Stirling peerage

8 INTRODUCTION.
self to be served " lawful and nearest heir-male in
general of the body of the said Hannah Alexander,"
before the Bailies of Canongate, 7th February, 1826.
Immediately after this service was retoured, he as-
sumed the title of Earl of Stirling and Dovan, designa-
ted his mother " Countess," and conferred the usual
styles of dignity upon his family and immediate
relatives.
Next, in order to connect himself with the landed
properties, he found it necessary to be served nearest
and lawful heir to the Earl of Stirling ; and accordingly,
with the assistance of one Mr Thomas Christopher
Banks,* he was, on brieve from Chancery of 21st Sep-
tember, 1830, served "lawful and nearest heir in general
to the said deceased William, the first Earl of Stirling,
my great-great-great grandfather," 11th October, 1830.
He then took a brieve of 10th June, 1831, as heir
above to the North American possessions. After this
he managed a special service before the Sheriff of Edin-
burgh, wherein he produced the General Service, before
the Magistrates of Canongate, as establishing his pro-
pinquity, and the Register of Great Seal, and Register
of Sasines, in lieu of the principal charter and instru-
ment of sasine. Both services were in absence. On being
retoured, he obtained precept from Chancery, and by it,
on 8th July, 1831, was infeft in the North American
property at Edinburgh Castle, f
* This is one of those busy, meddling, troublesome, and officious indi-
viduals, professing themselves " Genealogists," who tend so much to per-
petuate blunders and misrepresentations in matters of general and
family history, if, indeed, they do not wittingly aid and abet in the
fabrication of impostures like the present. To give Banks his due, how-
ever, he is the author of a very good work on the Extinct and Dormant
Baronage of England.
f " He hath much land, and fertile : — 'Tis a chough ; but, as I say,
spacious in the possession of dirt." Hamlet, Act V. Sc. 2.