Alexander Montgomery

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Abt 1470

Notes:

Lord of Ardrossan and Eglinton.

"Created Lord Montgomery shortly before 3 July 1445, joint keeper of Kintyre and Knapdale, commissioner to conclude a truce with England 1437-38 and later, keeper of Brodick Castle." [The Ancestry of Charles II, citation details below]

Family/Spouse: Margaret Boyd. Margaret (daughter of Thomas Boyd and (Unknown) Stewart) died after 16 Sep 1453. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Ardrossan, Ayrshire, Scotland

Notes:

"Bailie of Cunningham 31 January 1447/8, which office was resigned by his father in his favor." [The Ancestry of Charles II, citation details below]

Alexander married Elizabeth Hepburn about 1440. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Contrary to The Scots Peerage and other sources, she was not the Margaret Montgomery who was contracted to marry this John Stewart on 15 May 1438. That Margaret Montgomery was this Margaret Montgomery's great-aunt.

Margaret married John Stewart before 20 Jul 1461. John (son of Alan Stewart and Katherine Seton) was born in 1429 in of Darnley, Renfrewshire, Scotland; died between 31 Aug 1495 and 11 Sep 1495. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Not to be confused with her older sister Elizabeth Stewart, who married Archibald Campbell, 2nd Earl of Argyll.

Elizabeth married John Colquhoun about 1480. John (son of Humphrey Colquhoun and Helen Erskine) was born in of Luss, Argyll, Scotland; died between 4 Aug 1535 and 22 Aug 1536. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Matthew married Elizabeth Hamilton between 9 Apr 1494 and 18 Apr 1494. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Not to be confused with her younger sister Elizabeth Stewart, who married John Colquhoun.

Family/Spouse: Archibald Campbell. Archibald (son of Colin Campbell and Isabel Stewart) died on 9 Sep 1513 in near Branxton, Northumberland, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Humphrey married Helen Graham about 13 Jul 1509. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

3rd Earl of Lennox.

John married Elizabeth Stewart about 19 Jan 1512. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1500

Notes:

Appointed abbot of the Cistercian abbey of Coupar Angus by James V, in whose court his brother Colin Campbell was prominent, Donald Campbell travelled to England, France, and Rome as a Cistercian prelate and diplomat. At the Reformation of 1559-60, he (in the words of The Scots Peerage, citation details below), "put on secular weed" in May 1559. He sat in the Scottish parliament and the Convention of Estates; he was Keeper of the Privy Seal during the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots; and he was a senator of the College of Justice under James V.

