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Las diagrammes suivants iilustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 If VI 9 ^-^^•*»^ 4J ^'i ^Jff: •''Xsiism^s^^i.^^f^iiig^ms^if^ttfiMemMms^mstm',^--^'-- - f^' il It is rather remarkable, that at this Election, the Earl op Stirling was the premier Peer present ; and that including him, with the signed lists and proxies, there were but twenty peers, the number prescribed by law ; so that without him, there would not have been sufficient peers to have proceeded to an Election. The Viscount Strathallan was chosen the representative peer, in the room of the Earl of Balcarres, deceased. The election is thus certified by the Clerks of Session to the Court of Chancery, viz. (( ti tt tc t( if (( ti it a a a il it a <( (< *^ At Holyrood House, in Edinburgh, the second day of June, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five years. In Obedience to His Majesty's Royal Proclamation of the date at Carlton House the twen- tieth day of April last, commanding all the Peers of Scotland to as- semble and meet at this place this day, between the hours of twelve and two in the afternoon, to nominate and choose a Peer of Scotland, to sit and vote in the House of Peers of this present Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in the room of Alex- ander, Earl of Balcarres, deceased, — Wb, Sir Walter Soott, Baronet, and Colin Mackenzie, Esquire, two of the principal Clerks of Session, by virtue of a Commission granted to us the said Sir Walter Sooit, and Colin Mackenzie, or in case of absence, any other two of the said principal Clerks of Session, by the Right Honourable William Dun- das, Lord Clerk Register of Scotland, dated the twenty-first, and registered in the Books of Session the twenty-fourth days of May last. Appointing us to officiate in his name at the said meeting of the Peers, Do hereby Certify and Attest, that after the Oaths and Decla- rations required by law to be taken by the Peers present, were ad- •3!&(S«ifeS*sa^SKriJs»«***^*'*^''---'""~ g:®w!fe^^»r«iaB»a*ss HI *^ ministered to theni) and their votes with those of the proxies and ** signed lists of the absent Peers collected and examined, James, Vis- " count of Strathallan was elected and chosen to sit and vote in the <' House of Peers of this present Parliament of the United Kingdom ** of Great Britain and Ireland, in the room of the said Alexander, " Earl of Balcarres, deceased, In Witness whereof. We have Signed " and Sealed these Presents with our hands, in presence of the Peers " Electors, place and time above mentioned. " Walter Scott. (l. s.) " Colin Mackenzie, (l. s.) '* The Viscount Strathallan took his place and seat accordingly in the House of Lords, as one of the sixteen representative Peers of Scotland. -■r~- f '" Y. ■ ■ J -iO-r « ' V -*mmt'igmmj^^^i»u!»^^^'*-^^ n lit I *)dj i.,) u*o,.;.j ,ifiw «>t.,v .(..,if f „ •' ' ■ ., -.rt 'J-.- J,; 3, ,V J „ rii) .rm ""xr •u ;" ^^^ ^*« '^r4,j *,u „ '-'u: Hi '^'**="T^'«iTy8i*-0nir.'iii.T' '- I .. lb tttma ■> ,* : ■ "■ f- CASE, 4c, ^c. > f' ' ^dr Sir William Alexander, of Menatrio, knight, Master of Requests Baronet of to king James the Cth of Scotland ( Isl of England) was in 1626, created ni^Heir^ at premier Baronet of Nova Scotia, on the first institution of that Order, to """'• hold the said degree of honour to him and his heirs whatsoever. In 1630 he was created Lord Alexander of TuUibodie and Viscount of Stirling, to him and his heirs male bearing the name and arms of vucomiTto Alexander. "^Z* '^i"''' > In 1 633 he was further advanced to the dignity of Earl of Stirling and E.rl of s.ir. Viscount Canada, with the same limitation to his heirs m ale bearing the liet *'Male name and arms of Alexander. General . /.^ ^,,^ After this, the Earl having become extremely dej&cted by the death of three of his sons, and witnessing the declining state of health of two of the survivors, was afraid that his Titles and Estates, as well those he had by ancestral inheritance, as those he held by grant from the Crown, by failure of issue male of his own body, might pass to some collatend branch of his family ; for these, and other, considerations, he was (^/C -//:./tt.. *^r>%- rimrter of ('reation de Novo-Dii- tatioiin induced to make a reiignation of liii Title* and Eitntei, aforefaid, to the King; (according to the ctictom and prevailing law of Scotland). Whereupon, Hit Majesty, by hi>» royal Charter, or Letters Patent of Xovo-Danius, under the Greut 8eal of Scotland, dated 7th December, 1030, wan pleuaed to re-grntit them (i. e. Titles and Estates) to the Earl, ond to " the heirn ma/a of hin bodi/e, which failings to the eldeet heirs nini. with female without dieiHimt, of the tant ofxuch heirs male hereafter succeeding to the titles, honours, and dignities aforesaid ; and to the heirs male to be procreated of the hodys of such heirs female respectively bearing the sirname and armes of jf familye of Alexander j which they shall he holden and obliged to assume : which all failing, to the nearest legitimate heirs whatsoever of the said William Earl of Stirling, with precedency from the lith June, 1633. The Ear' did not long survive this new grant, and re-limitation of his Family Titles, &c. but died in February, 1640. He had issue seven Sons, named in the Pedigree, whereof William, Viscount Canada, the eldest, died before him in March 1038, having left an only son, William, and three daughters, which t* William, 2nd Eorl of Stirling, having succeeded his grandfather, sur- William, 2il . , , . , . • , ,• , " Earl. vived nim hut a short time, deceosing about May 1G40, when, dymg unmarried, the titles devolved upon his Uncle Henry, who was his father's next surviving brother, and heir male. This Viile IViIi- grce. (I Henry, ."Jd Henry, 3d Earl of Stirling, died obout 1644, having had issue an only i:ail sjon, Henry, who succeeded to bin honors: the said Henrv. 4ih , ■n , « « • i- i> i • EhiI Henry, 4th Earl of Stirhng, died m 1690, having had four sons. I isjfcaar? . jj^ u. j,tiiia »iWJh^ t,_. whereof William, Robert, and Peter, the three youngest, died without iMue before 1730, and the eldest. 1 t c'f /AmT Henrv, became the 5th Earl. He died the 4lh December, 1739, Henry, 5th Earl, without issue; by which event, the whole of the male line oi ..e three eldest sons of William, Ist Earl of Stirling having failed, the course of succession became vested in the Rev. John Alexander, grandson and heir male of John Alexanjder^J^^ the Ist Ealrl of Stirling, which John had gone to Ireland, and was for some time settled ^"'" ^''''' " " gree, an- in the county of Londonderry. ' nexed. John, 6th Earl, (Ic jure. The Rev. John Alexander, second cousin and heir male to Henry tho preceding Earl, was bom in the north of Ireland in 1686, and at the period of becoming heir male representative of his noble family, was Minister of the Scotch Presbyterian Church in Plunket Street, Dublin, having been brought up in the religion of his Scottish ancestors ; his income hence arising, added to his private fortune, was, without being considerable, sufficient to enable him to live in a genteel and respectable manner, and even to be occasionally the benefactor to the poor. But when the right of succession to the family honors fell upon him, he foii nd that the Estates / ^y^ n'-fi-^v-^ - in Scotland, which by the Charter of Novo-Damus were limited to the '• /V '^v ('<^<^>' same course of heirs, produced too inconsiderable a revenue to enable him to support his high Dignity, and that the Property acquired in England by the marriage of Henry the 3d Earl with the heiress of Sir Peter Vanlore, and which he ought also to have inherited under a Deed ofSettlcment (hereafter cited)had been taken po;3session of by the families into which the sisters of his cousin, the deceased Earl Henry, had intermarried ; he, therefore, chose, instead of immediately and publicly /;: '/iA'^4'''t 6 / / "^ John, "til Earl, (le jure. Msuminghis rank, to allow it for the present to remain dormant, though among his friends and intimate acquaintance, he was well known and reputed as 6th Earl of Stirling. The very short time he superlived the last Earl, (only three years and eleven months) was not long enough to enable him to prosecute with eflfect those legal proceedings which were necessary to be adopted to obtain possession of his ancestral Estates in Scotland, or of the settled ones in England. His exertions, however, were unabated, and about the middle of the year 1743, having collected every proof, with the evidence of Royal Charters, Wills, and other Documents, adequate to establish the clearness of his Right, he was preparing openly to avow his Rank, when illness, and death, deprived his Family of their Protector, and cast all his Affairs into confusion. He died the 1st of November, 1743. At this crisis, his Children, two sons and two daughters, were all in minority, the eldest son not eight years old. The widow thus left with four infants and only a small fortune, determined to leave Ireland, and retire to her native country, England : and being a woman of good sense, but