Page:Debrett's Illustrated Peerage and Titles of Courtesy.djvu/393

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DEBRETT'S ILLUSTRATED PEERAGE. 321 anus, Quarterly : 1st and 4th, azure, a bend between six cross crosslets, fitche or, ar: 2nd and 3rd, argent, a pale sable, Erskine, over all, on an escutcheon gules, the imper a' crown of Scotland proper, within a double tressure flory counterflory or, Kellie. C0t, 1st, a dexter hand, holding a skene in pale argent, hilted and poraelled or, over crest " Je pense plus," Mar; 2nd, a demi-lion rampant guardant gules, armed argent, over crest, " Decori decus additavito," Kellie. Supporters*, Two griffins gules, armed, beaked, and winged or. Seats, Alloa Park, Clackmannanshire ; Kellie Castle, Fife. C/wi*, Carlton, Junior Carlton, New (Edinburgh) . MAR AND KELLIE, Earl of, His lordship's predecessor was his father, Walter Coningsby. C.B., 10th Earl of Mar, and 12th Earl of Kellie, eldest surviving son of the Hon. Henry David Erskine, and giandson of the 7th Earl of Mar, of the Erskine race. He was b. July 12, 1810, and succeeded his cousin as nearest heir male of the surname of Erskine 1866. Educated at Durham School and at Edinburgh University. Entered the Bengal Army 1828, and retired as Lieut.-Col. 1861. Held several civil and military ap- pointments in India, and received the thanks of both Houses of Parliament, and was created a C.B. for his conduct in the Indian Mutiny. Was a Representative Peer of Scotland, and Vice- Lieut, of Clackmannanshire : m. 1834, Elise, daughter of Col. Youngson, of Bowscar, Cumberland, and d. Jan. 15, 18/2, leaving issue three sons. MAR AND KELLIE, ELISE, Countess of, daughter of Col. Youngson, of Bowscar, Cumberland : m. 1834, the 10th Earl of Mar, and 12th Earl of Kellie, who d. 1872. Residence, 55, Ennismore Gardens, Princes Gate. March, Earl of, M.P. son of the Duke of Bichmond. (see Richmond.) Earl of, title borne by the Earl of Wemyss. In Peerage questions the Committee (acting for the House of Lords) is called on by the 4 Crown' merely to enquire into and report only on the subject set forth by one or more Petitioners in their petitions which are first lodged before the House for presentation to the Queen and then referred by Her Majesty to the Committee to report thereon. Lord Kellie, as the claimant, petitioned to be declared entitled to a modern Earldom called Mar, dating only from 1565 by a. presumed new ' creation ' of that year. His opponent, whose petition was drawn up as that of ' John Francis Erskine Goodeve- Krskine, Earl of Mar and Baron Garioch," and received by the House of Lords in that form, did not appear at all as a claimant of the old Earldom of Mar, nor of any other title, as his counsel insisted and to which the Attorney General advising on behalf of tlie ' Crown * alluded, but merely as objecting to a new title called Mar being bestowed on Lord Kellie as heir male of the Erskine family, whose connection with the only Earldom of Mar on record was merely by the marriage of Sir Thomas Erskine (in the 15th century) with the heiress of Mar. Hence the old Earldom of Mar was not claimed by either fparty, and any observations made by their Lordships regarding it (and regarding the old title of Garioch), however in- cidental to the arguments they may have been, are beside the question, they do not constitute a formal Judgment, and are consequently not binding on the heir of line and his heirs. Again, by a resolution of the House of Lords (July 25, 1862). as already pointed out, a Scotch peer is not legally required to be formally recognized by the House of Lords ; and thus, in 1866, on the death of the last Lord Mar, his nephew as heir of line contented himself with obtaining the usual formal recognition by the Scottish authorities, no more nor less than is customary with Scotch peers. Under these circumstances the heir of line to the ancient Earldom of Mar does n&t feel called on to seek the formal recognition of the House of Lords, being de jure sanguinis the natural and rightful inheritor of the old Earldom enjoyed by his uncle, the last Lord Mar. This old Earldom of Mar still stands in its time honoured place on the ' Union Roll ' of Scotch peers, and is independent of, and untouched by, Lord Kellie's new title called Mar, which is unrecorded in the annals of Scottish history and genealogy."