EARLS OF MORTON.—Sir Andrew of Douglas, whoi-appears in record in 1248, was apparently a younger son of sir Archibald, or •Erkenbald, of Douglas, the sec ond chief of the house. He was the father of Williani7of .Douglas, who, in 1296, swore fealty to king Edward I. for his lands in West and who was prob ably the father of sir James of Douglas—surnamed ofilothian, to distinguish him from his kinsman of Clydesdale—who, in 1315, had a grant•from Bruce of the lands of Kincavil and Calder-clere. He died about 1320, being. succeeded by his son, sit William of Douglas of Liddesdale, who acquired the lordship of Dalkeith (by resig nation of the Grahames), the barony of Aberdour in Fifty- lands in Tweeddale, and great territories in Liddesdale, Eskdale, and Ewesdale which had been forfeited by the Soulises and Lovels. In 1335, he had a -grant of the earldom of Athol, but resigned it in 1342. The knight of Liddesdale—as he was called by his contempo raries, who regarded him as "the flower of chivalry "—was assassinated in 1353 by his kinsman, William first earl of Douglas, partly to revenge his wife's dishonor, partly to revenge the death of sir David of Barclay, who had been assassinated at the instance of the knight of Liddesdale, in revenge for the slaughter of his brother John. Dying childless, he was succeeded by his nephew, sir James of Douglas of Dalkeith. This great chief, who died in 1420, saw Froissart sit as a guest at his board; himself possessed looks of law, grammar, logic, and romance; and enjoined in his will that all the vol umes -which he had borrowed from his friends should be returned to them. His alli
ances were as princely as his life. His first wife was a daughter of "Black Agnes," the heroic countess of Dunbar; his second was a sister of king Robert II. ; and he matched his eldest son, sir James of Douglas of Dalkeith, with a daughter of king Robert III. Their grandson married a daughter of king James I., and in 1458, was created earl of Morton. His grandson, the third earl, dying without male issue in 1553, the earldom devolved on his daughter's husband, the regent Morton—James Douglas, great-grand son of Archibald Bell-the-Cat. After his fall, the title went to Archibald eighth earl of Angus; and when he died childless in 1588, it passed to the lineal male descendant of sir Henry of Douglas (the son of sir John of Douglas, the brother of the knight of Liddesdale), sir 'William Douglas of Lochleven, who thus became seventh earl of Mor ton. His losses in the great civil war compelled him, in 1642, to sell Dalkeith to the earl of Buccleuch, and his Tweeddale and Eskdale lands to others; but Aberdour and other old domains of the family still remain with his successor, the earl of Morton, who, there is every reason to believe, descends legitimately in the male line from William of Douglas, the great progenitor of the race in the 12th century.