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The 'Mormaer' or 'Earl of Buchan' was originally the provincial ruler of the medieval province of Buchan. Buchan was the first Mormaerdom in the High Medieval Kingdom of the Scots to pass into the hands of a non-Scottish family in the male line. The earldom had three lines in its history, not counting passings from female heiresses to sons. Today it is held by the Erskine family as a peerage, and the current holder is Malcolm Harry Erskine, 17th Earl of Buchan (b. 1930).

Contents

Early history

Later history

List of holders

Early Mormaers/Earls of Buchan

Bibliography

External links

Early history

The first recorded person who definitely held the position of mormaer was Gartnait, whose patronage is noted in the Gaelic Notes on the ''Book of Deer''. The latter is the only significant source for the mormaerdom, and its existence makes Buchan one of Scotland's best documented provinces for native cultural institutions. After the death of Fergus, before 1214 , Buchan became the first native mormaerdom to pass into the hands of a foreign family, the Comyns, though only through marriage. Alexander Comyn, Earl of Buchan inherited and continued his mother's title and line until it was conquered and forfeited during the Wars of Scottish Independence.
The title remained in crown hands until, later in the century, the title went to Alexander Stewart, the "Wolf of Badenoch". Buchan by this point, however, but drastically truncated and was no longer a provincial lordship.

Later history

Thereafter it was issued to James Stewart, whose descendants have held the title since. In 1617 the earldom came to James Erskine (died 1640), a son of John Erskine, 2nd or 7th Earl of Mar, whose wife Mary had inherited it from her father, James Douglas (died 1601); and from that time the Erskines have retained the title.
Among the most celebrated of the later earls of Buchan we find the eccentric David Steuart Erskine, 11th earl (1742 - 1829), a son of Henry David, 10th earl (died 1767), and brother of Henry Erskine (1746 - 1817) and of Thomas, Lord Erskine. His pertinacity helped in effecting a change in the method of electing Scottish representative peers, and in 1780 he succeeded in founding the Scottish Society of Antiquaries. His correspondents included Horace Walpole, and he produced an ''Essay on the Lives of Fletcher of Saltoun and the Poet Thomson'' (1792) and other writings. He died at his residence at Dryburgh in April 1829 , leaving no legitimate children, and the earldom passed to his nephew Henry David (1783 - 1857), the 12th earl.
The family seat is Newnham House, near Hook, North Hampshire. The Earl holds the subsidiary titles of: ''Lord Auchterhouse'' (created 1469), ''Lord Cardross'' (1610) and ''Baron Erskine of Restormel Castle'' (1806). The former two of these titles form part of the Peerage of Scotland, while the barony belongs to the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The Earls of Buchan sat in the House of Lords by virtue of the UK title until the passage of the Peerage Act 1963.

List of holders

Early Mormaers/Earls of Buchan

★ Unknowns

★ ?Cainnech (''fl.'' early 12th century)

★ Gartnait (''fl.'' after 1131)

★ Éva (Éua) ingen Garnait (''fl.'' 1174 )

★
★ m. Colbán (''fl.'' 1174 )

★ Fergus (''d. before'' 1214)

★ Marjory

★
★ m. William Comyn, Justiciar of Scotia and Warden of Moray (d. 1233)

★ Alexander Comyn (d. 1289)

★ John Comyn (d. 1313)

★
★ Forfeited; ''Title claimed by Alicia de Buchan, and her husband Henry Beaumont'' (d. 1340)
===Earls of Buchan, Second Creation (1374)===

★ Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan (d. 1404)

★ Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany (d. 1420), in 1406 he granted earldom to his son

★ John Stewart, Earl of Buchan (d. 1424) - Killed at the Battle of Verneuil

★ Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany (d. 1425) (forfeit 1425)
===Earls of Buchan, Third Creation (1469)===

★ James Stewart, 1st Earl of Buchan (1442-1487)

★ Alexander Stewart, 2nd Earl of Buchan (d. 1505)

★ John Stewart, 3rd Earl of Buchan (c. 1497-1551)

★ Christina Stewart, 4th Countess of Buchan (d. 1580)
:
★ m. James Douglas, 5th Earl of Buchan, inherited Earl in 1558 (d. 1601)

★ Mary Douglas, 6th Countess of Buchan (d. 1628)

★ James Erskine, 7th Earl of Buchan (d. 1664)

★ William Erskine, 8th Earl of Buchan (d. 1695)

★ David Erskine, 9th Earl of Buchan (d. 1745)

★ Henry David Erskine, 10th Earl of Buchan (1710-1767)

★ David Stewart Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan (1742-1829)

★ Henry David Erskine, 12th Earl of Buchan (1783-1857)

★ David Stuart Erskine, 13th Earl of Buchan (1815-1898)

★ Shipley Gordon Stuart Erskine, 14th Earl of Buchan (1850-1934)

★ Ronald Douglas Stewart Mar Erskine, 15th Earl of Buchan (1878-1960)

★ Donald Cardross Flower Erskine, 16th Earl of Buchan (1899-1984)

★ Malcolm Harry Erskine, 17th Earl of Buchan (b. 1930)
Heir-apparent: His son Henry Thomas Alexander Erskine, Lord Cardross

Bibliography

★ Anderson, Alan Orr, ''Early Sources of Scottish History: AD 500-1286'', 2 Vols (Edinburgh, 1922), Vol. II, p. 180, n. 3

★ Jackson, Kenneth (ed), ''The Gaelic Notes in the Book of Deer'' (The Osborn Bergin Memorial Lecture 1970), (Cambridge (1972)

★ Paul, James Balfour, ''The Scots Peerage'', Vol. II, (Edinburgh, 1909)

★ Roberts, John L., ''Lost Kingdoms: Celtic Scotland in the Middle Ages'', (Edinburgh, 1997), pp. 55-6

★ Young, Alan, "Buchan in the 13th century" in Alexander Grant & Keith J. Stringer (eds.) ''Medieval Scotland: Crown, Lordship and Community Essays Presented to G.W.S Barrow'', (Edinburgh, 1993)

External links

★ Gaelic Notes on the Book of Deer