Montgomery manuscripts

8
The Montgomery Manuscripts.
in King Charles the 2d's "time; as also I was intimately acquainted with Hugh, his eldest son,"
who succeeded him, as I had been in Ireland with Colonel James, 2 3 the said Alexander's 2d son,
whoseregiment of foot came over into this kingdom with the Scottish army Ao. 1642, and was quartered
in and about Newtown of the Ards. I knew also Major-General Robert Montgomery, the said
Alexander's 3d son, 2 '* in Scotland, before Dunbarr fight, 2 s and in London also, Ano. 1665; but most
of all I am known to Alexander, the present Earle of Eglinton, 26 having often many years ago con-
the first commencing of our bloody civil war. He had
the command of a regiment of the army that was sent to
Ireland in the year 1642, towards the suppressing of the
rebellion there. He was likewise personally engaged in
the battle of Long-Marston-Moor, which was in the year
1643, in the service of the parliament of England against
the king, where he behaved with abundance of courage ;
yet his lordship still retained a respect and affection for
his majesty's person, and no man more abominated the
murder of the king than he. He heartily concurred in,
and was extremely satisfied with, the restoration of King
Charles the Second, by whom he was constituted captain
of his guards of horse, in the year 1650; and next year,
while he was raising forces in the western parts for the
king's services, he was surprised at Dumbarton by a party
of English horse, and sent prisoner to the town of Hull,
and afterwards returned to Benvick-on-Tweed, suffering
likewise the sequestration of his estate, till the Restoration
reponed in the year 1660. He died in 1 66 1: by his first
wife, lady Ann Livingston, who died in 1632, he had five
sons; by his second wife, Margaret, daughter of Walter,
lord Buccleugh, who died in 1 651, he had no issue." —
Paterson, Parishes and Families of Ayrshire, vol. ii., p.
2 37-
22 Hugh, his eldest son. — This Hugh was born in 161 3,
succeeded his father, as seventh earl of Eglinton in 1661,
and died in 1669, aged fifty-six years.
23 Colonel James. — This was the fourth son of the sixth
earl of Eglinton, and the founder of the Coilsfield branch.
He died in 1674. His great grandson, Hugh Mont-
gomery, became twelfth earl of Eglinton, on the death of
his cousin Archibald, the eleventh earl, without issue, in
1796. This Hugh had, previously to his succession to
the earldom, been a captain in the 78th foot, and served
in the American war. In 1780, he was elected member
of parliament for Ayrshire, and was re-elected in 1784.
The poet Burns complimented his gallantry at the expense
of his oratory, in the following lines of his Earnest Cry
and Prayer to the Scottish Representatives :—
" See, Sodger Hugh, my watchman stented,
If bardies e'er are represented ;
I ken that if your sword were wanted,
Ye'd lend a hand,
Eut, when there's ought to say anent it,
Ye're at a stand."
Fraser, Memorials, vol. i., p. 132, note; Chambers,
Life and Works of Robert Burns, vol. 1., p. 206.
** Said Alexander 's third son.— The names of the sixth
earl's sons were : — I, Hugh, his successor in the earldom;
2, six Henry, who died in 1644 ; 3, sir Alexander; 4, fames
of Coilsfield ; and 5, Robert, a well-known general in the
army, who died in 1684. James, the founder of the Coils-
field Montgomerys, was not the second son of the sixth
earl, as represented in the text, but the fourth son ; and
Robert was theffth, not the third son, as the author as-
serts. Sir Alexander Montgomery, the third son, died at
Newtown, in July, 1642. There is preserved, at Eglinton
Castle, the following fust account of the moneys that was
found in sir Alexander Montgomerie's tronk and purses, in
presence of my lord of Ardes and the said sir Alexander's
two brethren, at Newtown, the yh day of August, 1642 : —
" Imprimis, of tuentie tuo shillings peeces — three score and eight.
" Item, of tuentie shilling peeces — nyneteene.
" Item, one ten shilling peece — one.
" Item, another peece of gold with a crosse and foure crounes vpon
the one syde.
" Item, of English moneys, eight pounds five shillings two pence
sterling, and 8 Scotts pennyes.
" Item, three gold woups (rings) one of them being set in rubies.
" Item, tuo silver casketts and an etuy.
" Item, a mounter.
" Depursed out of the moneys and gold abovewritten.
" Imprimis, of the English money abovewritten, the whole thereof
is delivered equallie to captaine James and captaine Robert betwixt
them.
" Item, deliuered to them of the gold abovewritten, to either of
them a tuentie shillings peece.
Item, to William Shaw, by a particular accompt, delivered to
William Hoome for things bought for the funerall, elleven pounds
ten shillings tuo pence ster.
" Item, delivered to William Seton, which he gave out at theColo-
nell's direction, as appears by the particular accompt thereof, fifteene
shillings and three pence sterling.
" Item, to the tuo footemen, seventeene shillings and sex pence
sterling the peece, which pays their dyet till Tuesday next, being the
ninth day of this instant August.
"Item, to John Peebles for some accompts which was resting to
him, and for his dyet till Tuesday next, tuentie foure shillings and
elleven pence sterling.
" Item, to my Lord of Ardes' servants of the house, tuo pounds
fifteene shillings ster.
" Sununa of the depursements abovewritten is— 281bs. 5s. 6d. ster-
ling.
" Item, to the young man that doubled these accompts, one shil-
ling eight pence sterling.
" So remaines of the whole charge of moneys, threescore and seven
tuentie tuo shillings peeces, which is laid into the tronk.
" Allowit to the compter for debursing^is in Irelandat the buriall
of unquhill sir Alexander Montgomerie — iii c . lxviij 5 . viijd." — Account
of William Home, /actor at Eagleslutme, 1641-2. — Fraser, Memo'
rials, vol. i., pp. 78, 79.
Baillie (Letters, vol. ii., p. 59) mentions that the earl of
Eglinton left the meeting of the General Assembly, at
St. Andrews, on the 29th July, 1642, " being much afflicted
with the death, of Iris noble sonne, sir Alexander the
colonell."
25 Dunbarr Fight. — This battle was fought on the 3rd
September, 1650.
''Present Earle of Eglinton. — This eighth earl, born
about 1640, and described in the text as the "present
earl," in 16S9, is only known as having made two rather
remarkable marriages — his first and his third. His first
marriage appears to have been considered but an indiffe-
rent matrimonial adventure. Lamont refers to it in his
Diary as follows: — " In 1658, January, the lord Montgo-
merie's sonne being at London about his father's business
in Parliament, in reference to his fyne, with consent of his