Paper on the Mar peerage

holder of a comitatus was an earl he used that title only in
dealing with the lauds.
Did William Earl of 'Douglas become Earl of Mar by a
new creation ?
There is no evidence of such creation. The Lord
Advocate, as counsel for the Earl of Kellie, called the
attention of the committee to a memorandum (p. 331.) in
which a charter is mentioned granting to William Earl of
Douglas the earldoms of Douglas and Mar " concesse," as
having been with other documents in a roll of twenty-five
charters of Robert III. But as the charter itself is not
forthcoming, it is impossible for the committee to accept
the memorandum as evidence that it was a new creation of
the peerage earldom of Mar. Moreover, the great inaccuracy
of the description in the memorandum of the contents of the
notarial copy of the charter in which it was found, renders
it of little value, except as proving that a charter of Robert
II. relating to the earldom of Mar as connected with
William Earl of Douglas was once in existence, but has been
lost or destroyed since that memorandum was made, to
which fact I shall refer hereafter. Probably the charter
referred to the comitatus only; the word "concesse,"
which is not of any certain interpretation, appearing to
me most likely to mean "surrendered." Margaret's son
James, calling himself Earl of Mar in her lifetime, in the
charter before referred to, was quoted in favour of a new
creation ; but his styling himself Earl of Douglas only in other
charters is against it. The former is probably the latest in
date, and he may have assumed the title if his mother had
then surrendered the comitatus to him, which she may have
done after her second marriage. John of Swynton is not Lord
of Mar, as witness to the charter of James (p. 721) but is so in
the obligation in 1389 (p. 724), after his death.
Margaret died in 1390, and was succeeded in the comitatus
by her only daughter Isabella, and in the peerage earldom, if
such was in existence. She was the wife of Malcolm Drum-
mond. In November 139U, probably after Margaret's death,
he is Malcolm de Drummond, Knight, in a license from the
crown to build a tower at Kiudrocht in Mar (p. 619). Pro-
bably, as John de Swynton was Lord of Mar in right of his
marriage with Margaret, Malcolm was unable to assume that
title till some arrangement was come to about it. In March
1391 the King confirms a grant from Malcolm de Drummond,
Knight, to John de Swynton, Knight, (neither calling himself