76 COMPLETE PEERAGE AIRTH u -a c a C/2 1- x" Craignethie) have, however, since been sold. Chief Seat. — Cortachy Castle, eight miles from Forfar. This was partially destroyed by fire, 14 Sep. 1 883. AIRTH EARLDOM [S.] i. William (Graham), Earl of Menteith I. 1633. [S.], having been, on 25 May 1630, served A. of line to David (Stewart), Earl of Strathern [S.] (who was s. of Robert II, King of Scotland), was, on 31 July 1 63 1, confirmed in that dignity by Royal Charter " to him and his heirs male and of entail, directing that he and they should there- after be styled Earls of Strathern and Menteith " [S.]. The King's Charter, however, as well as the retour (finding the Earl to be the h. of Prince David), were subsequently '■^reduced" by the Court of Session, 1633. The Earl having thus (for no fault of his own) been deprived of the Earldom of Strathern, the King, to make such deprivation less conspicuous, and, perhaps, for the purpose of sinking the title of Menteith (as being connected with /?ojrt/ descent), erected the lands and Barony of Airth into an Earldom, and united it by patent, 28 Mar. 1633, with the Earldom of Menteith, declaring its precedency to be that which was due to that Earldom, therein defined as 6 Sep. 1428, (^) and "ordained the said Earl and his heirs to be called in all time coming EARLS OF AIRTH and to bruik and enjoy the honours, dignity, and precedence due to them by virtue of the said Charter granted to the said Malise, Earl of Menteith before all others " C'). He d. in 1661, after 13 Apr. II. 1 66 1 2. William (Graham), Earl of Airth and to Menteith [S.], grandson and h. Having no issue, 1694. he resigned his territorial Earldoms (desiring also to resign, at the same time, the actual dignities of the Earldoms of Menteith and of Airth) in favour of James (Graham), Marquess of Montrose [S.], and his heirs male, but the King, while he accepted the resignation of the territorial Earldoms and directed a charter of regrant to pass thereupon, refused to accept a resignation of the dignities, or to interfere with the right of succes- sion to them. The Earl d. s.p. 12 Sep. 1694, when the issue male of the 1st Earl of Airth [S.] became extinct. (") (*) This date is, oddly enough, in error by a year; it should be 6 Sep. 1427. In right of this clause of precedency the Earl of Menteith (who in the " decreet of Ranking " had been ranked as a creation of 1466) was (subsequently) placed next below " Mar" and next above " Rothes," as appears in the records of Pari., 1639. This militates against the theory that the date of 1457 (not 1404) was the one assigned at the " Ranking " to the Earldom of Mar. (*") See Earldoms of Strathern, Montcith, and Airth, with a report on the Claim (1834) of R.B. Allardice to the Earldom of Airth, by Sir N.H. Nicolas, 1842, p. 98. See also Craik's Romance of the Peerage, 1848-9, vol. iii, pp. 362-4, for an interesting account of these Earldoms. C) Of his two sisters, whose seniority is doubtful, (i) Mary m., 8 Oct. 1662, Sir
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