LINDSAY, Margaret ¹

   User ID: H374.

  Research Notes:

CONFUSION ABOUT MARGARET LINDSAY

"There has been some confusion among genealogists as to who Margaret Lindsay, Sir Henry Wardlaw's first wife, was. In Douglas's Peerage (Wood's edition), under Lord Lindsay of the Byres, it is stated that Margaret Lindsay married first Walter, Lord Innermeath, and secondly, Henry Wardlaw of Torrie. In Crawford's Peerage the marriages of Margaret Lindsay are recorded in the opposite order. In the Register of the Great Seal there is a charter to Walter, Lord Innermeath, and Margaret Lindsay, his spouse, dated 12 July 1481, but this is subsequent to the date of the marriage of Henry Wardlaw of Torrie and Margaret Lindsay, who had a charter 8 December 1477.

The Margaret Lindsay who married Walter, Lord Innermeath, is not the same lady as the wife of Sir Henry Wardlaw of Torrie. The index to the Register of the Great Seal indicates that the same Margaret Lindsay married Wardlaw and Innermeath, but The Scots Peerage now drops Wardlaw altogether, and gives Margaret Lindsay entirely to Walter, Lord Innermeath. There seems to me to be little doubt that Margaret Lindsay, second daughter of John, first Lord Lindsay of the Byres, was married to Sir Henry Wardlaw of Torrie, and to him only. Sir James Balfour, as already stated, gives the marriage of Margaret Lindsay in 1473 to Henry Wardlaw, fiar of Torrie, son of Henry Wardlaw and Margaret Oliphant, and states her tocher, which certainly looks as if he had seen some original Lindsay writ. But as doubt is sometimes thrown on his accuracy, let us look at other evidence.

There is the Great Seal charter of date 8 December 1477, in which Sir Henry's wife is named Margaret Lindsay There is the coincidence of a departure from the usual name of the eldest son of the house of Torrie from Henry to John, the name John being that of the first Lord Lindsay of the Byres, father of Margaret Lindsay. There is the fact that when John Wardlaw, Sir Henry's brother, was accused of the murder of Margaret Lindsay, Patrick, Lord Lindsay of the Byres [Margaret Lindsay's brother], and John Wardlaw, her son, are the accusers. The intimate family relations with the Lindsay connexion were continued for many years, and as late as I I December 1546, when there was a friendly settlement of some family affairs between John Wardlaw of Torrie and his wife and son, which was entered in the Books of Council, the arbiters who acted for John Wardlaw of Torrie were John, fifth Lord Lindsay of the Byres, and William, Earl of Glencairn, whose grandmother, Christian Lindsay, eldest daughter of John, first Lord Lindsay of the Byres, was a sister of Margaret Lindsay."

from The Wardlaws of Scotland ²

Margaret married Walter STEWART 3rd Lord of Lorne then Lord Innermeath, son of Robert STEWART Lord of Lorn and Joanna STEWART.¹ (Walter STEWART 3rd Lord of Lorne then Lord Innermeath was born about 1415 and died by 3 February 1488(1489) ¹.)

  Marriage Notes:

"Walter Stewart, first Lord Innermeath, is called 'frater Johannis domini de Lome' 20 June 1452, and succeeded to the lordship of Lorn on his brother's death. He sat in Parliament as Lord of Lorn 1464-69, but on 6 May 1471 he is named first of the Barons, as Lord Innermeath. He resigned, with consent of the Crown, the lordship of Lorn to Colin, first Earl of Argyll, who married his niece, Isabel Stewart, and received in exchange the title of Innermeath. He was living on 12 July 1481, but died before 3 February 1488-89. He married Margaret Lindsay, who, as his spouse, obtained a charter of the lands of Redcastle 12 July 1481."

from Scots Peerage (vol 5) ¹