William Douglas

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Sep 1437

Notes:

2nd earl of Angus. He and his wife were 5X-great grandparents of James VI and I (1566-1625).

"He was one of the negotiators for the release of James I [S.] in 1423. Was Ambassador to England, 1430, and Warden of the Middle Marches, 1433. He defeated the English at Piperden, 10 Sep. 1435."[Complete Peerage, citation details below]

CP dates his marriage to about 1425, but The Ancestry of Charles II (citation details below) notes that the prenuptial dispensation for the marriage was dated 6 Jan 1414/15.

William married Margaret Hay about 1414 in Yester Castle, Gifford, East Lothian, Scotland. Margaret (daughter of William Hay and Elizabeth) was born about 1400; died after 22 Apr 1484. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

4th Earl of Angus.

George married Isabel Sibbald before 1446. Isabel (daughter of John Sibbald and Joan Livingston) died between 1 Dec 1500 and Feb 1503. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 1471

Notes:

Also Eleanor, Elene, etc.

"In an action pursued by her against her mother-in-law, Christian, Lady Graham, in 1474, the latter successfully pleaded the exception 'again ye said Elene yt scho suld be under sentence of cursing.'" [The Scots Peerage, citation details below]

Helen married William Graham before 1460. William (son of Patrick de Graham and Christian Erskine) was born about 1426; died about 1471. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Earl of Angus.

Archibald married Elizabeth Boyd on 4 Mar 1468. Elizabeth (daughter of Robert Boyd and Mariota Maxwell) died before 21 Feb 1497. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"Lord Graham sat in the Parliaments of James III in 1479, 1481, 1482 and 1487, and supported the cause of that monarch against his son and the confederated Lords, being present on the royal side at the battle of Sauchieburn, 11 June 1488. He was soon received into favour, and even familiar friendship, by James IV, and sat in this sovereign's first Parliament 6 October 1488, and in the second 6 February 1491-92. His principal acquisitions were the estates of Aberuthven and Inchbrakie in Perthshire. Between 7 July7 and 20 November 1503 he was created EARL OF MONTROSE, and sat as such in Parliament 3 February 1505-6. On 3 March 1504-5 as William, Earl of Montrose, he had had a charter upon his own resignation of the lands of Old Montrose, which lands, the charter bears, belonged hereditarily to him by the grant of Robert I and the confirmation of David II under their Great Seals, to his predecessors, and which James IV now erected into the free barony and earldom of Montrose. Of the same date he had three other charters, viz. a new erection of the barony of Kincardine, of Aberuthven, Inchbrakie, and others united into a barony of Aberuthven, and of Kynnaber in Forfarshire also erected into a barony. The Earl accompanied James IV in his ill-starred invasion of England, and fell at Flodden, 'sub vexillo regis,' along with his brother George of Callendar, and his brother-in-law, Sir William Edmondstone of Duntreath, 9 September 1513." [The Scots Peerage, citation details below.]

Agnes married Walter Forrester before 1489. Walter (son of Duncan Forrester and Margaret Forsythe) was born about 1460 in of Torwood and Garden, Stirlingshire, Scotland; died between 8 Feb 1527 and 27 May 1528. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

George married Elizabeth Drummond between 20 Jul 1485 and 31 Jan 1489. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

She was definitely a daughter of the first earl of Montrose. The will of William Graham, who was killed at the battle of Flodden Field in 1513, acknowledges a debt to the Laird of Luss (i.e. John Colquhoun, father of Humphrey), on account of his daughter's dowry, and also the Laird of Luss younger (i.e. Humphrey).

Burke's Peerage and Burke's Landed Gentry, and thus many online sources, show William Graham's daughters Margaret, Elizabeth, and Helen, in that order, as daughters of William Graham by his second wife Janet Edmondstone.

