MENZIES, James

  Noted events in his life were:

• Military Service: Canadian Oversees Expeditionary Force, 10 Apr 1916, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

James married Sophia REYNOLDS, daughter of Thomas REYNOLDS and Mary SMITH, on 27 Oct 1913 in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. (Sophia REYNOLDS was born in 1895 in Old Monkland Parish, Lanarkshire, Scotland ^{5 6} and died on 27 Jan 1934 in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada.)

James next married.^{1 2 3} The marriage ended in annulled before 1459.

  Marriage Notes:

"After the death of Archibald Earl of Murray, his relict, Elizabeth Dunbar, married George Lord Gordon, afterwards second Earl of Huntly. She lost no time in arranging this second matrimonial alliance, as the contract for the marriage between her and Lord Gordon is dated at Forres, 20th May 1455, only nineteen days after the death of her first husband." (page 47)

"Motives of family aggrandizement led, it may be supposed, to this marriage of the heir of the House of Huntly with the heiress of the earldom of Murray, the House of Huntly having always coveted the pdssession of that earldom. The Master of Huntly, however, afterwards obtained a divorce from her, not necessarily because she had been guilty of any violation of the marriage vow....She and the Master of Huntly, it would seem, were within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity, which rendered a papal dispensation necessary, in order to the legality of this marriage ; and this dispensation, from neglect or otherwise, not having been obtained, as was agreed to in the marriage-contract, a ready pretext could be found at any time for its dissolution. The fact of her having been deprived, by the forfeiture of her late husband, of the earldom of Murray, it is not improbable, may have been the main reason why Elizabeth Dunbar was repudiated by Lord Gordon." (pages 48 and 49)

The Chiefs of Colquhoun




"The marriages of this Earl of Huntly have always been somewhat of a puzzle to genealogists, and even in the light of later research there is much that is obscure. His first marriage-contract was with Elizabeth Dunbar, Countess of Moray, the younger daughter of the deceased James Dunbar, Earl of Moray, and widow of Archibald Douglas, Earl of Moray, who was killed at Arkinholme on 1 May 1455. On the 20th of the same month, Alexander, Earl of Huntly, Elizabeth Crichton his Countess, and George, Master of Huntly, Knight, their son, contracted with the
widowed Countess, who must have been a good deal older than her intended husband, that she should marry the Master of Huntly. She had no relatives to support her, those who were on her behalf being 'her men,' the captain of her Castle of Darnaway and others, including Sir Richard Holland, Precentor of Moray, apparently the family chaplain, who in the poem of The Houlat records for all time
his admiration of the 'Douglas, tender and true,' and who was specially attached to the 'Dow of Dunbar,' for whom no doubt he did his best to make conditions. She was to retain Darnaway till the marriage was completed, and then it was to be delivered to her and her spouse. The Countess and her men were to use their influence that Lochindorb should be delivered to the Earl of Huntly. Dispensation
was to be sought for any canonical impediments, and the lady was not to be constrained except by her own will, to an immediate union.

Some have doubted if the contract ever took effect, but it seems certain that the marriage took place, as is expressly stated in the divorce of 1471, though if, as is highly probable, the object of it was to gain control over the rich province of Moray, it failed in its purpose. But the subsequent divorce of the spouses, under the sentence of the Church, is not to be assigned to that reason, but to the fact that Janet Dunbar, the eldest sister of the Countess, had been the wife of James, Lord Crichton, who was the Master of Huntly's uncle, thus rendering the union canonically illegal. It was dissolved some time before March 1459-60, apparently without issue, and Elizabeth Dunbar, before July 1463, became the second wife of Sir John Colquhoun of Luss, whom she survived, dying before March 1494."

from Scots Peerage (vol 4)




"She (Elizabeth Dunbar) survived her husband, was contracted to marry George, Lord Gordon but was divorced on the plea of consanguinity before 1459."

from Scots Peerage (vol 6)



^{1 3}

James next married Mary WORKMAN.^{2 3 4} The marriage ended in annulled 24 july 1471. (Mary WORKMAN was born about 1808 in Ireland.)

  Marriage Notes:

"The divorce of Elizabeth Dunbar from Lord Gordon, Master of Huntly, must have taken place before the 10th of March 1459, when Annabella, daughter of King James the First, appears in a charter as his wife. That Princess also was solemnly divorced from him on the 24th of July 1471; and it is from her divorce that we learn the fact that he had obtained a divorce from Elizabeth of Dunbar. Annabella was divorced from him, not because of any misconduct on her part, but merely because she and the Master of Huntly were held to be related to each other in the third and
fourth degrees of consanguinity, in consequence of Annabella's having been related in the like third and fourth degrees of consanguinity to Elizabeth Dunbar, the Master of Huntly's former wife, from whom, as the deed states, he 'had been lawfully divorced and separated by the judgment of the church.' On this ground the marriage of the Princess with the Master of Huntly was pronounced to be illegal."

from The Chiefs of Colquhoun




"Annabella (Stewart), married first, 14 December 1447, at Stirling, to Louis, Count of Geneva, son of Louis, Duke of Savoy. From him she was divorced owing to the intrigues of the King of France, and sent home with a solatium of 25,000 crowns in 1458. Before 10 March 1459 she was married, secondly, to George Gordon, second Earl of Huntly, from whom she was divorced 24 July 1471. No reference to any issue is made in the divorce. Her later history is very obscure."

from Scots Peerage (vol 1)




"The Master's second wife was the Princess Annabella Stewart, youngest daughter of King James I., whom he married before 10 March 1459-60, when he and she had a grant from her brother, King James II., of two hundred merks of land of the lordship of Aboyne, resigned by the Earl of Huntly. The Princess appears to have had no male issue, and six years after the marriage the Master
was again a-wooing......"

"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"

from Scots Peerage (vol 4) ^{2 3 4}

James next married Michael McGRATH after 18 Aug 1471.² (Michael McGRATH was born about 1820 and died before 10 Apr 1866.)

  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) ²