Paper on the Mar peerage

11
A
i
Alexander,
3rd Lord Erskine,
died 1510.
I
Robert,
4th Lord Erskine.
died 1513.
|
John,
5th Lord Erskine,
died 1552.
!
John,
6th Lord Erskine,
created an Earl,
or, as Mr Goodeve
held, restored to
the old Earldom.
{see table 3.)
This pedigree is plain enough. If Isabel held the
title in right of her descent from her grandfather,
Donald, through her mother, Margaret, then on
her death without issue (supposing all nearer des-
cendants of her great grandfather, Gratnev, to be
extinct) it would at first seem that Sir R. Erskine,
who was descended from her grand-aunt, Elyne,
would be her heir; but, by the law of Scotland,
heirship cannot be traced upward through a female,
so that even had the title been wrongfully taken from
the family of Mar, and had it been restored to
the Countess Isabel's heirs, the Erskines though
(by this pedegree) nearest in blood, yet, by-
Scotch law, were not her heirs. (See Appendix
A, page xvii.) But Lord Kellie did not allow
that the pedigree Mr Goodeve produced was
correct. Yet apart from that there are two obstacles
to the assertion that the Erskines were the rightful
successors of the Countess Isabel, and the latter of
the two has proved insurmountable. Let us consider
them in order. We may take it for granted that
the descent of Earl Donald from Earl Gratney is
correct — and that Earl Donald had a son Thomas
who succeeded him, but left no children — and a
daughter, Margaret. Now when Earl Thomas