This cannot be true of Elizabeth. The Complete Peerage 4:470 says that Walter Drummond, grandson of John Drummond and Elizabeth Lindsay, "m., in Feb. 1513/4, his cousin Elizabeth, 2nd da. of William (Graham), 1st Earl of Montrose [S.], by his first wife Annabel, 4th da. of John (Drummond), Lord Drummond abovenamed." It can be seen that if Walter Drummond and his wife Elizabeth were cousins, it would have to be the case that Elizabeth was a daughter of William Graham's first wife, Annabel Drummond.

CP says of Annabel Drummond that "[s]he was living 1492" and that her son William Graham, second earl of Montrose, was "a minor at his father's death", 9 Sep 1513, but "was served heir to him" 24 Oct 1513. The Scots Peerage narrates this latter event in a way that suggests that the younger William was still a minor on 24 Oct 1513: "William […] was under age at the death of his father, but in virtue of the Act of 24 August, was served his heir 24 October, 1513." SP goes on to emphasize and extoll his precocity: "He early displayed qualities of prudence and statesmanship which enabled him, over a long life," [etc.]. CP notes that the younger William "was present in Parl. [S.] 2 Jun 1514" and that he married his only wife, Janet Keith, in Dec 1515. All of which suggests that the second earl attained his majority no earlier than the end of 1513, which means that he has to have been born to Annabel Drummond no earlier than the end of 1492, and given that he could perfectly well have married while still a minor, plausibly as late as 1497 or 1498.

Also, according to SP, William Graham and Annabel Drummond had a second son following William: "Walter, a younger son of the first marriage, who had a tack of Little Cairnie for nineteen years from the Abbot of Inchaffray, 8 January 1541-42, and appears to have been ancestor of the second family of the Grahams of Thornick, afterwards Cairnie." If so, this moves the end of Annabel Drummond's life to no earlier than the end of 1493. And again, given that the first son could easily have been born as late as 1497-98, she was quite possibly still living in 1498-99.

The date of William Graham's marriage to Janet Edmondstone is unknown to us, but the earliest record of them as married is a charter dated 17 Mar 1505. According to CP she died between that date and 15 Apr 1506.

The papal dispensation for Helen Graham's marriage to Humphrey Colquhoun was dated 13 Jul 1509.

If Annabel Drummond died as soon as the records allow, say December 1493, and William Graham married Janet Edmondstone as soon as possible, say the first part of 1494, and Helen Graham was their first child, born say early 1495, then the papal dispensation for her marriage to Humphrey Colquhoun, dated 13 Jul 1509, was issued when she was fourteen. Which is hardly unheard-of among the aristocracy of 15th/16th century Scotland, but also adds up to a pretty tight fit.

Additional to this is the fact that William Graham and Annabel Drummond married in 1479, and yet their eldest son and heir cannot have been born earlier than late 1513. It is implausible that they spent the first dozen years of their marriage having no children. We have seen that daughter Elizabeth has to have been the issue of William and Annabel. Margaret is specified by SP as a daughter of the second marriage. Aside from the fact that this implies, in SP's usual manner of listing offspring, that the other daughters, whose mothers are not noted, were from the first marriage, it also means that Helen, Jean, and Elizabeth are the only known offspring of William Graham whose birth can be used to fill the childbearing years from 1480 to 1492. (The other legitimate child of William Graham, Patrick, is given by SP as his son by his third wife, Christian Wawane.)

Taken together, we think the evidence preponderantly suggests that Helen Graham was a daughter of William Graham's first wife, and probably, as the order of William's children in SP suggests, his eldest daughter.

Helen married Humphrey Colquhoun about 13 Jul 1509. Humphrey (son of John Colquhoun and Elizabeth Stewart) was born in of Luss, Argyll, Scotland; died in Jan 1538. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Knighted before February 1513. Provost of Stirling, 1529-30.

James married Elizabeth Erskine about 1510. Elizabeth (daughter of Robert Erskine and Isabella Campbell) was born about 1492; died before 1 Sep 1532. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]