ROSS, Marie ¹

   Another name for Marie was ROS, Marie, Mistress.²

   User ID: Q942

  Research Notes:

MARIE ROSS

In an Electric Scotland article on Clan Hepburn Marie Ross is described as the daughter of Alexander Montgomerie and Margaret Scott. Margaret Scott, Marie's mother, was first married to James Ross, 6th Lord Ross of Halkhead who died in 1633. Her mother's name would have been Ross until she married to Alexander Montgomerie, 6th Earl of Eglinton, in the months between 1642 and 1644.

Marie herself was the mother of a daughter, Margaret Hepburn, born in June 1650, so it is likely that Marie was born either towards the end of the life of her mother's first husband, James Ross, and that Alexander Montgomerie was her stepfather; or she was born before the marriage of Alexander Montgomerie and Margaret Scott and was then legitimised when her parents married. Whichever is the case, she was known by the surname Ross. ^{1 3}

Marie married Reverend Mr John HEPBURN 8th of Waughton then also of The Bass, Minister of the Episcopal Church, son of Patrick HEPBURN 7th of Waughton and Margaret LAUDER.¹ (Reverend Mr John HEPBURN 8th of Waughton then also of The Bass, Minister of the Episcopal Church was born about 1615.)

  Marriage Notes:

"Rev. John Hepburn of Waughton married, firstly, Marie Ross (died before 14th July 1654) the daughter of Lord Eglintoun and Margaret Scott. His second wife was Barbara Leslie. By his first wife he had a daughter, Margaret, born on the 6th June 1650 at Edinburgh. In a charter dated 14th July 1654 Margaret was described as her father's 'only bairn now in life.' She is also described as 'his only daughter' in a charter of John Hepburn of Waughton to Margaret confirmed by The Protector [Cromwell] in 1655.

John and his first wife are mentioned in Great Seal charters dated 1646 and 1654. In the latter she was described as deceased. In charter number 433 dated 6th July 1655 he is mentioned as 'son and heir' of his father Sir Patrick Hepburn of Waughton, and a Retour exists in that respect the previous year, but it is thought that Sir Patrick died before the 9th November 1649 when 'John Hepburn of Waughton, son and heir of Sir Patrick, his father' was served heir to the Barony of Bass, which had been hurridly transferred to the Covenanter Hepburn by George Lauder of Bass in order to avoid confiscation from that Royalist family.

In The Churches of St. Baldred by A.E.Ritchie (Edinburgh 1880) it is stated that on the 26th July 1640 the Laird of Waughton commanded the East Lothian Regiment and his son was its lieutenant-colonel.

John J.Reid (1885) mentions that John Hepburn of Waughton had also been an Episcopalian minister who had been deposed by the Presbyterians. We also know that John's family were placed under arrest by Cromwell's forces until John and his garrison of 112 men in the castle on the Bass were effectively starved out. General Deane announced to the English parliament in 1652 its surrender. This is an important family and a book was published in 1925, in London, entitled Hepburn of Waughton, Genealogical notes on the Hepburn family, by Edward Hepburn."

from Clan Hepburn ¹