Looking ahead, through the next folders containing GSQ’s family tree charts, I decided to review charts 8 and 10 in the same post, beginning with a mea culpa. I mentioned in my January post that, when exploring these charts, I fully expected to find ordinary, not infamous and certainly not nobility or royalty. I was wrong.
Remaining with the influence female ancestors in both these lineages, there is an aspect that is common to both, the title Heiress. On chart 10 there is no death date given for Elizabeth d’Amory, who married John Lord Bardolf. Instead she is designated Heiress. The descriptions for entries on chart 8 are quite detailed, birth, marriage, death data; titles created and inherited; occupations and locations. Each is neatly bordered with a square or rectangle, as you would expect for a family tree chart. What makes Sophia’s entry stand out is not only that her details are captured in a diamond shape, right in the middle of the chart, but her designated title of Heiress of Lundin. It is Sophia from whom John and Robert, previously mentioned, assume the Lundin name.
Heiresses were representatives of their family house. In Sophia’s case, her children by John Drummond were exempted from the inheritance of their father’s titles, probably because Sophia was the niece of the Duke of Lauderdale, whose family, against his wishes, raised their children in the Protestant tradition, while John was a follower of, and administrator for, King James while he was in exile. [i] The family and estate of Lundin, in and of itself, is well recognised within the peerage of Scotland. [ii] Sophia’s heritage is not acknowledged on the chart but it is possible to discover that her mother Margaret was daughter and sole heiress of John of Lundin,[iii]so there is a history in this family of inheritance passed from mother’s to their male and female offspring.
Taking note of the data on these charts could help us understand those who exerted political, military, economic, social and religious influence over the communities that were our ancestor’s homes. I never cease to be thrilled when I discover the depth of information available to family historians, whether it relates directly our own lines or helps us understand the context of the times in which our ancestors lived and the influences brought to bear on their lives.
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