Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 3.djvu/400

 38o COLVILL or COLVILLE returning to Scotland, where, in 1 571, he successfully defended Stirling Castle for James VI against the Regent Lennox, but being involved in the " Raid of Ruthven" (1582), fled again to France. On 13 Sep. 1583, he received a pardon for his share in the plot. In 1589 he fought at Ivry on behalf of his old master, Henri IV of France. On 20 June 1589, the lands of the dissolved Abbey of Culross (in the peninsula between the friths of Tay and Forth) were created into a temporal Lordship in his favour, with the title of free Baron of Culross. He was sent on several missions to the French King, for whom for 2 years (1592-94) he held the Governorship of St. Valery, receiving also "the dignity of a Knight of Honour in France "(^) in 1603 from him. In 1594 he was on an Embassy from Scotland to Queen Elizabeth. "After the death of Alexander [Colville], Commendator of Culross, another charter, 10 Mar. 1 6o4,('') again erecting the property of the Abbey into a hereditary Lord- ship, was granted to Sir James Colville, with rem. to heirs male, and with the title oi Lord Culross. In the first part of the document he is styled Sir James Colville, but after the clause regarding the title, James, Lord Culross. This charter, though not in the great seal register, is recorded in an original Protocol Book in the Gen. Register House. A third charter, 20 Jan. 1 609, proceeding on the resignation of John Colville, now Commendator of Culross, was granted, conveying once more the possessions of the Abbey and the title of Lord Colville of Culross, to his issue male, whom failing, to his heirs male whatsoever. At the general ranking on 5 Mar. 1606, the title of Lord Colville of Culross appears, and the precedence given is that of the charter of i6o4."(^) On 24 Apr. 1604, he was made in Pari. LORD COLVILLE OF CULROSS [S.],{') and the charter of 20 Jan. 1609, dat. at Royston, cr. him LORD CULROSS [S.], with rem. to his heirs male whatsoever, bearing the name and arms of Colville. (^) On 13 Mar. 16 14 (^) See note "e" on preceding page. (^) There is no reason to doubt the creation 01 1604, and "Colville of Cul- ross" certainly existed as a peerage of that date in the Decreet of Ranking in 1606, being there placed before "Scone," a Barony cr. in 1605. The charter of 1604 being, however, lost, the only Barony that could be claimed by the heir male whomsoever (when such claim was made in 1723), was the subsequent Barony of 1609. See Carmichael's Tracts, 28. ('^) Calderwood, vol. vi, p. 262. {^) It is observed in Riddell {p. 354, ^c.) that "there is not a vestige of such a dignity [as Colvill of Culross] in the whole compass" of the charter of 1609, but"on the contrary, that of Culross is solely carried;" yet, in spite thereof, the title adjudged to the claimant of 1723 was that of Colvill of Culross. This decision is apparently tantamount to recognising the existence of two distinct peerages in the grantee (one of 1604, and the other of 1609), of which the claimant of 1723 was allowed the latter, though with the designation of the former. The peerage of Colvill of Culross, with its proper precedency of 1604, was allowed to the lineal descendant of the grantee as late as 1633 (see Riddell, p. 358), and a peerage of that designation was ordered by the House of Lords, 27 May 1723, to be inserted in the Union Roll [S.], not, however, as a creation of 1604, when Colvill was created, but as one of 20 Jan. 1609, being the date of the Barony of Culross. Riddell has the merit of calling attention, not only