McGRATH, Michael ²

Michael married Elanora McGINN. (Elanora McGINN was born about 1820 and died after 10 Apr 1866.)

Michael next married James MENZIES, son of James MENZIES and Agnes THOMSON, after 18 Aug 1471.¹ (James MENZIES was born 20 January 1888 at 10.00 am in Greenside, Leslie, Airdrie, Lanarkshire, Scotland,.)

  Marriage Notes:

"Elizabeth (Hay), who was contracted in marriage on 31 May 1457, with Sir Andrew Gray, afterwards second Lord Gray, which marriage was not completed, as she was contracted to George, Lord Gordon, afterwards Earl of Huntly, as appears from an obligation by him to her brother Earl Nicholas on 12 May 1466, but their banns were not proclaimed at Fyvie till 4 August 1471."

from Scots Peerage (vol 2)


"The Princess (Annabella Stewart) appears to have had no male issue, and six years after the marriage the Master was again a-wooing. His affections were directed towards Elizabeth Hay, sister of Nicholas, Earl of Erroll, his brother-in-law, and on 12 May 1466 he swore on the Gospels that he would have no 'actual delen' with the lady until he could have her to wife lawfully ¹. He then seems to have instituted a process of divorce, on the ground that he had married Elizabeth Dunbar, from whom he was lawfully divorced, and that she was related in the third and fourth degrees of consanguinity to the Lady Annabella, to whom he himself was related in the same degrees of affinity. On this ground and the evidence adduced a divorce was solemnly pronounced at Aberdeen on 24 July 1471, and on 4, 11, and 18 August same year the banns of marriage between the Earl and Elizabeth Hay were published at the church of Fyvie. It is usually said the marriage did not take place till after 12 May 1476, but this is founded on the erroneous date noted above, and the marriage probably followed closely on the final proclamation of banns on 18 August 1471."

" Note¹ Mr. Riddell inadvertently quotes the date of this writ as 12 May 1476, but the original in the Erroll Charter-chest is clearly dated in 1466. Instrument (4 July1492) narrating the divorce and the publication of banns ; Laing Charters, No. 212; cf. also Hutton Collections. Mr. Riddell's mistake, above referred to, has caused much confusion, as it postponed the Earl's marriage with Elizabeth Hay to the year 1476 or later, and Ferrerius' statement, now seen to be correct, that she was the mother of the Earl's sons, appeared chronologically impossible."

from Scots Peerage (vol 4) ¹