Maxwell (Scottish family)
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Maxwell is 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 about 1100.
Sir Herbert Maxwell won great fame by defending his Castle of Carlaverock against Edward I in 1300; 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 Warden 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 (1553-1593), 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 favorite James Stewart, Earl of Arran, from power, and he made active preparations to assist the invading Spaniards in 1588.
His son John, the 8th Lord (c. 1586-1613), was at feud with the House of Johnstones, who had killed his father in a skirmish, and with the House of Douglases over the earldom of Morton, which he regarded as his inheritance. After a life of exceptional and continuous lawlessness he escaped from Scotland and in his absence was sentenced to death; having returned to his native country he was seized and was beheaded in Edinburgh.
In 1618 John's brother and heir Robert (d. 1646) was restored to the lordship of Maxwell, and in 1620 was created Earl of Nithsdale, surrendering at this time his claim to the earldom of Morton. He and his son Robert, afterwards the 2nd earl, fought under Montrose for Charles I of Scotland during the Civil War. Robert died without sons in October 1667, when a cousin John Maxwell, 7th Lord Herries (d. 1677), became third earl.
William, 5th Earl of Nithsdale (1676-1744), a grandson of the third earl, was like his ancestor a Roman Catholic and was attached to the cause of the exiled House of Stuart. In 1715 he joined the Jacobites and was taken prisoner at the battle of Preston; he was sentenced to death, but escaped.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
