MEMOIR 



OF 



SIR JOHN GRAHAM DALYELL, 



KNIGHT AND BARONET. 



The family of Dalyell of Biuiis, in Linlithgowshire, is of ancient 

 standing. They are the heirs-male of the Menteths, Earls of Menteth, of 

 whose descent it will be necessary to give a brief outline. 



The name Menteth is local. There is an extensive district in Scot- 

 land through which the river Teth runs, called the Stewartry of Menteth. 

 The orthography in which we have found it, is Menetbet, Menteth, Men- 

 teith, Monteith, which last is the most recently adopted. 



If historians be credited, there are few titles of more ancient date 

 than the Earldom of Menteth. Some of them affirm, that there was an 

 Earl of that name in the reign of Malcolm the Third, who succeeded to 

 the throne in 1056, and was killed in 1093 ; and, not many years after- 

 wards, during the reign of his son, David, the existence of Murdac, Earl 

 of Menteth, is proved by authentic documents. In the course of the 

 thirteenth century, we have also evidence of Gilchrist and Maurice being 

 successively Earls of Menteth. 



Walter, third son of Walter, Lord High Steward of Scotland, mar- 

 ried the descendant of one of these Earls, and, from the course of the suc- 

 cession afterwards, perhaps obtained on that event new investitures of 

 the title to heirs-male. His name frequently appears in the transactions 

 of the thirteenth century. He was present at the battle of Largs, in 

 1263 ; and in 1291 was one of the arbiters on the part of Robert Bruce, 



h 



