The Lairds of Callendar
16th and 17th Centuries
About a century after this, the Lord
Livingston of the day was constituted by Act of Parliament, 24th April,
1545, along with John Lord Erskine, governor and keeper of the infant Queen
Mary, whom he accompanied in that capacity into France, in 1548, and died
there about 1553. These lords received for the care of their young Queen,
£80 a month from the last of November, 1545, to the last of February,
1548, when they sailed with her to France; and thanks were formally given
to them in the Parliament held at Haddington, 20th July, 1548, for the
manner in which they had executed their trust. The youngest daughter of
this Lord Livingston was one of the four Maries, selected and adopted by
the Queen mother, Mary of Guise, from the noblest families of the land
to be the playmates and schoolfellows of her royal daughter. In the plaintive
words of the old melody:
"There was Mary Seton, and Mary Beaton,
And Mary Fleming, and me." |
Me being Mary Livingston.
There is still to be seen at Westquarter
House, the last remaining mansion of the family, a large, antique, and
very beautiful cabinet, the doors of which are enriched with various flowers
traced in bead-work, which belonged to the Queen; and was the united work
of her four Maries. In her wanderings, adversities, and captivities, Queen
Mary ever found these faithful attendants at her side; they accompanied
her to France, attended her while she remained there, and returned with
her to Scotland. Exchanging the brilliant gaiety of Paris for the fanatic
gloom of Edinburgh, the true-hearted maidens never failed in their
devotion to Mary Stuart: their romantic attachment to their royal and ill-fated
mistress endeared them to the people; their memories have been united in
the melody of many a ballad, and enshrined in the songs of their native
land. The name of Mary Livingston, traduced and calumniated by the harsh
and ungallant John Knox, yet lingers in the traditions of the neighbourhood
of Callendar: she is still talked of as having married her father’s "galopin,"
or menial-groom, who is said to have treated her cruelly. This is no farther
true than that she married John Sempill, of Beltrees, (John Sempill, the
Dancer, as John Knox styles him,) a younger son of Robert, third Lord Sempill,
that he may have held the situation of equerry to Lord Livingston, then
a great officer of state, and that hence he may have been denominated his
"galopin," perhaps to heighten the story. But such appointments in the
establishments of the greater barons were given to the younger sons of
the noblest families; and this at least is certain, that Sempill was at
one time an equerry or page in the royal household: of this, the evidence
still remains. By a charter, dated 9th March, 1564, ratified by Act of
Parliament 19th April, 1567, Queen Mary, “in consideration of the long
continued services of Mary Livingston, her Majesty’s familiar servitrice,
and John Sempill, son of Robert Lord Sempill, her daily and family servitour,”
granted to them the lands of Auchtermuchty and others, until they should
be provided in an estate of £500 a-year. The story that the marriage
was unhappy may be as apocryphal as that the husband was a groom.
| Amid all the vicissitudes of fortune,
William, sixth Lord Livingston (the brother of the Queen's Mary), was the
steady and unflinching adherent of his royal and hapless mistress; he joined
her after her escape from Lochleven, fought gallantly for her at Langside,
and, after that fatal day, accompanied her to England to share her captivity.
Thither he was shortly afterwards followed, in the same loyal service,
by his wife, a daughter of Malcolm, third Lord Fleming. On the 26th of
February, 1569, Nicholas Whyte writes to Secretary Cecil, "the greatest
person about her (Mary) is the Lord Livingston, and the Lady his wife which
is a fair gentlewoman."
The son of these faithful followers
of an unhappy queen was Alexander, seventh Lord Livingston, who married
Lady Eleanor Hay, daughter of Andrew, seventh Earl of Erroll, and to their
care the Princess Elizabeth, afterwards Electress Palatine and Queen of
Bohemia, and her sister, were committed. |
Livingston of Callendar
16th Century
|
The Queen of Bohemia has been usually regarded as the only
daughter of James the Sixth; but it appears from a charter of that king,
erecting Falkirk into a free burgh or barony in favour of the Lord Livingston,
dated 13th March, 1600, that there was another daughter whose existence
has generally escaped the notice of historians. This charter sets forth
"the great care, extreme diligence and solicitude of our said trusty cousin
and councillor Alexander Lord Livingston, and Dame Helenor Hay, his spouse,
in divers years by past with regard to our two legitimate daughters, by
undertaking their education, in their own society. And also, we clearly
understanding our foresaid illustrious, trusty cousin and councillor, to
be justly due the sum of £10,000, money of this realm of Scotland,
for the food, nourishment, sustenance, and education of our said two daughters,
and their body-servants, during the foresaid space. Therefore, in full
satisfaction of the said sum and for the good, faithful, long and honourable
service to us and our most illustrious progenitors done and performed by
the said Alexander Lord Livingston and his predecessors in defence of the
kingdom against all foreign and intestine foes, &c., we now give, grant,
and dispose to the foresaid Alexander Lord Livingston," &c., &c.
It is believed that this charter is the only document extant establishing
the existence of another daughter of James the Sixth, besides the Princess
Elizabeth. But although this charter bears to be “ in full satisfaction”
of all previous services, the royal gratitude did not stop here,
and, the same year, in further recognition and reward of the good deeds
of himself and his predecessors, Alexander, seventh Lord Livingston, was
created Earl of Linlithgow, Lord Livingston and Callendar, on the 25th
December, 1600, at the baptism of Prince Charles; and within little more
than thirty years after (on the 19th June, 1633), the third son of tho
first Earl, the Hon. Sir James Livingston, who had won great military renown
in the wars in Bohemia, Germany, Holland and Sweden, was raised to a separate
peerage as Lord Livingston of Almond, and on the 16th October, 1641, farther
advanced to the dignity of Earl of Callendar.
But the sunshine of kingly favour was
not limited to the main line of Livingston; it shed its beams abundantly
on the younger branches. In 1627, Sir John Livingston of Kynnaird, descended
from Robert, the second son of Sir John Livingston, third Laird of Callendar,
was created a baronet of Nova Scotia; his son and successor, Sir James,
was one of the gentlemen of the bed-chamber to Charles the First, by whom
he was created Viscount of Newburgh, 13th September, 1647; Lord Newburgh,
faithful to his king, was excepted from Cromwell's Act of Grace, 1654;
and fled out of England, and joined Charles the Second at the Hague. He
continued with his Majesty during his exile, and on the Restoration was
constituted Captain of the Guards, and created Earl of Newburgh, Viscount
Kynnaird, and Baron Livingston of Flacraig, to him and his heirs whatsoever,
by patent dated 31st December, 1660. These titles are now vested,
by a decision of the House of Lords, in the Princess Giustiniani, who has
been naturalized by Act of Parliament, and is the present Countess of Newburgh.
The history of the house of Newburgh is very curious, and would in itself
form an interesting chapter in the romance of Peerage succession. The Kilsyth
branch was raised to the peerage as Viscount Kilsyth and Baron Campsie,
17th August, 1661, and the Teviot family (a cadet of Kilsyth) obtained
a baronetcy 29th June, 1627, and the Viscounty of Teviot, 4th December,
1696. The Westquarter baronetcy dates from the 30th May, 1625.
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