History of the earldoms of Strathern, Monteith, and Airth

1633.
STRATHERN, MONTEITH, AND AIRTH. 81
The concluding clauses of the Patent declare William
that the Earl of Monteith and his heirs shall ofMonteith.
have, hold, and enjoy the name, style, title, and
dignity of Earl of Airth ; " and that with the
place and precedence before all other Earls,"
which precedency was, it states, due to them
*' under the said Charter to Malise Earl of Mon-
teith of the 6th September, 1428," hut no notice
whatever occurs in those impoj^tant clauses re-
specting the annexation of the Earldom of Mon-
teith to that of Airth. The real and only object
of those provisions was, apparently, to oblige the
Earl to adopt the Title of Airth instead of Mon-
teith, and to secure to him the same place and
precedence as he had enjoyed as Earl of Mon-
teith.
It is therefore confidently submitted that the
words ** sicuti nos ex nostra certa scientia propri-
oque motu, fecimus et constituimus memoratum
Willielmum Comitem de Montethe et heredes
suos Comites de Airthe," together with the con-
cluding clause, *' et volumus concedimus et ordi-
namus quatenus prefatus Willielmus Comes de
Montethe heredesque sui predicti nomen stilum
titulum et dignitatem Comitum de Airthe omni
consequences." Lord Hardwicke observed, " The words
secundum prcBcedentiam et prioritatem loci, and so forth,
could not possiblj"^ carry the Dignity. One cannot say what
these words mean."