"[A] monk of the Cistercian Order; master of arts, probably from St. Salvator's College, Univ. of St. Andrews, where "Donaldus Campbel, nationis albaniae" was admitted 1522; clerk in the Diocese of Lismore by 1525; last Abbot of Coupar Abbey, Co. Angus, 1529- 60; traveled to Rome, England and France as a Cistercian prelate and as a diplomat; one of the visitors of the Scottish universities, 1532; commissary of the chapter-general of the Scottish Cistercian houses; member of the Scots Parliament and Council of State for many years; member of the Privy Council of the Regent Arran; one of the Lords of the Articles; Senator of the College of Justice (Lord of Session); was nominated Bishop of Glasgow, 1548, Bishop of Dunkeld, 1550, and Bishop of Brechin, 1559, but each time failed to receive papal confirmation, apparently because his orthodoxy was suspect; Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland, 1552, 1554-62; gave Balgersho, Arthurstone, Keithick, Den-head and Croonan, lands belonging to Coupar Abbey, to his bastard sons; was reputed to be wearing "secular weed," 1559; sat in the Scottish Parliament and the Convention of Estates which established the reformed Church of Scotland, 1560; approved and signed a demand that "he incontinent re-forme his place of Cowper Putting down and birnying oppinlie all Idolis and Imagis and tubernaculis tharin destroying and putting away the altaris And that na mess be thair done heiraftir nowthir privilie nor opinly. And that the super-stitiouse habit of his monkis with their ordour ceremonis and service as you cann it be removit. And that na prayeris be usit in the kirk but in the Inglishe toung And that according to the scriptouris of God" (Scottish Historical Review 21:142) (brother of Colin Campbell, 3d Earl of Argyll (ancestor of the subsequent earls, marquesses and dukes of Argyll, down to the present); Sir John Campbell, jure uxoris of Cawdor, Co. Nairn (ancestor of the Earls Cawdor of Castlemartin, down to the present); Margaret Campbell, Lady Erskine; Isabella Campbell, Countess of Cassilis; Janet Campbell, Countess of Atholl, and Katherine Campbell, wife of Lachlan Cattanach (the Shaggy) Maclean, chief of Clan Maclean; uncle of John Erskine, 6th Lord Erskine, Ist Earl of Mar; Gilbert Kennedy, 3d Earl of Cassilis; John Stewart, 3d Earl of Atholl; Quintin Kennedy, Abbot of Crossraguel; Janet Stewart, Lady Methven, Lady Ruthven; Helen Stewart, Lady Lindsay of the Byres; Elizabeth Campbell, Countess of Moray and Sutherland; John Campbell, Bishop of the Isles; Janet Campbell, Lady Lovat, and Katherine Campbell, Countess of Crawford; great-uncle of Jean Kennedy, Countess of Orkney; Mary Stewart, Countess of Angus; John Stewart, 4th Earl of Atholl, Chancellor of Scotland; Henry Stewart, 2d Lord Methven; Dorothea Stewart, Countess of Gowrie; Eliza-beth Stewart, Countess of Moray; Margaret Stewart, Countess of Erroll; John Gordon, 10th Earl of Sutherland; Patrick Lindsay, 6th Lord Lindsay of the Byres; Hugh Fraser, 5th Lord Fraser of Lovat; James Ogilvy, 5th Lord Ogilvy of Airlie; Margaret Lindsay, Countess of Atholl; John Lindsay, 1st Lord Mennuir, Secretary of State of Scotland, Lord Privy Seal, and Elizabeth Lindsay, Lady Drummond; great-great uncle of Patrick Stewart, 2d Earl of Orkney; John Stewart, Ist Earl of Carrick; Mary Stewart, Lady Gray; Jean Stewart, Lady Lindores, Lady Melville of Raith; James Stewart, 3d Earl of Moray; Margaret Stewart, Countess of Nottingham, Viscountess Monson of Castlemaine; James Erskine, Ist Earl of Buchan; Mary. Erskine, Countess Marischal; Anna Erskine, Countess of Rothes; Margaret Erskine, Countess of Haddington; Elizabeth Stewart, Lady Fraser of Lovat, Countess of Lennox and March, Countess of Arran; Margaret Stewart, Lady Saltoun; Grizel Stewart, Countess of Crawford; Mary Stewart, Countess of Erroll; James Ruthven, 2d Earl of Gowrie; Margaret Ruthven, Countess of Montrose; Sophia Ruthven, Duchess of Lennox and Richmond; Jean Ruthven, Lady Ogilvy of Airlie; Elizabeth Ruthven, Lady Campbell of Loudoun; Sir Donald Campbell, Ist Bart. of Ardnamurchan; Margaret Ogilvy, Countess Marischal; Sir David Lindsay, Ist Lord Lindsay of Balcarres; James Stewart, 2d Earl of Atholl, 7th Lord Innermeath; Margaret Drummond, Lady Elphinstone; James Drummond, 4th Lord Drummond, Ist Earl of Perth; John Drummond, 5th Lord Drummond, 2d Earl of Perth; Lilias Drummond, Countess of Dunfermline, and Jean Drummond, Countess of Roxburghe; great-great-great uncle of Archibald Campbell, 8th Earl and 1st Marquess of Argyll, the Coven-anter, executed 1661; Anne Campbell, Marchioness of Huntly; Annabella Campbell, Countess of Lothian; Jean Campbell, Viscountess Kenmore; James Campbell, Ist Earl of Irvine; Mary Campbell, Lady Rollo; Elizabeth Erskine, Lady Napier; Mary Erskine, Lady Forbes; John Leslie, 7th Earl of Rothes; Mary Leslie, Countess of Eglinton; Margaret Leslie, Countess of Buccleuch and Wemyss; Sir Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Nottingham, 5th Baron Howard of Effingham; William Keith, 7th Earl Marischal; Sir John Keith, Ist Earl of Kintore; Jean Keith, Lady Pitsligo; Thomas Hamilton, 3d Earl of Haddington; sir James Graham, 5th Earl and 1st Marquess of Montrose, the great commander in chief in Scotland for Charles I and II, Field Marshal of the Empire, executed 1650; Margaret Graham, Lady Napier; Beatrix Graham, Lady Madderty; Sir James Stewart, Ist Lord Ochiltree; George Abernethy, 8th Lord Saltoun; Helen Lindsay, Lady Cranstoun; James Ogilvy, Ist Earl of Airlie; George Ogilvy, Lord Ogilvy de Muirton in the imperial peerage; Alexander Lindsay, 1st Earl of Balcarres; James Stewart, 2d Earl of Atholl, 7th Lord Innermeath; Lilias Elphinstone, Lady Elphinstone; Jean Drummond, Countess of Sutherland; Sir William Drummond, 2d Earl of Roxburghe; Jean Drummond, Countess of Wigtown; Anne Seton, Viscountess Fentoun; Isabel Seton, Countess of Lauderdale; Margaret Seton, Countess of Seaforth, and Sophia Seton, Lady Lindsay of Balcarres." [Brice McAdoo Clagett, citation details below]

