RAMSAY, William of Colluthie, Earl of Fife, jure uxoris, Sir ¹

   User ID: W619.

  Research Notes:

'SOME PROPOSED CORRECTIONS'

"This account (regarding the early history of Isabella, countess of Fife) contains a number of errors, the most serious being the alleged marriage between Isabel and William de Ramsay. Presumably this was invented to account for William's possession of the earldom, but there is no evidence for it. On the contrary, Isabel was the wife of Sir William de Felton of Edlingham when William de Ramsay was made earl of Fife.

Similarly, it has been assumed that Isabel died without issue because of her resignation of the earldom to Robert, earl of Menteith. But it seems clear that Sir John de Felton of Edlingham (d. 1396) was her son by her first marriage, and survived her.

A third difficulty is that several of the dates given above are one year too early because of a systematic error in the regnal years given in the acts of David II of Scotland [see B. Webster, ed., Acts of David II, p. 9 (1982)]."

from medieval genealogy website ( see website for further details) ²

William married Isabella Countess of Fife, suo jure, daughter of Duncan 10th Earl of Fife and Unknown, before 1358.¹ (Isabella Countess of Fife, suo jure was born about 1320 and died after August 1389.)

  Marriage Notes:

"ISABELLA, succeeded as Countess of Fife, as heir to her father, Earl Duncan, in 1353. While still young she was made prisoner at Perth in 1332, by Edward Baliol. She was married, first, to Sir William Ramsay of Colluthie in Fife, who, in her right, became Earl of Fife. He is designed William, Earl of Fife, knight, as witness to a charter of King David II. 12 April 1358, and he obtained from that monarch a charter erecting Cupar into a free burgh. He died soon afterwards, leaving a son, but by a former wife."

from Scots Peerage (vol 4) ¹