destitute of ambition, she hastily gave directions to slay all proceedings for recovery of the Estates, that she might not incur any more legal expenses, which, under existing circumstances, could not be afforded out of a limited income. Still, though she was regardless of family honours, she generously made every possible pecuniary sacrifice, to give her children the advantages of education; the private causes, however, which have hitherto prevailed to continue dormant the various Rights of this Family, would be too prolix to recite, and, us it is the descent which is principally under consideration, it may be expedient to proceed therewith. John, eldest mn and heir of the Rev. John Alexander, the Gth Earl de jurey like his father, was a learned and distinguished Presbyterian Clergyman, but died suddenly, unmarried, the 29th of December, 1766, being then only in the 30th year of his age. > < * i *iM w* * v^. v • Benjamin Alexander, the 2d son, by the death of his elder brother without issue, was his heir, and consequently the next Earl, de jurey of his family. He was rising into eminence as a Physician, and, had he lived a few years longer, would most likely have taken up the honors which had descended to him : but, from over exertion in study, he was taken ill, and died the 18th of April, 1768, two years and four months only after his elder brother. Being unmarried, with him terminated the whole of the male issue descended of the body of William the 1st Earl of Stirling, and thereupon his two sisters were his co-heirs : but as, under the Charter of Novo-Damua, the special limitation of the descent of the honors was «* To the eldest heirs female, without division of tue last *' of such heirs male hereafter succeeding to the Titles, ^c,^' the right of succession to the Earldom, &o. devolved entire upon Mary Alexander, the eldest of the aforesaid two sisters. Benjamin, 8th Earl, de jure. /. /* Mary Countess of Stirling, dejure,6ied unmarried in Aprill 794, when her only and surviving sister, Hannah, the wife of William Humphrys, of the linrches in the County of Warwick, Esquire, became her heir, and sole heir general to her Brothers John and Benjamin, the two last heirs male in succession to the title and dignity of Earl of Stirling; the. said Hannah Countess of Stirling, de Jure, died 12th Sept. 1814, leaving Alexander Humphrys, Esquire, by courtesy Viscount Canada, her only son and heir, who, in consequence of his descent, and by reason Mary, 'i Countess of Stirling, di l jure. i Hannah, Countess of Stirling, de jure. 8 // / /f ^in^fit ^^fle^ of the restrictive clause contained in the Charter of the Earldom de Novo-damus^ viz. " To the heirs male to he procreated of the bodys of " such heirs female respectively^ bearing the sir name andarmesofyefami^ " lye of Alexander y which they shall he holden and obliged to assume" &c. has taken the eirname of Alexander, under his Majesty's Royal Li- cence, dated from the Court at Carlton-House the 8th March, 1824, which has been duly registered in the College of Arms, and Gazetted accordingly, and in conformity thereto. The limitations, therefore, of the aforesaid Charter, under which the family Honors are restricted to descend, having all concentrated Alexander, jjj thg game person, it is considered that he is the heir of nomination 9tli Earl, "^ de jure, and designation, and as such entitled to be Earl of Stirling, &c., with all the rank, rights, &c. &c. &c. appertaining to the said peerage, name, and dignity. It may not be here irrelevant to observe, that, in consequence of the title not havijig been assumed by the family to which it had (as before stated) most unequivocally descended, one William Alexander, an ofticer in the British Army, claimed the same, and presented a petition to his Majesty, setting forth the Patent of llie 11th of June, 1G33, by which William the first Earl was so created, with limitation to his heirs male general ; and representing that, by the failure of issue male of the body of the said Earl, (which he assumed to be the case from the dormancy of tlio riglit heir, namely, John the seventh Earl de jure). He was the heir niule of succession, being descended from John Alexander, the Uncle of William the first Earl. This petition was referred to the Lords on the 2d of INIay, 17G0 ; and a second petition in the same words, was referred again to the Lords the Nth April, 17G1 : bat, in March 1762, the Lords' committees rejected his pretensions. He afterwards retired to America, where he wua one ot the general* of Congress against the