of Douglas [S.], whose wife Margaret, suo jure Countess of Mar [S.] (being sister and h. of Thomas, 13th Earl at Mar abovenamed), was then alive, and outlived her said husband. On 9 Apr. 1389 the Countess of Angus resigned the Earldom (reserving for herself the frank tenement thereof for life) in favour of the said George Douglas, not however then styling him her s. or alleging any relationship to him ; though in his marriage contract with the King's da., some eight years afterwards, she styles him " Lord of Angus, " and acknowledges him as her s. She, however, survived her said s., and was living 141 7, being styled " Countess of Angus and Mar, " (viz., Angus, in her own right, and Mar, in right of her long deceased and only husband), but (of course) never styled " Countess of Douglas, " as the wife of that Earl of Douglas (who was the father of her children) survived him. She d. before 23 Mar. 141 7/8. XVIII. 1389. I. George (Douglas), Earl of Angus [S.], illegit. s. of William (Douglas), ist Earl of Douglas ("") [S.], by Margaret, suo jure Countess of Angus [S.], as above mentioned, was b. not later than 1378. On 9 Apr. 1389, by the resignation of his mother, the said Countess, he received a grant of THE EARLDOM OF ANGUS [S.] to himself and the heirs of his body, with rem. to Elizabeth, wife of Sir Alexander Hamilton, of Innerwick (yst. and only sister of the said Countess), and the heirs of their bodies. (°) He w., contract dat. 24 May 1397, the Lady Mary Stewart, 2nd da. of Robert III, by Annabel, C) The date of the birth of her s., George Douglas (the future Earl of Angus [S.]), who m. in May 1397, and had three children within five years afterwards, would (if we suppose him to be 19, and no older, at his marriage) just allow of his being h. a year after the death of his mother's husband, the Earl of Mar [S.]. (*) The Earldom of Douglas [S.] was entailed, 26 May 1342, on the heirs male of the body of Earl William, whom failing, to a certain William Douglas and Archibald Douglas respectively in like manner. On the death, s.p., in Aug. 1388, of James, 2nd Earl of Douglas [S.], who was the only legit, s. of the said Earl William, this George Douglas (the Earl of Angus mentioned in the text), would, if legitimate, have, of course, as h. male of the body, sue. to his father's Earldom of Douglas [S.]. Under the actual circumstances, however, that Earldom devolved (according to the entail of 1342) on the Archibald Douglas abovenamed. "This singular Douglas entail now above 500 years old, is given by Mr. Riddell in [his] Stewartiana, pp. 83 and 84, apparently from the Torphichen charter chest " [the family of Sandilands being the representatives of the House of Douglas]. See Sinclair's remarks on the status of George Douglas, 1st Earl of Angus [S.]. {") This limitation was altered in 1547. Sec under (xxiii) 6th Earl.