Genealogical account of the family of Edmonstone of Duntreath

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GENEALOGICAL ACCOUNT OF
Dunblane 1 on Whitsunday, three years before,' in the Registers of the Privy
Seal in the publick Records in Edinburgh, ad annum i S47. 2 The charge
of the Castle of Doune was in 1560 granted to the Earl of Montrose, as
witnessed by the document among the Duntreath papers. It is dated
Orleans, December 25th, 1560 ; but as the signature Marie is, I believe, not
in the Queen's hand, it is probably a copy.
Of the other notices of Sir William, he is mentioned as absent from an
assize held on the murder of Sterling of Glorat in 1535. His connexion
with the Earl of Lennox's family led him, on the occasion of the marriage
of Lord Darnley (his wife's grandnephew) with Queen Mary in 1565, to be
appointed one of the Lords of the Privy Council, at which time he was pro-
bably knighted, as his predecessors had been. In the Book of the Universal
Kirk, William Edmonstone of Duntreath signed as one of the Commis-
sioners to the General Assembly in 1 567.
Sir William married first, the Lady Agnes Stewart, youngest daughter
to Matthew, second Earl of Lennox of the Stewart line, who was killed at
the battle of Flodden, by Elizabeth, daughter of James, Lord Hamilton, and
the Lady Mary, daughter of King James the Second. This marriage is
attested by a charter of the date 1522, and there was by it a son, Archibald,
who predeceased his father. This is certified by charters of the lands of
Balquharran, in Dumbartonshire, to Archibald, 3 son and apparent heir to
William of Duntreath. But there is reason to think he was of an unsound
state of mind, for in 1 566 there is a deed of resignation by Archibald, son
and heir of William of Duntreath, of the same lands of Balquharran in
favour of William, his father, in liferent, and James, his brother, in fee, and
in another it is stated, with consent of his father, his Governor and Admini-
strator ' in respectu inhabilitatis.' Moreover, there is an entail of the barony
of Duntreath executed by Sir William two years later, in 1 568, in favour,
first of James Edmonstone, his second son, and his heirs; next to Archibald
of Spittaltown, James of Ballinton, and James of Newton, and their heirs-
1 Register of the Privy Seal.
2 Note 46, Appendix. Record of Signatures from 1565 to 1582 contains
* In his ' Dissertation on King Henry's Mur- the copy of a signature to Archibald Edmonstone,
der,' Dr. Robertson says, ' Nothing is more said to have been subscribed by our Sovereigns,
certain from history that that the king was at i.e. the King and Queen, at Edinburgh, January
Glasgow, 24th January 1567; and yet the 24, 1567.'