CRAWFORD, EARLS OF. The house of Lindsay, of which the earl of Crawford is the head, traces its descent to the barons of Crawford who flourished in the 12th century. Sir James Lindsay (d. 1396), oth lord of Crawford, in Lanarkshire, was descended from Sir Alexander Lindsay of Luffness (d. 1309), who obtained Crawford and other estates in 1297 and who was high chamberlain of Scotland. Froissart tells of the wanderings of the 9th lord after the battle of Otterburn. His cousin and suc cessor, Sir David Lindsay (c. 1360-1407), who married a daugh ter of Robert II., was made earl of Crawford. The 4th earl of Crawford (d. 1454), one of the most powerful of the Scottish nobles, took arms against King James II., but submitted in 1452. His son David the 5th earl (c. 1440-95) was lord high admiral and lord chamberlain; he went as ambassador to England, and in 1488 was created duke of Montrose, though the title did not descend to his son. Montrose fought for James III. at Sauchie burn, and his son John, the 6th earl (d. 1513), fell at Flodden. David Lindsay, 8th earl (d. 1542), whose son Alexander was sen tenced to death for attempting to kill his father, conveyed the earldom to his kinsman, David Lindsay of Edzell, at whose death in 1558 the earldom came back with the consent of the Crown to the elder line of the Lindsays, i.e., to Alexander's son David. The Loth earl, David Lindsay (d. 1J74), supported Mary, queen of Scots. His son and successor, David, a grandson of Car dinal Beaton, took part in the risings under James VI., was converted to Roman Catholicism and communicated with Spain about an invasion of England. Ludovic Lindsay, 16th earl (1600-52), took part in the strange plot of to overthrow Argyll. He joined Charles I. during the Civil War. In 1644 the Scottish parliament declared his earldom forfeited and gave it to John Lindsay, 1st earl of Lindsay. Ludovic was imprisoned, but was released in 1645 by Montrose, under whom he served until the king's surrender. He died without issue, probably in France. The earl of Lindsay (17th earl of Crawford) , who thus supplanted his kinsman, belonged to the family of Lindsay of the Byres, a branch descended from Sir David Lindsay of Craw ford, grandfather of the 1st earl of Crawford. A leader of the Covenanters, he marched with the Scottish army into England in 1644.; in the same year he became lord high treasurer of Scot land, and in 1645 president of the parliament. Later he changed sides and signed the "engagement" for the release of Charles I. in 1647, losing all his offices by the act of classes when his enemy, the marquess of Argyll, obtained the upper hand. In 1661 he was restored to his dignities, but his refusal to abjure the covenant compelled him to resign them in 1663. His son William, 18th earl of Crawford, also an ardent Covenanter, was president of the Convention parliament in 1690. William's grandson, John Lind say, 20th earl of Crawford and 4th earl of Lindsay served against the Turks in the Russian army, and also under Prince Eugene. He also served at Dettingen and Fontenoy, and against France in the Netherlands.
At the death of George, 22nd earl without issue, the earldoms of Crawford and Lindsay were separated, George's kinsman, David Lindsay (d. 1809), a descendant of the 4th Lord Lindsay of the Byres, becoming 7th earl of Lindsay. Both he and his successor Patrick (d. died without sons, and in 1878 the House of Lords decided that Sir John Trotter Bethune, bart. also a descendant of the 4th Lord Lindsay of the Byres, was entitled to the earldom. The earldom of Crawford remained dormant from 1808 until 1848, when the House of Lords adjudged it to James Lindsay, 7th earl of Balcarres. His son, Alexander William Crawford Lindsay, 25th earl of Crawford (1812-80), wrote Lives of the Lindsays (3 vols., ; Let ters on Egypt, Edon and the Holy Land (1838) ; The Earldom of Mar during 500 years (1882), and other works.
His only son, James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th earl of Crawford and 9th earl of Balcarres (1847-1913), British astronomer and orientalist, was born on July 28, 1847, and educated at Eton and Trinity college, Cambridge. He was elected president of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1882, and at his death on Jan. 31, 1913, he bequeathed to the British Museum his great collection of stamps, and many valuable mss. to the John Rylands library, Manchester and the free library of Wigan. He was succeeded as 27th earl by his son David (b. 1871), who was a member of Lloyd George's Coalition Cabinet (1916-22).
See Lord Lindsay (25th earl of Crawford), Lives of the Lindsays ( 1849) ; A. Jervise, History and Traditions of the Land of the says (1882) ; H. T. Folkard, A Lindsay Record (1899) ; and Sir J. B. Paul's edition of the Scots Peerage of Sir R. Douglas, vol. iii. (1906) .