Family/Spouse: Margaret. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Lady Aikitt, elder, sheriffdom of Ayr.

"In 1578-79, another of [the Colquhoun] clan, Helen Colquhoun, was accused of the 'treasonable administering of poysoun' to her spouse, William Cunninghame of Aiket; but the fragmentary records give us little information about these trials…" ["Poisoning in Scotland", citation details below]

The will of Helene Colquhoun, Lady Aikitt, elder, sheriffdom of Ayr, was proved in the Edinburgh commissary court on 13 Mar 1596.

The 1877 Colquhoun pedigree ("Colquhoun of Luss", citation details below) shows Helen Colquhoun, daughter of Humphrey, marrying a "James" Cunningham of Aiket; it also gives her mother's name as "Katherine", rather than Helen, a mistake that also appears in many Burke's Pedigrees products. In a pair of posts to soc.genealogy.medieval on 10 Oct 2019, John Brandon points out that the papal dispensation of 1509 clearly identifies Humphrey Colquhoun's wife as Helen. As to whether Humphrey Colquhoun's and Helen Graham's daughter Helen was indeed, the Helen who married Cunningham of Aiket, Brandon points to the marriage of Robert Graham of Knockdolian, who was known to have been involved in dealings with William and Helen (Colquhoun) Cunningham, to Christian Graham, daughter of the second William Graham, 2nd earl of Montrose — further evidence of Graham-Colquhoun prosopographical adjancency.

Helen married William Cunningham before 24 Oct 1564. William was born in of Aiket, Ayrshire, Scotland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Earl of Lennox.

Matthew married Margaret Douglas on 29 Jun 1544 in St. James Palace, London, England. Margaret (daughter of Archibald Douglas and Margaret Tudor) was born on 8 Nov 1515 in Harbottle Castle, Northumberland, England; died on 9 Mar 1578 in Hackney, Middlesex, England; was buried in Westminster Abbey, Westminster, Middlesex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Nicoll Campbell.

"[M]aster of arts; was granted by a royal decree of 1543, entitled Literas Legitimationis Nicola Campbell, all legal and natural rights "as if said Nicholas had been born in lawful wedlock"; was probably the "Nicolaus Campbell, nobilis," from the Diocese of St. Andrews who was a candidate for the M.A. degree at the Univ. of Paris, 1552; Dean of Lismore Cathedral, c. 1564-87; lord of Keithick, Dalvany and Craignatie, Perthshire; bailie of Crunan." [Brice McAdoo Clagett, citation details below]

He lies under a monumental stone at Bendochy parish church. The inscription, translated from Latin, reads:

Under this tomb there lies
the memory of
the very former and
highly skillful man of God
Master Nicholas Campbell of Keithick
who was the grandson of the
former Earl of Argyll
through the
Venerable Father, Lord Donald Campbell,
Abbot of Cupar,
who departed this life in the
year 1587
in the year of his age 70.

