Family records of the Bruces and the Cumyns

NOTES ON THE EARLS OF ROSS. 549
de Erth, Testibus, which was probably on his marriage with " Mauld " or
Matilda, the king's sister.
In a roll of missing charters of Robert I. is one to " Joannis Ross," " sone of
the Earl of Ross," in tocher with " Margaret Cumyn," doclitcr to the Earl of
Buchan, "the half of the haill lands of the Earl of Buchan in Scotland."
This lady is generally supposed to have been the sister of Alice Cumyn, who
married Henry de Beaumont, and who was the daughter of Alexander, second
brother of John, Earl of Buchan, and who had a sister "Marjorie;" but Marjorie
and Margaret are not synonymous, and I believe this Margaret, as well as
" Violet" married to Urquhart of Cromarty, and " Isabel," who married Francis
Lord Cheyne of Essilmont, to have been the daughters of John, Earl of Buchan,
by Isabel, daughter of the Earl of Fife, his countess, who was imprisoned so
long at Berwick for having " set the crown of Robert Bruce's head," and upon
whose daughter it is much more likely that he should have settled at least half
the earldom, than upon the sister-in-law of de Beaumont, his greatest enemy.
Alice and her sister are called in Dugdale "the cosins ;" by other authors, the
nieces of the Earl of Buchan ; Margaret and Violet expressly the daughters.
It appears by entries on record of the arrangements of the Earl of Ross with May 10,
his sons, that Margaret de Ross was then still alive and a widow, for the Earl : 333-
Hugh grants to his second son Hugh the lands then in possession of Margaret,
by reason of her teree, when " it " (her death) should happen, except certain lands
in Aberdeenshire, reserved for " William," his son and heir.
On St Magdalen's Day, Earl Hugh fell at Hallidon. His son William, being
in Norway at the time of his father's death, only assumed the earldom in 1336.
In that same year he is also styled " Lord of Sky el'
William, Earl of Ross, married "Isabel" eldest of the four daughters of
Malise, Earl of Strathearn, by his third marriage with the daughter and heiress
of Magnus, Earl of Caithness, &c, by whom, it appears, he had a son " William "
and two daughters.
William, Earl of Ross, going to Perth to join David II. and his army, and 1346.
meeting with Reynald of the Isles, slew Reynald at the monastery of Elcho,
and returned to the mountains with his men. At the instance of the people of
Ross, and with the consent of his sister* " the lady Marjorie, Countess of
Caithness and Orkney," he appointed Hugh of Ross his heir (his son William
being then dead), in the event of his dying without male heirs ; but before 1370
Hugh of Ross also was dead, when Earl William resigned his earldom and the
lordship of Skye into the hands of David II., who thereupon granted them
anew to him and his heirs-male, and to the earl's eldest daughter Euffame and
* His wife's sister. — See Slrathearn.
4 A