Paper on the Mar peerage

15
afterwards made in the House of Lords but without
success, and the Lord Clerk Register presiding at the
elections had to arrange matters warmly contested and to
receive the protests of the peers.
According to the Earl of Mansfield the poor man was
very much puzzled, because he was told by the House of
Lords to call the Earldom of Mar as of 1565, but when he
came to the union roll it was not there ; and on the one
side he was told, " You must call the Earldom of Mar in
the precedence in which it has always existed ; " and the
other side, " No, you must call it where the House of Lords
has directed."
There were elections at Holyrood during the long
enquiry into the title between 1867 and 1875, when
although Lord Kellie did not tender his own vote —
"waiving" his right — he lodged protests against Mr.
Goodeve Erskine voting as Earl of Mar ; but the matter
became more acute at the election of December, 1876,
after the decision of the House of Lords.
According to the report of the proceedings an objection
was first raised against " Mr. Goodeve Erskine " taking a
seat at all at the table. Afterwards, when the title Earl
of Mar was called, as it stood on the roll, both Mr. Goodeve
Erskine and the Earl of Kellie rose to answer, the former
alleging that the latter's title was not that of the roll but
a new one of 1565 to which he laid no claim ; the latter
claiming to be the only Earl of Mar existing, and declared
to be so by the House of Lords. The vote of Mr. Goodeve
Erskine was refused by the presiding officer, also even any
protest from him signed " Mar."
Then as to written protests handed in : — -The Earl of
Cassilis protested against the Earl of Kellie voting before
him, " as he has no light to the said title of Mar on the
union roll, but only to a title of Mar recently found by the
House of Lords to have been created in 1565, which
creation gives his title of Mar rank below me."
For a similar reason protested the Earls of Morton and