Spottiswoode Society > History of the affairs of the Church and State of Scotland from the beginning of the reformation to the year 1568 > Volume 1

Ixxvi BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE
On the other hand, Charles, the tenth Lord Elphinstone
married, in 1735, Lady Clementina Fleming, only child of John
sixth Earl of Wigton, by his second Countess, Lady Mary
Keith, eldest daughter of William ninth Earl Marischal. The
offspring of this marriage were six sons and four daughters.
John, the eldest, succeeded his father as eleventh Lord
Elphinstone in 1781, and was father and grandfather of
John twelfth Lord, and of John thirteenth Lord, born in
1807, who succeeded his father in 1813. The celebrated
Admiral Sir George Keith Elphinstone, created a Peer
of Ireland by the title of Baron Keith of Stonehaven-
Marischal in 1793, and of Great Britain by the title of
Baron Keith of Bandeth in 1801, was the fifth son of the
above mentioned tenth Lord Elphinstone and Lady Clemen-
tina Fleming, the grand-daughter of the ninth Earl Marischal.
His Lordship was succeeded by his elder daughter Margaret
Mercer Elphinstone in 1823, who became Baroness Keith
in her own right, and who married, in 1817, Auguste
Charles Joseph, Comte de Flahault de la Billarderie, by
whom her Ladyship has three daughters, the eldest of whom
married in 1843 Henry Earl of Shelburne, eldest surviving
son of the Marquis of Lansdowne. It thus appears that
the descendants of Lord Keith rank next, as it respects
propinquity, to the Lord Elphinstone, as the direct descen-
dants by the female line of William ninth Earl Marischal.
It will be observed that in his " Vindication," Bishop
Keith purposely omits his episcopal designation, and any allu-
sion to his clerical character, designating himself simply as
" Mr Robert Keith " throughout the whole of the pamphlet.
The purport of this is obvious, for his professional life had
no connection with his descent from the ancient Earls
Marischal. The office of " Under-Clerk " in the Court of
Session, or Scottish Supreme Court, held by Mr Keith,
" junior of Ravelstone, 11 is now abolished, having been
superseded by some of those alterations affecting the sub-
ordinate offices of the Court, passed from time to time by
Acts of the Legislative.