Paper on the Mar peerage

junior earl. Again, in two Commissions issued by the
Crown in relation to matters in Parliament, when, as Lord
Loughborough said in the Gleneairn case (Maidment, page
17), "a due precedency would probably be given to the
several noblemen," the Earl of Mar is named as junior
earl. I am not disposed to lay any stress upon the order
of precedence prior to the Decreet of Ranking, because
I cannot discover any uniform practice as to the placing of
the Earls of Mar in Parliament previously.
This Decreet of Ranking was issued on the 5th of March
1606 (39 James VI.). It recited that, considering and
remembering the great contentions and differences which
many times occurred and fell out amongst the nobility of
Scotland, with relation to their precedence arid priority in
ranking and voting in Parliament, His Majesty had ap-
pointed a connnission consisting of the nobility and council
to convene and call before them the whole noblemen of the
kingdom, and according to their productions and verifi-
cations of their antiquities, to set down every man's rank
and place.
Under this commission each nobleman in order to
establish his precedence offered to the commissioners such
evidence of his title as he chose, their power being
necessarily limited to the verification of the documents
produced, and to forming their judgment upon them, and
having no means of knowing whether anything was
withheld from them which would affect the order of pre-
cedence, fouuded upon the proof presented. Therefore
their decision can carry no weight on the investigation of
a claim to a title which depends upon facts not laid before
them.
The Earl of Mar, in support of his title to precedence,
produced to the Lords Commissioners the charter of Dame
Isabella Countess of Mar of the 9th December 1404, and
the King's charter of confirmation, the Act of Parliament
of 15S7, and an extract of a retour of the 20th March 1588,
whereby John Earl of Mar was served nearest and lawful
heir to Dame Isabella Douglas Countess of Mar. The
relationship to Isabel found by this retour is thus traced.
She was a granddaughter of Donald Earl of Mar, who
was the brother of Helen of Mar, who was the great-
grandmother of Robert, who was the grandfather of
Alexander, the great-grandfather of John the Earl whose
claim to precedence was in proof. -So records of the