Earl of Buchan to 'staunch their gathering for the court of Forfar' (Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, p. 61), and on 28 Aug. to summon them for their gathering (ib.) The gathering seems to have resulted in bloodshed, for in September Oliphant was summoned to answer for the slaughter of Thorn of Preston (ib.) Oliphant was one of a commission named on 30 Aug. 1484 to negotiate a marriage between James, duke of Rothesay, heir-apparent of the Scottish throne, and Lady Anne de la Pole, daughter of John, duke of Sheffield, and niece of Richard. Ill of England (Cal. Documents relating to Scotland, 1367-1509, entry 1601), and also to treat for a peace and alliance with England (ib. eatry 1502). Of the treaty, concluded at Nottingham on 12 Sept. (ib.), he was one of the conservators (ib. entry 1506). He sat in the first parliament of James IV on 6 Oct. 1488. when he was chosen a lord of the articles for the barons. He was also sworn a privy councillor, and in 1490 constituted a justiciary within his own bounds and those of Strathbaird. He sided with the king daring the rebellion of 1489, and, while the king was crushing the rising in the west, sent information to him of the movements of the rebel nobles in the north (Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer, p. 122). On 26 Feb. 1490-1 he had a safe-conduct to England for six months (Cal. Documents relating to Scotland, 1357-1609, entry 1660); and on 14 June he received a safe-conduct and protection for a year from Henry VII as ambassador to Charles, king of France, and the king and queen of Castile, Aragon, and Sicily (ib. entry 1674). In 1491 he was bailie of Methven (Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, v. 287), and in 1493 and subsequent years he was keeper of Edinburgh Castle (ib. pp. 388, 466, 505). He was one of the lords chosen by the king to the session of 14 Oct. 1495. He died about 1500. By his wife, Lady Isabel Hay, youngest daughter of William, first earl of Errol, he had three sons: John, second lord Oliphant (d. 1516); William of Berriedale, Caithness (acquired through marriage with Christian, heiress of Alexander Sutherland of Duffus); and George.
[Authorities mentioned in the text; Douglas's Scottish Peerage, ed. Wood, ii. 332-3.]
OLIPHANT, LAURENCE, third Lord Oliphant (d. 1566), was the son of Colin, master of Oliphant (killed at the battle of Flodden in 1513), by Lady Elizabeth Keith, second daughter of William, third earl Marischal. He succeeded his grandfather John, second lord, in 1516, and was one of the Scottish nobles taken prisoner at the rout of Solway Moss on 25 Nov. 1542 (Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 25), his capturer being Dacre's servant (Hamilton Papers, ed. Bain, i. 325). He reached Newark on 15 Dec., he and other prisoners being then so 'crazed' by the hardships of their march that their subsequent journey to London was a little delayed (ib. p. 335). The annual value of his lands was then estimated at two thousand merks Scots, or five hundred merks sterling, and the value of his goods at four thousand merks Scots (State Papers, Henry VIII, v. 233). He remained in England in the custody of Sir Thomas Lee, knt., but on 1 July 1543 was allowed to be ransomed for eight hundred merks sterling, on condition that, along with other captive Scottish nobles, he should acknowledge Henry VIII as lord-superior, should co-operate in procuring him the government of Scotland, and should exert his influence to get the infant Queen Mary delivered to Henry, to be brought up in England. On obtaining his liberty he, however, made no attempt to fulfil these pledges, and he declined to enter himself a prisoner in England in August for making of his bond and promise for the payment of the ransom. When Lord Huntly began a reformation of religion in his territories, Lord Oliphant, in February 1560, at a meeting at Aberdeen, promised to do as Huntly advised (Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1569-1660, entry 710); but it is doubtful if he ever joined against the queen-dowager (ib. 1560-1, entry 172). He died on 26 March 1566. By Margaret, eldest daughter of James Sandilands of Cruvie, he had three sons and four daughters. The sons were: Laurence, fourth lord Oliphant [q. v.]; Peter, ancestor of the Oliphants of Langton; and William. The daughters were: Catherine, married first to Sir Alexander Oliphant of Kellie, and secondly to George Dundas of Dundas; Margaret, married first to William Murray of Abercaimy, and secondly to James Clephane of Carslogie; Jean, to William Moncriefie of Moncriefie; and Lilias, to Robert Lundie of Balgonie.
[Diurnal of Occurrents (Bannatyne Club); Sadleir's State Papers; State Papers, Hen. VIII; Hamilton Papers; Anderson's Oliphants in Scotland, 1879, pp. xxxvii-xl; Douglas's Scottish Peerage, ed. Wood, ii. 333-4.]
OLIPHANT, LAURENCE, fourth Lord Oliphant (1529–1593), eldest son of Laurence, third lord Oliphant, by Margaret Sandilands, was born in 1529. In 1543 he was sent to England as a hostage for his father. After the Darnley marriage he, while master
