Page:The Poetical Works of William Motherwell, 1849.djvu/39

 It having been resolved, I know not why, to devote this wayward and dreamy boy to the legal profession, he was of his 'younger sons' (the number is not mentioned) £100 sterling; and to each of his daughters, Elizabeth, Janet, and Amelia, 1000 merks Scots, or about £55 sterling. The latter was probably the poet's uncle. The descendants of Janet are now eminent merchants in Manchester, and the line of Motherwell is represented by the poet's nephew, the son of his elder brother David, Mr Charles M'Arthur Motherwell, who is a purser's clerk in the navy. The name of William Motherwell's grandmother was Amelia Monteath, the daughter of an old and respectable family settled at Dunblane, in Stirlingshire. A sister of his mother's married a Mr Ogilvie, who left a son, Major Ogilvie, now resident in Edinburgh.

John de Moderwell, chaplain, appears in a deed of 1460, as one of the Procurators of Henry of Livingston, Knight, Commander of the Temple of St John; which Sir Henry was son of William, Lord of Kilsyth, and preceptor of Torphichen. He died in 1463. Edward, his elder brother, was the direct ancestor of the Viscount Kilsyth, who was attainted in 1715. There is no evidence of any relationship between this ancient priest and the poet's family; but his connection with Kilsyth, where a branch of the Motherwells has been planted for many centuries, might justify the suspicion that he was of the same lineage. This mention of him in so old a document is satisfactory evidence of the antiquity of the surname, whatever opinion we may form as to his probable affinity to the ancestors of the subject of this memoir.

For these details I am indebted chiefly to the diligence and antiquarian skill of my late amiable and lamented friend, ATr Philip Ramsay of Edinburgh, S.S.C., who had collected some materials for a life of William Motherwell.