Detection of infamy

10
upon an exception made in favour of the children of bis
first marriage with Sophia, heiress of Luiidm i if these
children would have been the heirs of the Earl of Melfort,
such an exception would have prevented the forfeiture of
the estate. But the estate of Melfort was not vested in
the person of the Earl at the time of his attainder, having 1
been long conveyed to Lady Euphemia Wallace, Countess
of Meloit, his second wife, for her life-rent, and after
her death to their eldest s >n and heir, John Lord Forth,
and his heirs. This is proved by a royal charter of con-
firmation and novodamus, granted by the King upon the
resignation which the Earl made of his estate into his
royal hands, before the Revolution of 168*<, and duly
registered in tie Scotch records of charters, Book 71,"
No. 107, dated Oth Octobpr, 1388. Therefore no cor-
ruption of blood can affect that branch of the Melfort
family, which is derived from the said John Lord Forth,
who having been burn in Scotland, entitles his grandson
and heir, the present Duke, to the right of a British sub-
ject; consequently the title of Earl of Perth belongs to
him by birth- right.
The said title, however, was claimed, in 1766, by
James Drummond, of Lundin, as grandson to the Earl of
Melfort, by f is first Marriage with Sophia Lundin. But
his claim, though laid beioie the Court of Sessions in
Scotland, was never made good before the House of
Peers : and indeed for the reasons above mentioned, he
was not entitled to the honor; for all the diplomas grant-
ed by King James, either to the Earl of Perth, or to the
Eat I ;>f lUeiiort, bear the disposition of the title to the
children of the Earl of Me I fort's second marriage, in 'pre-
ference to the children of the first marriage. The late
Lord Perth himself did not make good his claim to the
same dignity of Earl of Perth, in 1794, and was advi~
sed (as it is said) to drop it, and. wait the opportunity of
being, through the influence of his friends, created a
British Peer, under the Title of Baron Perth; but he
never was a Scotch Peer; which circumstance among
others has led to a further suspicion that he was not the