Nicholas married Katherine Drummond before 1563. Katherine (daughter of George Drummond and Catherine Hay) was born in of Blair, Perthshire, Scotland; died before 1604. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"Marion Cunningham, Lady Bar, died at her home in Ayr in January 1623. She was the daughter of William Cunningham of Aiket and Helen Colquhoun, daughter of a Highland chief. […] She grew up in an age of aggression in northern Ayrshire, the time of the great feud betewen the Montgomery Earl of Eglinton and the Cunningham Earl of Glencairn which lasted over seventy years in the sixteenth century." [Ayr and Its People, citation details below]

Marion married John Lockhart in 1595 in Stewarton, Ayrshire, Scotland. John (son of Alexander Lockhart and Margaret Kennedy) died in 1614. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Earl of Lennox.

Family/Spouse: Elizabeth Cavendish. Elizabeth (daughter of William Cavendish and Elizabeth Hardwick) died in 1582. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Lord Darnley, Duke of Albany, Earl of Ross.

Henry married Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots on 29 Jul 1565 in Holyrood Chapel, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland. Mary (daughter of James V, King of Scots and Mary of Guise) was born on 8 Dec 1542 in Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland; died on 8 Feb 1587 in Fotheringay, Northamptonshire, England; was buried in Westminster Abbey, Westminster, Middlesex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1572
• Alternate death: Abt 1632

Margaret married Alexander McGruder before 26 May 1605. Alexander was born about 1569 in Craigneich, Muthill Parish, Perthshire, Scotland; died before 1 May 1617. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Janet married John Cunningham before 8 Jan 1634. John (son of William Cunningham and Agnes Cunningham) died before 17 Apr 1672. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

James married Anne of Denmark, Queen Consort of Scotland; Queen Consort of England and Ireland on 23 Nov 1589 in Oslo, Norway. Anne (daughter of Frederik II, King of Denmark and Norway and Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow) was born on 12 Oct 1574 in Skanderborg Castle, Skanderborg, Denmark; died on 2 Mar 1619 in Hampton Court Palace, Richmond upon Thames, London, England; was buried in Westminster Abbey, Westminster, Middlesex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1610, of Glenartney, Perthshire, Scotland
• Alternate birth: 1610, of Prince George's County, Maryland

Notes:

"[W]as fined with others for illegally carrying arms and shooting deer and wildfowl near Cargill, Cargill, 1622 (Registry of the Privy Council 13:101-03); probably acted as factor or chamberlain for Lord Maderty in Dunblane parish, Strathallan; was probably the "Allastar Mcgruger" who served in Col. Sir Thomas Ruthven's reg. of the Army of the League and Covenant in England, 1645/6; is believed to have been captured serving in the Scottish army in the civil wars, perhaps at the Battle of Worcester, 1651, and to have been sent to America as a prisoner; settler in Md. by 1653; of Turkey Buzzard Island, Calvert Co., and "Anchovie Hills," Calvert Co. (now Prince George's, near the present Baden), Md.; held about 3,750 acres in Prince George's Co. (brother of James McGruder, lord of Cargill, Perthshire, chamberlain to the Earl of Perth, member of a committee appointed by the Scots Parliament to expel Cromwell's army, 1649)." [Brice McAdoo Clagett, citation details below]

Ancestor of Confederate generals James Longstreet, William Beall, John Bankhead Magruder, and Stephen Drane; also of Asa Griggs Chandler, founder of the Coca-Cola company and principal founder of Emery University.

One of JMF's two gateway ancestors, but fittingly, given JMF's delight in ambiguity and historical contingency, his status as a "gateway ancestor" is controversial. In 2015, the lineage society the Order of the Crown of Charlemagne announced that Margaret Campbell was not his mother and therefore his descendants no longer qualified for membership, but (to the best of our knowledge, and that of historian Susan Tichy), no evidence for this was put forth.

