Earl of Nithsdale

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Coat of arms of the Earls of Nithsdale

Earl of Nithsdale was a hereditary British title in the Peerage of Scotland .

The family seat of the Earls was Caerlaverock Castle in the west of the Scottish Borders in the Dumfries and Galloway area , the title holder was also Clan Chief of Clan Maxwell .

Award and history of the title

The title was bestowed on August 29, 1620 to Robert Maxwell, 9th Lord Maxwell , along with the subordinate title of Lord Maxwell, Eskdale and Carleill . The award was made with the special addition that the title had already been awarded on October 29, 1581 with respect to the protocol order of precedence , but the Earl waived his titular claim to the Earldom of Morton . On the latter date, his father John Maxwell, 7th Lord Maxwell had been awarded the titles Earl of Morton and Lord Carlyle and Eskdaill . This award was made after an older title Earl of Morton (created in 1458) was revoked from its owner in 1581 for high treason, but the latter was restored in 1586 and the former was formally incorrectly withdrawn in 1585, so that now de iure two parallel Earldoms of Morton existed. King James VI recognized this fact . Finally passed in 1620 but did not consider it appropriate to give two earls the same title. The award of the Earldom of Nithsdale solved this problem and can thus be understood as the renaming of the Earldom of Morton from 1581.

The 1st Earl already carried the subordinate title 9th Lord Maxwell , which was given to his ancestor Herbert Maxwell in 1445 .

At the death of his son, the 2nd Earl , in 1667, the titles fell to his cousin John Maxwell, 7th Lord Herries of Terregles , who inherited the female line created in 1490 by his father in 1631, and henceforth also subordinate title Lord Herries of Terregles had inherited.

His grandson, the 5th Earl , took part in the First Jacobite Rebellion in 1715 and was therefore found guilty of high treason on January 19, 1716, and all of his titles were revoked. His great-grandson in the female line William Constable-Maxwell was able to regain the title of Lord Herries of Terregles on June 23, 1858 , the other titles have expired.

List of the Earls of Nithsdale (1620)

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