Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lindsay, Ludovic
LINDSAY, LUDOVIC, sixteenth Earl of Crawford (1600–1652?), born in 1600, was the third surviving son of Sir Henry Lindsay of Kinfauns, thirteenth earl of Crawford, by his wife, Beatrix, daughter and heiress of George Charteris of Kinfauns. He entered the service of Spain, where he attained the rank of colonel. In 1640 he raised for the Spanish service a force of three thousand infantry (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. 1640–1, p. 377). He succeeded to the earldom on the death, in 1639, of his brother Alexander, fifteenth earl. A sympathiser with Montrose in opposition to Argyll, he came prominently into notice in 1641 in connection with the mysterious plot for Argyll's overthrow known as the ‘Incident.’ For his supposed share in it he was, on 12 Oct., committed by special order of parliament to custody in a private house (Balfour, Annals, iii. 98); but after he had declared that he had revealed all he knew, he was set at liberty on the 26th (ib. p. 119). Subsequently he underwent re-examination, and it was not till 13 Nov. that he was liberated without caution (ib. p. 159; Spalding, Memorialls, ii. 86; see his depositions in Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep., App. p. 165; also ‘Secret Account of the pretended Plot in Edinburgh against the Marquis of Hamilton and the Earl of Argyll’ in Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. 1641–3, p. 137). There seems no adequate foundation for the belief that the Earl of Lindsay exerted himself to obtain his liberty on condition that Crawford resigned his earldom to Lindsay. On 15 Jan. 1641–2 Crawford resigned the earldom into the king's hands at Windsor, but received a re-grant of it with a new destination to himself and heirs male of his body in the first instance; failing whom to John, earl Lindsay, and heirs male of his body; failing whom to his own heirs male collateral for ever (Balfour, iii. 231).
Crawford was one of those who joined the standard of Charles at Nottingham on 25 Aug. 1642, and he was created a commander of the volunteers (Spalding, ii. 179). At the battle of Edgehill on 23 Oct. his regiment was one of the last to leave the field (ib. p. 200). Subsequently he had several important encounters with Sir William Waller. A large portion of his regiment, which he had left to hold Chichester, surrendered to Waller after eight days' siege (see True Relation, &c., concerning the Manner of the besieging and taking of Chichester, 1643), but he had a principal share in the rout of Waller on 10 July at Lansdowne. He was at the battle of Newbury, 20 Sept. 1643. On the 25th he made an attempt to capture the town of Poole through the treachery of Captain Sydenham, one of the garrison, for whose aid he promised great reward and preferment; but Sydenham's purpose was to lead him into a snare, and Crawford in the unfortunate enterprise lost more than half his forces (Whitelocke, Memorials, p. 75; Rushworth, Hist. Collections, v. 286). Not long afterwards, along with Sir Ralph Hopton, he took Arundel Castle (Baillie, Letters and Journals, ii. 118); but being surprised by Waller at Alton, near Farnham, Crawford escaped with only a few followers, the rest being all taken, to ‘the number of nine hundred soldiers and twelve hundred arms’ (ib.) After Montrose's appointment by Charles as his lieutenant in Scotland, Crawford and other Scottish loyalists accompanied him in April 1644 in his march northwards. They were, however, deserted by the English near Annan, and after capturing Dumfries retreated southwards to Carlisle (Spalding, ii. 350). For this Lindsay was, with Montrose, excommunicated on 26 April by the general assembly (Guthry, Memoirs, p. 154). On 22 July he was found guilty of high treason (Balfour, iii. 230), and on the 25th sentence of forfaultry was passed against him (ib. p. 235), the title and dignity of Earl of Crawford being, according to the patent of 15 Jan. 1641–2, ratified to John, first earl of Lindsay [q. v.], at that time a zealous covenanter.
Crawford rejoined the royalists in England, and as lieutenant-general under Prince Rupert fought at Marston Moor 2 July 1644. After this disaster to the royal cause Crawford and other Scotch officers threw themselves into Newcastle, but on 19 Oct. the town was captured by General Leslie. Crawford was taken prisoner, was sent to Edinburgh, and was compelled to enter the town bareheaded as a traitor (Spalding, ii. 429). Chiefly through the influence of John, first earl of Lindsay and seventeenth earl of Crawford [q. v.], according to Wishart (Life of Montrose), he was condemned to death, and a deputation was sent by the general assembly to parliament to press for his immediate execution (Guthry, p. 180); but delay was deemed prudent, and he and the other prisoners who were in the Tolbooth were set at liberty by Montrose after his triumph at Kilsyth, 15 Aug. 1645. Crawford was present at the rout of Montrose at Philiphaugh by Leslie on 13 Sept., and making his escape rejoined Montrose at a ford beyond the Clyde, near Peebles, where they again separated, Montrose retreating with the foot to the highlands, and Crawford with the horse to the Mearns. Crawford afterwards rejoined Montrose in the highlands and distinguished himself in various indecisive attacks and skirmishes. In the spring of 1646 he made a raid into Buchan and burned the town of Fraserburgh, but a division of Middleton's army compelled him soon afterwards to retreat. On 3 June he wrote a letter to the king, in which he expressed his determination ‘to run the same hazard and course with the Marquis of Montrose’ (manuscripts of the Duke of Hamilton in Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. App. pt. vi. p. 110). After the king delivered himself up to the Scots at Newark, Montrose disbanded his followers (31 July). Both Crawford and Montrose were specially excepted from the articles of Westminster of 11 July, but by a special arrangement between Middleton and Montrose they were permitted to retire beyond seas. Crawford accompanied the Irish auxiliaries to Ireland, where he succeeded in obtaining a promise of three thousand men to aid in the king's rescue. On the 15th he wrote to the king from Cantyre informing him that he was on his way to Paris, and expressing his willingness to serve him (ib. p. 113). Arriving at Paris on 13 Oct., he laid his proposal before Queen Henrietta Maria; but finding that his offers were coldly received, he went to Spain, to ‘crave arrears due to him by that king’ (Guthry, p. 223). Here he obtained command of an Irish regiment; but he left Spain about 1651 in great want, and sailing from St. Malo in command of some ships he ‘took a prize or two’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. 1651–2, p. 3). In the same year he was in Paris, and during the tumults of the Fronde guarded the Cardinal de Retz in the citadel of Notre-Dame with fifty Scottish officers who had served under Montrose. He is supposed to have died in France in 1652: it is certain that he was dead in 1653. He was married to Margaret Graham, second daughter of William, earl of Strathearn, Monteith, and Airth, and widow of Alexander, lord Garlies, but left no issue, and with his death the issue male of the ‘wicked master’ became extinct.
[Sir James Balfour's Annals of Scotland; Spalding's Memorialls of the Trubles (Spalding Club); Robert Baillie's Letters and Journals (Bannatyne Club); Guthry's Memoirs; Sir Thomas Hope's Diary (Bannatyne Club); Wishart's Life of Montrose; Napier's Life of Montrose; Riddell's Crawford Case; Godwin's Civil War in Hants, 1882; Warburton's Prince Rupert; Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser., reign of Charles I, and Cromwellian period; Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. App. pt. vi.; Lord Lindsay's Lives of the Lindsays; Lindsay Pedigree, by W. A. Lindsay, in the College of Arms; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), i. 381–2.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.182
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 308 | ii | 17 | Lindsay, Ludovic, 16th Earl of Crawford: for Crawfurd read Crawford |
| 309 | i | 20 | for 12 Oct. read 19 Oct. |
| ii | 24 | for 1663 read 1653 |