MARRIAGE OF THE COUNTESS OF RUGLEN 13 



gave him the entree everywhere. This influence, allied 

 to a handsome person/ of which he was particularly 

 careful, coupled with means and ability to become a 

 ' pink ' of fashion, quickly made the Earl a beau. 



In the year following his lordship's majority (1747), 

 an Act for abolishing the hereditary jurisdictions of 

 Scottish peers came into force. The Earl of March 

 claimed five thousand pounds as compensation for 

 the Sherift'ship of Peebles and the regality of Linton 

 and Newlands, but was allowed only three thousand 

 two hundred pounds for the first, and two hundred 

 and eighteen pounds, four shillings and fivepence for 

 the latter ; a very good award indeed. On the death 

 of his lordship's maternal grandfather, his mother had 

 succeeded him on December 2nd, 1744, as Countess 

 of Ruglen ; his first title, Earl of Selkirk, descending 

 to his grandnephew, Dunbar Hamilton, Esq. His 

 mother, after a widowhood of twelve years, again 

 entered the bonds of wedlock ; she married, January 

 2nd, 1747, Anthony Sawyer, Esq., 'late deputy pay- 

 master to the Forces employed against the rebels,' so 

 the announcement sets forth, and to this is added the 

 fortune of the lady — twenty thousand pounds. The 

 Countess's second essay in matrimony was brief, and 

 its termination sudden, as she died at York on her 



^ He was, however, sparely built, and of medium height. 