It is certainly true that the evidence for the Maryland immigrant being the Alexander who was second son of Alexander McGruder and Margaret Campbell is circumstantial. In our view, it passes the test of being strong enough circumstantial evidence to warrant recording what appears to be the probable line.

From Susan Tichy, "Was Alexander Who We Think He Was?":

But how do we know he was the second son of these parents?

We don’t, not absolutely. We believe it on the basis of two pieces of evidence.

1) In Maryland, Alexander named three of his plantations for Dunblane (a cathedral town in Perthshire), Craigneich (the farm where Alexander Magruder the elder was born), and Inchaffray (an abbey and estate near Maderty, where Alexander the elder was chamberlain--corrupted in Maryland to Anchovie Hills). Craigneich is especially convincing because it was (and is) a private farm, not a large estate. It is unlikely a man without intimate connections there would have bestowed this name on a Maryland farm, and few would have had such connections.

Alexander named no plantations for Balmaclone (or Belliclone) where he is believed to have been born. That was a Drummond farm, to which his mother had a lifetime right as widow of her first husband, Andrew Drummond. Craigneich was a McGruder farm and had been for several generations. Alexander was seven or eight years old when his father died and his mother remarried, at which point he probably would have been sent to live at Craigneich to be raised by his father’s family.

2) The Records of the Privy Council (vol. viii, pp 101-102) show that on 22 November, 1622, one “Alexander McA Growder,” twelve years old, was fined for illegally carrying arms and shooting deer and wildfowl with some other boys at Spittalsfield, Caputh Parish, near Cargill, about six miles from Dunkeld.

This provides a birth date of ~1610, which places him after James, the known eldest son of Alexander Magruder and Margaret Campbell. This family–and James especially–also show strong association with Cargill. Later in his life, James Magruder is identified as being either in Cargill, indicating he lived there, or of Cargill, indicating he owned land there. In one record he is designated Laird of Cargill, which, if accurate, indicates a significant elevation in status.

And that’s it. That’s our positive evidence.

What we might call negative evidence boils down to the simple fact that no other candidate can be found in the records. McGruders / MacGrouthers were few in number, so other choices for where to locate Alexander among known families would be slim. In 1620, John McGrouther (brother of Alexander the elder) purchased land in Meigor, in Glen Artney, thus making the rare step from tenant to landowner. His descendants owned this farm until the 19th century when the line died out. Because of land ownership, there are more records for that family than for any other. Among them there is no Alexander who could be our immigrant, nor is there a Maryland plantation called Meigor.

Don McGruther has found a few McGruthers, MacCrouthers, and other variations of the name, scattered through the southern Highlands, Edinburgh, and as far as Ireland, but it seems far-fetched to imagine that Alexander came from one of those families. His strong attachment to Perthshire, in particular to Inchaffray and Craigneich, establishes his origins in the McGrouther heartland.

From Susan Tichy, "Alexander Magruder, The Immigrant":

[Alexander Magruder] was the first of his name in America. Born about 1610 at the small estate of Belliclone (now Nether Belliclone farm) in Madderty Parish, Perthshire, in Scotland’s Central Highlands, Alexander was the son of Alexander McGruder, the elder, and Margaret Campbell of Keithick. He is believed to have arrived in Maryland in January 1652 as a prisoner of war, having been captured during Cromwell’s invasion of Scotland late in the civil wars that attended the Protestant Reformation. Upon arrival, Alexander was sold into indentured servitude. In the disease-ridden Chesapeake, half of all indentured servants died within a year. Those who survived their term--most commonly five years--received their freedom and a “headright” to 50 acres of unimproved land--which they first had to find, then pay a surveyor and, for a fee, register their ownership. Alexander received his first of two headrights in November 1653, indicating that he served a remarkably short indenture. He went on to be one of the largest landowners among formerly indentured men of his generation. Historian Russell R. Menard, who studied men who arrived as indentured servants from 1648-1652, identifies him as one of only three who owned more than 1,000 acres when they died.

Alexander married Sarah before 1663. Sarah died between 1671 and 1672. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]