Ayrshire > Volume 2

THE MONTGOMERIES OF EGLINTON 127
in making it what it has so long continued to be, a
house of which Ayrshire has reason to be proud
and that has been largely instrumental in making
the county what it is.
THE BRANCHES OF THE FAMILY.
It does not fall within the scope of our purpose to
deal with the branches of the Montgomerie family, the
houses of Coilsfield, of Annick Lodge, and of Skelmorlie.
But neither can they be passed by without notice of the
historical and personal incidents that give to them a
general interest. Coilsfield sprang from the fourth son
of the sixth Earl in the middle of the seventeentli
century ; in " Sodger Hugh " it took up the succession
to the Earldom on the death of the eleventh Earl in
1796. Wodrow tells a curious story of Lady Coilsfield,
believed to have been the wife of Hugh Montgomerie,
third of Coilsfield, married 1693, and deceased before
1708. She had presented her husband with three
daughters. When the time drew near for the fourth
child to be born she declared that she would willingly
die if only the child was a son, and survived. Lady
Wallace of Craigie " warned her against this," and
counselled her to be resigned to the will of Providence,
but without effect. The child proved to be a boy, and
he died suddenly when a day or two old. Lady Coils-
field " fell into a high fever " and died also — " a certain
and awful instance," remarks Wodrow, " of retribution
in this life, and God's granting a desire, not in mercy,
and punishing such rash wishes." One of the sons of
the fourth Laird emigrated to Virginia, in America,
before 1786, and two years later he wrote home to his
brother — -" This is not the country for raising a fortune.
Never was a poor devil so badly situated as I have been.
If I had a son I would sooner cut his throat than send
him to America. But as my bed is made, so must I lay
me down." He was more successful than he expected,
however, and acquired considerable property in the
land of his adoption.