MAXWELL, the name of a Scottish family, members of which have held the titles of earl of Morton, earl of Nithsdale, Lord Maxwell, and Lord Herries. The name is taken probably from Maccuswell, or Maxwell, near Kelso, whither the family migrated from England c. I Ioo. Sir Herbert Maxwell won fame by defending his castle of Carlaverock against Edward I. in 13oo; another Sir Herbert was made a lord of the Scottish parliament before 1445; and his great-grandson John, 3rd Lord Maxwell, was killed at Flodden in 1513. John's son Robert, the 4th lord (d. 1546), was a member of the royal council under James V.; he was also an extraordinary lord of session, high admiral, and war den of the west marches, and was taken prisoner by the English at the rout of Solway Moss in 1542. Robert's grandson John, 7th Lord Maxwell (1553-93), was the second son of Robert, the 5th lord (d. 1552), and his wife Beatrix, daughter of James Douglas, 3rd earl of Morton. After the execution of the regent Morton, the 4th earl, in 1581 this earldom was bestowed upon Maxwell, but in 1586 the attainder of the late earl was reversed and he was deprived of his new title. He had helped in 1585 to drive the royal favourite James Stewart, earl of Arran, from power, and he made preparations to assist the invading Spaniards ill 1588. His son John, the 8th lord (c. 1586-1613), after a life of
lawlessness escaped from Scotland and was sentenced to death; having returned he was seized and beheaded in Edinburgh. In 1618 John's brother and heir Robert (d. 1646) was restored to the lordship of Maxwell, and in 162o was created earl of Niths dale, surrendering at this time the claim to the earldom of Mor ton. He and his son Robert, afterwards the 2nd earl, fought under Montrose for Charles I. during the Civil War. Robert died without sons in Oct. 1667, when a cousin John Maxwell, 7th Lord Herries (d. 1677), became third earl.
William, 5th earl of Nithsdale a grandson of the third earl, joined the Jacobite insurgents in 1715, was taken pris oner at the battle of Preston and sentenced to death. He escaped from the Tower of London, was attainted in 1716 and his titles became extinct, but his estates passed to his son William (d. 1776), whose descendant, William Constable-Maxwell, regained the title of Lord Herries in 1858.