Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 1.djvu/211

 ANGUS COMPLETE PEERAGE i6i See " Douglas, " Marquessate of [S.], cr. 1633 ; and see " Douglas, " Dukedom of [S.], cr. 1703, extinct 1761. From 1633 to 1703 the Earldom of Angus, and from 1703 to 1761 the Marquessate of Angus [S.] {cr. 1703) was used as the courtesy title of the eldest son of the Marquess of Douglas or Duke of Douglas [S.]. In 1761, the DuK.E of Hamilton [S.], as h. male of the abovenamed William (Douglas), Earl of Angus and (ist) Marquess of Douglas [S.], sue. (apparently) (*) to those titles, his right to the Earldom of Angus [S.] being under the regrant of 1547. Since that time the Earldom of Angus has apparently C") continued merged in that Dukedom. See " Hamil- ton, " Dukedom of [S.], cr. 1 643, under the 7th Duke. (°) when they leagued together against the Royal House. That Douglas was in all respects the premier Earl during nearly the whole of the reigns (1406-60) of James F and James II, cannot admit of doubt, and it was only after the attainder of the 9th and last Earl, in 1455, when, as was popularly said, " The Red Douglas put down the Black, " that the former (then represented by George, Earl of Angus, a stedfast adherent of the Crown during the Douglas rebellion), seems to have been tacitly allowed to step into all the privileges of the latter. {Ex inform. G. Burnett, sometime Lyon.)] Lastly, in the confirmation of the Comitatus of Angus by charter under the Great Seal to the Earl in liferent and to his s. in fee (13 Feb. 1602), there was included " primum locum in sedendo in omnibus nostris Parliamentis, conventionibus et conciliis ; primum locum et ductionem primse aciei et gerendi coronam in omnibus nostris Parliamentis." This charter was confirmed by Pari, in 1606 {Acts of Pari., vol. iv, p. 311), and in virtue of it " the Earls of Angus obtained by the decreet of ranking in that year, the precedence of all the Earls, and sat in Pari, accordingly. " See Riddell, p. 1 59. In 161 1, however, the " fiar " of 1602 became Earl, and in 1633, he, by arrange- ment, resigned {ut supra) these privileges, the resignation being duly registered six days later {Acts of Pari., vol. v, p. 10). Noth withstanding this, the family subse- quently endeavoured to disavow the resignation, on the ground that the Resigner was only a liferenter, the comitatus having been at the time (under a charter of 1631) in his s. in fee ; consequently, on the hypothesis that the original precedence was not only over Earls, but over all Peers, the Marquesses of Douglas (as Earls of Angus) persistently protested their right to "the first seatt and vote in Parl."from the Restor- ation (1660) to the eve of the Union, 16 Jan. 1707. C) In the article on " The Peerage" in the Quarterly Review for Oct. 1893 (p. 389) the Earldom of Angus is only spoken of s.s claimed by the Dukes of Hamilton. C) The Earldom of Angus [S.] has never officially been allowed to the Dukes of Hamilton [S.], and the petition of the Duke in 1762 for that Earldom, though referred to the House of Lords, was never followed up. (') The claim of the Earldom of Angus [S.], by petition of Archibald Douglas, formerly Stewart, only s. of Sir John Stewart, of Grandtully, Bart. [S.l, by "the deceased Lady Jean Douglas, only sister of Archibald, Duke of Douglas and Earl of Angus [S.], lately deceased, " was presented, with the King's reference thereof, to the House 22 Mar. 1762. It was founded on an appointment, stated to have been made 28 Oct. 1699, by the then Marquess of Douglas and Earl of Angus (by virtue of a charter 24 June 1698) that, failing heirs male of his own body, the Earldom should be inherited by " the eldest h. female of the body of his s., Lord Angus, and the heirs whatsomever of the body of the said eldest h. female of the Marquis' own body. " 22