Genealogical account of the family of Edmonstone of Duntreath

GENEALOGICAL ACCOUNT OF
them. The earliest mention, however, of Duntreath is of perhaps the
middle of the previous century, of a resignation of Donald Earl of Lennox
of the lands of Duntreath to his brother Murdoch de Levenox, and there
is a notarial instrument referring to this charter of resignation dated 1408.
As regards the existing tenure, there is a charter in the family charter
chest of Issobel Duchess of Albany Countess of Lennox, dated 1445, of
these lands to William Edmonstone, son of William of Culloden and his
wife Matilda Stewart, reserving the liferent to William the father.
There is, moreover, a charter of confirmation of James II., dated
Sterling, December 1452, to the same William 'in conjuncta. infeodatione,'
with William of Culloden and Marion Stewart Countess of Angus, her
father and mother, erecting the lands of Duntreath into a Barony, with
the fullest Baronial powers.
Strath-blachan, the valley of the Blachan or Blane, is mentioned as a
parish about 1200. It formed part of the vast district called the Levenox
or Lennox, extending from the River Leven between the Clyde and Loch-
lomond, which was erected into an earldom by David I., or his successor
Malcolm IV. The Duchess of Albany was eldest daughter and heiress
of Duncan Vlll. and last Earl of Lennox of that line, whose violent
death, together with that of Murdoc Duke of Albany, his son-in-law, and
the two elder of the Duke's sons, Walter and Alexander Stewart, by order
of James I. on his return from his long captivity in England, forms so
striking an event in Scottish history. This event occurred in 1425. The
Duchess of Albany succeeded to the title and estates of Lennox, though
her possession was probably for a time suspended, as we find the original
grant of Duntreath to Sir William Edmonstone to have proceeded from
the King. James was murdered in 1437-8, and accordingly, in 1445, we
find the Duchess in the exercise of her full rights, by the charter which,
among many others, she then granted to William Edmonstone the younger,
or probably on the occasion of his marriage with her grand-daughter
Matilda Stewart, reserving, however, his father's liferent. In 1450, moreover,
she granted the church of Strathblane, with those of Fintry and Bonhill,
to her new Collegiate establishment at Dumbarton. 1
The charter of confirmation 2 of 1452, mentioned above, was granted
1 Note 9, Appendix. 2 Note 10, Appendix.