'498 ATPENDIX. 



^ether with her brother James (afterwards fifth Earl of Wemyss), been 

 driven from Scotland in tlie year 1716, on account of their father having 

 t'spoused the cause of the Pretender. 



" Burke," in his Peerage of Scotland, gives the following 



LINEAGE. 



This ancient family traces its origin to John, baronial Lord of Weems, whence the 

 ;urname was probably derived, who was younger son of the celebrated Macduff, Thane 

 3f Fife, the vanquisher of the tyrant Macbeth. 



Sir Michael de Wemyss was sent, according to Fordun, in 1290, with Sir Michael 

 Scot, to Norway, by the lords of the regency in Scotland, to conduct the young Queen 

 Margaret to her dominions; but her majesty unfortunately died upon the journey, at 

 the Orkneys. Sir Michael swore fealty to EcKvard I., in 1296, and he witnessed the 

 act of settlement of the crown of Scotland by King Robert I., at Ayr, in 1315. From 

 Sir Michael lineally descended : 



Sir John Wemyss, of Wemyss, who married, fust, in 1574, Margaret, eldest 'laughter 

 of Wdliam, Earl of Morton, but by that lady hnd no issue; and, secondly, in 1581, 

 Anne, sister of James, Earl of Moray, by whom he had, with other issue. 



Sir John Wemyss, of Wemyss, who was created a Baronet ^Lay 29, 1625 ; and elevated 

 to the peerage of Scotland, as ^(77 £>« Wemyss, of Elcho, A.-p\\\ i, 162S. His lordship was 

 advanced to the dignities of Earl of Wemyss, in the county Fife, and Lord EhJio and 

 Met/iel, June 25, 1633. This nobleman, although indebted for his honors to King 

 Charles I., took part against his royal master, and sided with the Parliamentarians. 

 He married, in 1610, Jane, daughter of Patrick, seventh Lord Gray, by whom he had 

 six children, and was succeeded in 1649 by his only son, 



David, second earl. This nobleman married, first, in 162S, Jean, daughter of Robert 

 Balfour, Lord Burleigh, by whom he had an only surviving daughter, 



Jane, who became, first, the wife of Archibald, Earl of Angus ; and, after his lord- 

 ship's decease, of George, Earl of Sutherland. 



The Earl of Wemyss married, secondly. Lady Eleanor Fleming, daughter of John, 

 second Earl of Wigton, but by that lady had no issue. He married, thirdly, Margaret, 

 daughter of John, si.xth Earl of Rolhes (widow successively of James, Lord Balgony, 

 and Francis, Earl of Buccleuch), by whom he had an only surviving daughter, Mar- 

 garet, in whose favor his lordship, having resigned his peerage to the crown, obtained, 

 August 3, 1672, a new patent, conferring the honors of the family, with the original 

 precedency, upon her ladyship. He died in 16S0, when the baronetcy became dor- 

 mant, but the other dignities descended accordingly to his daughter, 



can be no doubt that these early Earls of Fife exercised absolute and almost royal state 

 and jurisdiction within their territories, forming a kind of iiiipcriiim in iiiiperio. A 

 manuscript referred to by Sibbald says : " He had all his earldom (Fife) erected into 

 a principality, that is to say, to exime his tenants and subjects from all other courts 

 and judgement, and give justice to all his, in his own countries." Very likely it is 

 owing to this, rather than to its general wealth and importance, that the county, which 

 at that time included Kinross, Clackmannan, and portions of Perthshire and Stirling- 

 shire, came to be designated "the Kingdom of Fife." The Wemyss brar.ch of the 

 Macduffs broke off from the main stem at the fourth earl, in the twelfth century, and 

 the present Fife brancli of the family is descended from James, third son of the fifth 

 Earl of Wemyss. The diief of the blood is the Earl of Wemyss. 



