William Maxwell | |
|---|---|
| 5th Earl of Nithsdale | |
| Tenure | 1683–1716 |
| Predecessor | Robert Maxwell, 4th Earl of Nithsdale |
| Successor | Title forfeited |
| Born | 1676 Terregles Castle, Kirkcudbrightshire |
| Died | 2 March 1744 (aged 67–68) Rome, Papal States (now Italy) |
| Noble family | Maxwell |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Issue | William Maxwell, Lord Maxwell Anne Bellew, Baroness Bellew |
| Father | Robert Maxwell, 4th Earl of Nithsdale |
| Mother | Lady Lucy Douglas |
William Maxwell, 5th Earl of Nithsdale (1676 –2 March 1744), was a Roman Catholic member of the Scottish nobility who took part in the Jacobite rising of 1715. He was attainted with his titles forfeited. However, Lord Nithsdale made a celebrated escape from the Tower of London by changing clothes with his wife's maid the day before he was due to be executed. The lordship of Herries of Terregles was later restored to his descendants and remains extant.
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He was the eldest son of Robert, fourth Earl of Nithsdale (1627/28–1683), and Lady Lucie Douglas (died 1713), daughter of William, eleventh earl of Angus and first Marquess of Douglas. He was probably born at Terregles Castle, near Dumfries. The early death of his father ensured that he was raised by his mother, the Dowager Countess, who educated him to be a faithful and conventionally devout Roman Catholic and a partisan of the Stuart cause.
On reaching the age of 21, in 1697, and becoming earl, he secretly visited the Jacobite court at Saint-Germain to give his allegiance to the exiled King James II and VII, where he met his future wife Lady Winifred Herbert, daughter of the Duke of Powis. After their marriage at Saint-Germain in 1699, they settled at his family seat at Terregles. As a prominent Catholic in the predominantly Covenanting Lowlands, he was on a number of occasions the object of Presbyterian assaults on his estate, on suspicion of harbouring Jesuits.
Despite his discretion, he was long suspected of Jacobite sympathies. In 1712 he resigned his estate to his son William (died 1776), reserving a life rent to himself. [1] In the Jacobite rising of 1715, after some hesitation, he proclaimed James III and VIII at Dumfries and Jedburgh, before joining the main Jacobite forces at Hexham under General Thomas Forster. Nithsdale was captured at Preston together with other Jacobite leaders, sent to London, [2] tried and found guilty of treason, and sentenced to death on 9 February 1716.
His devoted countess Winifred, who was at their home in Terregles (near Dumfries) when she heard of the capture of her husband travelled to London and appealed in vain for a pardon. Instead, she laid a meticulous plan to rescue him from the Tower of London. [1] The night before the day appointed for his execution (24 February 1716), with the help of two other Jacobite ladies, she effected his escape from the Tower. She had been admitted to his room, and by exchanging clothes with his wife's maid, he escaped the attention of his guards. He fled to France, while the countess returned to Scotland to ensure the transfer of the estate to their son. She joined him in Paris and they went to Rome, where they lived, attached to the Government in Exile of Prince James Francis Edward Stuart, heir to the House of Stuart claim to the British and Irish thrones, until his death. [3] [2]
The story of the Earl of Nithsdale's escape from the Tower of London inspired James Hogg's Ballad of the Lord Maxwell first published in the Royal Lady's Magazine in October 1831. [4]
Lord Herries of Terregles is a hereditary title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1490 for Herbert Herries with remainder to his heirs general.
Nithsdale, also known as Strathnith, Stranith or Stranit, is the strath or dale of the River Nith in southern Scotland. Nithsdale was one of the medieval provinces of Scotland. The provinces gradually lost their administrative importance to the shires created from the twelfth century, with Nithsdale forming part of Dumfriesshire. A Nithsdale district covering a similar area to the medieval province was created in 1975, based in the area's main town of Dumfries. The district was abolished in 1996, since when the area has been directly administered by Dumfries and Galloway Council.
Charles Radclyffe, titular 5th Earl of Derwentwater, was one of the few English participants in the Risings of 1715 and 1745.
The Battle of Preston was the final action of the Jacobite rising of 1715, an attempt to put James Francis Edward Stuart on the British throne in place of George I. After two days of street-fighting, the Jacobite commander Thomas Forster surrendered to government troops under General Charles Wills. It was arguably the last battle fought on English soil.
