Margaret Hepburn, wife of Alexander, 1st Earl of Glencairn
John P. Ravilious
Hello All,
In the Scots Peerage account of the Earls of
Glencairn, we find that Alexander Cunyngham (or
Cunningham), 1st Earl of Glencairn was married to
' Margaret, daughter of Adam Hepburn, Lord of
Hailes ' [1]. Unfortunately, no secondary or other
source is cited for this. In addition, a later SP
account of the Hepburns shows no such daughter of
Adam Hepburn [2]. The chronology of the Hepburns
would make a daughter of Adam's son Patrick Hepburn
too young as the mother of Alexander Cunningham's
sons; besides which, there is another Margaret
Hepburn, daughter of Patrick, already in
evidence [3]. That Alexander Cunyngham's wife may
well have been Adam Hepburn's daughter is
reasonable, but no evidence has been cited to
support this statement.
Indirect evidence has been found which does in fact
show that Alexander Cunyngham's wife was a daughter of
Adam Hepburn. Alexander's great-grandson William, son
and heir of Cuthbert, 2nd Earl of Glencairn [and
himself 3rd Earl of Glencairn, 1541-1548) was con-
tracted to marry Margaret Stewart before 15 Dec 1507:
' 113. Process of Dispensation by Patrick Murray,
Treasurer of the diocese of Dunblane, in virtue of
a Commission to him by Cardinal Ludovick, Great
Penitentiary of Pope Julius II. for dispensing
with the impediments to the marriage of William
Cunyngham, son and heir of Cuthbert, Earl of
Glencairn, and Margaret Stewart, daughter of the
said Mathew Stewart, Earl of Levenax.
Dated at Edinburgh, 15th December 1507. ' [4]
The details of the dispensation alluded to in this
document have not been published to the best of my
knowledge, but certain things can be surmised.
Margaret Stewart's parents were contracted to marry
on 9 April 1494 [5]; if the actual marriage occurred
soon thereafter, Margaret could have been born as
early as 1495, and been aged 12 in 1507. William
Cunyngham's parents contracted to marry on 24 June
1492 [6], so we might imagine William, their eldest
(surviving) son and heir, being born as early as
1493, being aged 14 at most in 1507. Given that the
prospective bride and groom were aged 14 or younger,
and 12 or younger respectively when contracted to
marry in 1507, the possibility of affinity as an
impediment to their marriage can be discounted.
There may have been another non-blood relationship,
but it is most likely that consanguinity between
William Cunyngham and Margaret Stewart was the
primary impediment requiring a dispensation.
Fortunately, the ancestry of both William
Cunningham and Margaret Stewart is known through and
including their great-great-grandparents, with the
possible question of William Cunningham's Hepburn
ancestry being both the sole remaining uncertainty
and the answer to this question. There is no other
part of their ancestry that these individuals had
in common: William had a great-grandmother Margaret
Hepburn, allegedly a daughter of Adam Hepburn of
Hailes, and Margaret Stewart had a great-grandmother
Elizabeth Hepburn, who was known to have been Adam
Hepburn's daughter.
If Margaret Hepburn had been either the niece, or
aunt, of Adam Hepburn, there would have been no
consanguinity between William and Margaret: the
closest the two would then have been related would
have been 4th and 5th degrees of consanguinity,
requiring no dispensation. It can therefore be
stated with certainty, that there was
consanguinity between William Cunningham and
Margaret Stewart necessitating their dispensation
in 1507, and that the relationship as shown in the
following chart was in the 4th and 4th degrees of
consanguinity.
I should note concerning the foregoing that
Margaret Stewart's paternal grandmother, Margaret
Montgomery, is shown as the daughter of Alexander
Montgomery, Master of Montgomery, by his Hepburn
wife, and not as his sister as given in Scots
Peerage and in most published pedigrees [7]. This
was corrected in 1997 by Andrew MacEwen. John
Stewart was contracted to marry the elder Margaret
Montgomery in 1438, but this contract was never
carried out following the murder of John's father
Alan Stewart in 1438. John was actually married
to the niece of the first Margaret Montgomery in
1460, which relationship is as shown below [8].
Cheers,
John
Sir Adam Hepburn = Janet Borthwick
of Hailes I (disp. 2 Nov 1411)
d. 1446 I
_______________I___________________
I I I
Margaret Patrick Elizabeth
= Alexander d. 1482 = Alexander,
Cunyngham, or later Master of
E of Glencairn Montgomery,
k. 1488 dvp 1452
I I
I I
Robert Cunyngham Margaret
Lord Kilmaurs = John Stewart
= Christian Lindsay Earl of Lennox
I I
I I
Cuthbert Cunyngham Matthew Stewart
2nd Earl of Glencairn 2nd Earl of Lennox
= Marion Douglas = Elizabeth Hamilton
I I
I I
William Cunyngham {DISPENSATION} Margaret
3rd Earl of Glencairn 1507 Stewart
= Katherine Borthwick = John Fleming
2nd Lord Fleming
NOTES
[1] SP IV:234, sub _Cunningham, Earl of Glencairn_.
[2] SP II:139-141, sub _Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell_.
[3] SP, ibid., p. 148.
[4] Duke of Montrose MSS., in Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd
Report, p. 392. Reference to this dispensation
is made in the Lennox article, but no reference
is provided.
[5] SP V:351, sub _Stewart, Duke of Lennox_.
[6] SP IV:236, sub _Glencairn_.
[7] SP III:433, sub _Montgomerie, Earl of Eglinton_.
Also, SP III:349, sub _Lennox_.
[8] Andrew B. W. MacEwen, SEVEN SCOTTISH COUNTESSES:
A MISCELLANY, I. Margaret Montgomery, Countess
of Lennox, in The Genealogist, Fall 1997
(Volume 11, No. 2), pp. 176-183. The parentage
of Margaret Montgomery, as corrected, is shown
by Neil D Thompson and Charles M Hansen in
their continuing series in The Genealogist,
"A Medieval Heritage: The Ancestry of Charles
II, King of England". This can be found in
print, and also online, courtesy of the
Foundation for Medieval Genealogy, at
http://fmg.ac/Projects/CharlesII/