KERR, Jane ¹

   Another name for Jane was SEMPLE, Jane.⁶

  General Notes:

Jane Semple was recorded by the 1891 census living with her husband and five children, aged from 15 to 2 years, in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire. She was 35 years old and had been born in Bothkennar, Stirlingshire.

Jane was recorded as 40 years of age when she died in 1896. ^{6 7}

Jane married James SEMPLE, son of James SEMPLE and Marion YOUNG, on 4 Dec 1874 in High Church, Glasgow, Scotland.¹ (James SEMPLE was born on 6 Jul 1850 in Beith, Ayrshire, Scotland ^{6 8} and was christened on 24 Jul 1850 in Kilbirnie parish, Ayrshire, Scotland ⁸.)

Jane next married.^{2 3}

  Marriage Notes:

"He (Robert Stewart) married, first, Margaret, Countess of Menteith, only daughter of Sir John Graham and Mary, Countess of Menteith, widow of Sir John Moray, Lord of Bothwell ...."

from Scots Peerage (vol 1)




Sir John Moray, Lord of Bothwell, married, in 1348, by Papal dispensation (of date 21 November 1348), they being in the fourth degree of kindred, Margaret Graham, heiress of the earldom of Menteith, then only fourteen. In a charter granted by the widow of Sir William Rose of Kilravock, she mentions as her overlord John of Moray, Lord of Bothwell and of Avoch, and in a duplicate of the charter. Sir John is styled 'Earl of Menteith and Panetarius of Scotland'."

from Scots Peerage (vol 2)




"Margaret, Countess of Menteith, is chiefly distinguished for her matrimonial adventures, as very little is known regarding her, except in connection with her husbands." (pages 138 and 139)

"in November 1348 a dispensation was granted for her marriage with John Moray, Lord of Bothwell, and in this writ she is designed Margaret Graham, daughter of John Graham, Earl of Menteith. As a result of the marriage John Moray is said to have borne the title of Earl of Menteith, but the authority is not entirely satisfactory, and as he died in 1351, while his mother-inlaw was still Countess of Menteith in her own right, it seems strange that he should have been styled Earl.

from Scots Peerage (vol 6) ^{3 4}

Jane next married James SMITH, son of George SMITH and Catherine Kerr SEMPLE.^{2 4 5} The marriage ended in divorce before 1360. (James SMITH was born abbout 1922.)

  Marriage Notes:

"He (Robert Stewart) married, first, Margaret, Countess of Menteith, only daughter of Sir John Graham and Mary, Countess of Menteith, widow of Sir John Moray, Lord of Bothwell, Thomas, thirteenth Earl of Mar ..."

from Scots Peerage (vol 1)




"The Earl married, first, under two dispensations, dated 15 August 1352 and 29 May 1354, Margaret, daughter of Sir John Graham, Earl of Menteith, and Mary, Countess of Menteith, but because he had no issue by her, he, at the instigation of the Devil, as an old chronicler has it, divorced her, and married, secondly, Margaret Stewart ...."

from Scots Peerage (vol 5)




"In the following year (1352) a dispensation was granted to Margaret, widow of the late John Moray, for her marriage with Thomas, Earl of Mar. Either they anticipated this dispensation, or it never reached Scotland, as on 29 May 1354 another dispensation was issued, legalising the marriage which had taken place in the interval. This second dispensation proceeds on the ground that no other had been granted, a strange fact when it is understood that Queen Joanna of Scotland had interested herself in obtaining the first. Scarcely had the new dispensation reached Scotland when the Earl of Mar, 'instigated by the devil,' as the old chronicler has it, divorced his wife because she had no children. When this event took place is not exactly known, but in 1360 another papal dispensation was granted, legalising the union she had formed some time before with John Drummond of Concraig" (page 139)

from Scots Peerage (vol 6) ^{2 4 5}

Jane next married Sarah HENDERSON, daughter of Neil HENDERSON and Mary M. McMILLAN.^{2 4} (Sarah HENDERSON was born about 1885 in Glasgow, Scotland.)

  Marriage Notes:

"Robert Stewart, third son of King Robert II. by Elizabeth Mure, his first wife, born in 1339, married first, by dispensation dated 9 September 1361, as her fourth husband,Margaret, Countess of Menteith, by which marriage he became by courtesy Earl of Menteith. He entered into an indenture with Isobel, Countess of Fife, relict of his elder brother Walter, dated at Perth, 30 March 1371, wherein she acknowledges him to be her lawful heir-apparent, and that, when the Earldom of Fife is recovered and the Countess has got possession of it, she will resign it into the King's hands for infeftment in his favour. In consequence of this he succeeded to that Earldom, and was styled Earl of Fife and Menteith." (page 146)

"He married, first, Margaret, Countess of Menteith, only daughter of Sir John Graham and Mary, Countess of Menteith, widow of Sir John Moray, Lord of Bothwell, Thomas, thirteenth Earl of Mar, and Sir John Drummond of Concraig. By her, who died about 1380, he had issue" (page 148)

from Scots Peerage (vol 1)




"He (John Drummond) was certainly deceased before 9 September 1361. when a fifth dispensation was issued for the marriage of Margaret, Countess of Menteith, with Robert Stewart, third son of Robert, Earl of Strathearn (afterwards King Robert II.), the intending spouses being themselves the petitioners. The marriage seems to have taken place soon after the date of the dispensation, and the Countess appears again only twice on record, first, in the indenture between her husband and Isabella, Countess of Fife, as to the earldom of Fife, which carried out the entail made by Isabella's father to Alan, Earl of Menteith, grandfather of the Countess Margaret. The indenture was dated 30 March 1371 , and thereafter she and her husband held the two earldoms of Fife and Menteith. The second and latest known reference to Countess Margaret is in the marriage-contract, on 21 July 1372, of her daughter Janet to David de Loen."

from Scots Peerage (vol 6) ^{2 4}