Earl of Derwentwater was a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1688 for Sir Francis Radclyffe, 3rd Baronet. He was made Baron Tyndale, of Tyndale in the County of Northumberland, and Viscount Radclyffe and Langley at the same time, also in the Peerage of England. He was succeeded by his son, the second Earl, who married Lady Mary Tudor, daughter of Charles II by his mistress Moll Davis.
Earl of Nithsdale was a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1620 for Robert Maxwell, 9th Lord Maxwell, with remainder to heirs male. He was made Lord Maxwell, Eskdale and Carlyle at the same time. The title of Lord Maxwell had been created in the Peerage of Scotland in 1445 for Herbert Maxwell.
Clan Maxwell is a Scottish clan of the Scottish Lowlands and is recognized as such by the Lord Lyon King of Arms. However, as the clan does not currently have a chief, it is considered an armigerous clan.
William Gordon, 6th Viscount of Kenmure and Lord Lochinvar was a Scottish Jacobite.
William Herbert, 1st Marquess of Powis, KG, PC (1626 – 2 June 1696) was an English nobleman, best remembered for his suffering during the Popish Plot. He succeeded his father as 3rd Baron Powis in 1667 and was created Earl of Powis in 1674 by King Charles II and Viscount Montgomery, of the Town of Montgomery, and Marquess of Powis in 1687 by King James II, having been appointed to the Privy Council in 1686.
Winifred Maxwell, Countess of Nithsdale, was a British aristocrat, best known for arranging the daring escape of her husband, William Maxwell, 5th Earl of Nithsdale, from the Tower of London in 1716.
James Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater was an English peer who participated in the Jacobite rising of 1715 and was executed for treason.
William Herbert, 2nd Marquess of Powis DL was an English peer and Jacobite supporter.
Events from the year 1716 in Great Britain.
There have been two baronetcies created for members of the Haggerston, later Constable Maxwell-Scott family, one in the Baronetage of England and one in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. Only one creation is extant as of 2008. The Haggerston, later Constable Maxwell-Scott Baronetcy, of Haggerston in the County of Northumberland, was created in the Baronetage of England on 15 August 1642 for Thomas Haggerston, of Haggerton Castle, Northumberland, a loyal Royalist who served as a colonel in the army of King Charles I. The Haggerston were recusant in the 17th century and the estates were sequestered and forfeit to the Commonwealth of England in 1649 but were repurchased by the first Baronet in 1653. The line of the fourth Baronet failed on the death of the twelfth Baronet in 1972. The title reverted to the line of William Haggerston, second son of the third Baronet and younger brother of the fourth Baronet. In 1746 he inherited estates in Yorkshire from his great-uncle Sir Marmaduke Francis Constable, 4th and last Baronet, of Everingham, and assumed the surname of Constable in lieu of his patronymic. In 1758 he married Winifred, daughter of Robert Maxwell, titular sixth Earl of Nithsdale, and assumed by Royal licence the additional surname of Maxwell. Winifred was considered to be the heiress to the Scottish lordship of Herries of Terregles held by her father. Constable-Maxwell built a new house at Everingham Park on the Constable estate in Yorkshire.
Alexis Simon Belle was a French portrait painter, known for his portraits of the French and Jacobite nobility. As a portrait artist, Belle's style followed that of his master François de Troy, Hyacinthe Rigaud, and Nicolas de Largillière. He was the master of the painter Jacques-André-Joseph-Camelot Aved (1702–1766).
Terregles House was a late 18th-century country house, located near Terregles, in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire around 2 miles west of Dumfries in Scotland. It replaced an earlier tower house, which had served as the seat of the Lords Herries, and later the Earls of Nithsdale, until William Maxwell, the 5th Earl, forfeited his titles in 1716.
William Murray, 2nd Lord Nairne was a Scottish peer and Jacobite who fought in the Rising of 1715, after which he was attainted and condemned to death for treason, but in 1717 he was indemnified and released.
Frances Mackenzie, Countess of Seaforth, was a Welsh-born Scottish noblewoman and wife of Kenneth Mackenzie, 4th Earl of Seaforth.
Elizabeth Herbert, Marchioness of Powis, formerly Lady Elizabeth Somerset, was an English court official and noblewoman, the wife of William Herbert, 1st Marquess of Powis. She was the daughter of Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester, and his wife, the former Elizabeth Dormer.
William Constable-Maxwell, 10th Lord Herries of Terregles was a Scottish peer and a landowner in England and Scotland. In 1858 he was restored to the peerage of Lord Herries of Terregles which had been lost by an ancestor in 1716.
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