British arras. He died at Albany in North America in 1T83. This claim is the more noticeable, because the claimant feigned ignorance of the Charter of Novo- Damus (before cited), at the same time that he had, by some mordinary chicanery, pos-| sessed himself of acopy of it, with many iaji^ortant documents, evidences, I and vouchers, belonging to the Rev. John Alexander (the sixth Earl, de jurejy all which had been in the custody of that Earl's widow after her return to England. These important papers have lately been dis- covered in America, and are now restored to their just and lawful owner, the grandson and heir of the said Rev. John Alexander, the sixth Earl, as aforesaid. Having thus recited the descent of the Earldom, it remains to remark. 1st, Upon the Scotch property, which was made descendable with the entailed honors : this comprehended, among other lands, the ancient patrimonial Barony of Menstrie, of which the first Earl of Stirling was the eighth Baron by descent; and this property was augmented by divers charters of grants from King Charles the First, of the Baronies of Largis, TuUibodie, Tullicultrie, Gartmore, Stirling, &c. &c., all which were surrendered to the king, and regranted and confirmed by the Charter of iVbuo-PawMs, dated 7th December, 1639. 2ndly , With regard to the Enghsh estates, they were in the counties of Berks, Bucks, Surrey, and elsewhere ; these were after- acquired estates, by the marriage of Henry, third Earl of Sarling, with the daughter and heiress of Sir Peter Vanlore, and were, by a deed of J^ / J (/ji^.^K-. ■^ i i t 'i p.l ' 10 settlement of the said Earl, thus limited to attend upon the inheritance of hid family honom, viz. " To the heirs male of his body^ whom failing " to the heirs mats of the bodies of his brothers John^ Charles, and ** James, successively, whom all failing, to the eldest surviving heir " female of the last of such heirs male on whom the family honors shall " have devolved, and to her heirs for ever " By the Pedigree attached, and the preceding statement, it has been shown, that all heira male of the body of the third Earl failed in the person of Henry the fifth Earl, by whose death S. P. the rights of succession in remainder ought to have passed with the immediate pos- session of the entailed estates, to the Rev. John Alexander, grandson and heir of John, the first remainder man in the deed of settlement just cited : but the said Rev. John Alexander, as already observed in the former part of this case, was kept out of them by the families into which the sistersof Henry the fifth Earl had intermarried. Your opinion is therefore requested. ■ ^ W hether, taking it for granted that the extinction of the issue male of the body of William first Earl of Stirling, and the descent of the present person's own line (as set forth in the pedigree) can be proved, and which he is fully prepared to prove, by the adequate evidence of parochial registers, wills, deeds, and other legal documents and vouchers^ lie has a right to consider himself entitled to the inheritance of the peerage honors contained in the Charter of Novo-Damus, dated 7th December, 1630? A- 1 a- u €in- ..i >.ii J* i; ■) H/-':-^ i » ';>« CV>py o/ Mr, Brougham's Opinion, ( J' -.i '■'»■!. iS t* ^Supposing the Charter of Novo-Damus to be produced as herein " set forth, and that there was no subsequent surrender, and that this "j)edigree can be proved, I think the claimant is entitled to the honours, " as heir male of the body of the heir female of the first grantee's last " surviving heir male of his body. " H. Brougham, " Lincoln'.s-Tnn. " ^priHGy 1826." 1 £ 2 Copy of Mr. BoIlantTa Opinion, " Jf the extinction of the issue male of the body of William first \ " Earl of Stirling, and the descent of the present claimant's own line, " as set forth in the pedigree, can be proved, T am of opinion he is \ " entitled to the inheritance of the peerage honors contained in the | " Charter of Novo-Damus of the 7th of December, 1G39. " William Bolland, " Inner Temple. " ///t>r/7 28, 1825." ■ -J ■ irr ifjM'B-''^ ► -.iiSg '-v^»««->^n ^^^^[Vli li^ iSjaKSBStSMMiSaAsif,! '»«*'»«*(i:«*ifc \ / J«< H H M H ► ,rf*^|i II 1 " Si ^1 •a " -4 50. ^.a '.a PQ S s ae. s,» i-^^- S k _ D 5 S' J ViT'i' \ i: A t I i i i nT 1 '■'•I i I lift" I "ff~u ,. nrT"' ly ' - ■ » , „ -..— p— . | Of>i^Z ^' i-^,^i i I I. 1 f 'it Si I ^ &• ff, g :ss '" "if. "^ ■k .Ui ^ fc m as O < O Jo 1 I g '^ g 2i ^1 — . <** JS 8 |l II- gVfi JS 1. Q >• « « « < .3 "3* 3 -•c 1 • 02S »a3 a •fi. 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