Lindsay family, Earls of Crawford and Balcarres

The statesman John Lindsay, Lord Menmuir (d. 1598), second son of the 9th Earl of Crawford, bought Balcarres and Pitcorthie (Fife) in 1587. His son was created Baron Lindsay in 1633 and his grandson Earl of Balcarres in 1651. In 1808 a claim to the earldom but not the property of the 22nd Earl of Crawford was inherited by the 6th Earl of Balcarres (1752-1825) and in 1848 this earldom was confirmed to his son the 7th and 24th Earl. The Fife estate was sold in 1791 by the 6th Earl to his brother Robert Lindsay (d. 1836), who also bought property at Leuchars (Fife). The 6th Earl settled at Haigh (Lancashire), a coal-rich estate near Wigan, acquired through his marriage to the daughter and heir of Charles Dalrymple. Dalrymple had inherited it from his maternal grandmother Elizabeth Edwin, daughter of Sir Roger Bradshaigh, third Bt (d. 1746), whose family, created baronets in 1679, had been settled there since the 14th century.

The 7th and 24th Earl (d. 1869), created Baron Haigh of Haigh Hall in 1826, married the daughter of the first Baron Muncaster, bought Dunecht (Aberdeenshire) in 1845 and also acquired an estate at Llanarthney, Llanon and elsewhere in Carmarthenshire, mainly disposed of during the 1890s. The 6th Earl’s Jamaican estate was sold in 1847. The 9th and 26th Earl (d. 1913) repurchased Balcarres (from Sir Coutts Lindsay, 2nd Bt) in 1886 and sold Dunecht in 1899. Property at Warboys (Huntingdonshire) came through the 10th and 27th Earl’s marriage to a daughter and co-heir of Sir Henry Pelly, 3rd Bt, but was soon sold. The Lancashire estate was given up in 1947.

The earlier earls of Crawford and their estates are represented in the Lindsay family muniments. David Lindsay, created Earl of Crawford in 1398, inherited property in Forfarshire (Glenesk, etc) and Lanarkshire (the lordships of Crawford and Lindsay) and by the mid-15th century his descendants had extended the Forfarshire property and settled at Finhaven. Auchtermonzie (Fife) entered the family through the marriage of the 4th Earl (d. 1453) to the daughter and heir of Sir David Dunbar. Some property of the 8th Earl was forfeited to the Crown and on his death in 1542 the earldom and remaining estates passed to his cousin David Lindsay of Edzell (Forfarshire). When Edzell died in 1558 the Crawford title and estates descended to the 8th Earl’s grandson while the Edzell estates were inherited by Edzell’s son Sir David Lindsay (d. 1610), brother of Lord Menmuir (see above). (About this time Glenesk seems to have entered the possession of the Edzell line, being afterwards sold with the other remaining family property by David Lindsay to Lord Panmure in 1703.) The 14th Earl of Crawford sold Finhaven to the second Baron Spynie in 1630 and the royalist 16th Earl forfeited what remained of his family’s property in 1644, having agreed in 1642 to settle his earldom upon the Earl of Lindsay.

John Lindsay, 10th Baron Lindsay of The Byres, was created Earl of Lindsay in 1633. His ancestor, created Baron Lindsay in 1445, had inherited the barony of Byres (East Lothian) and the Ochterotherstruther or Struthers (Fife) estate but in 1608 Byres was sold by the 8th Baron to the 1st Earl of Haddington. John Lindsay, 4th Earl of Lindsay and 20th Earl of Crawford (d. 1749), was succeeded in his titles and estates by his cousin the 4th Viscount Garnock (d. 1781), who had inherited Kilbirnie (Ayshire) from his grandfather the 1st Viscount (so created 1703), to whom it had come from his mother, a daughter and co-heir of Sir John Crawford of Kilbirnie. The 4th Viscount built Crawford Priory on the Struthers estate and was succeeded by his son George Lindsay-Crawford, 22nd Earl of Crawford. On Lord Crawford’s death in 1808, he was succeeded in the Crawford Priory and Kilbirnie estates by his sister Lady Mary Lindsay-Crawford (d. 1832), upon whose decease they passed to the Earl of Glasgow (see Boyle, Earls of Glasgow). The title to the earldom of Crawford (though not the other honours) devolved, however, upon the sixth Earl of Balcarres (see above).

The Bibliotheca Lindesiana at Haigh Hall was created by the 8th and 25th Earl, the earlier collection of books and papers at Balcarres having largely been dispersed when the seat was given up. This Earl appears also to have inherited the contents of Crawford Priory, including some muniments, and to have collected writs and papers in connection with the Crawford and Montrose peerage cases.

Estates in 1883: Earl of Crawford: Lancs 1,931 acres, Westmorland 24 acres, Carmarthenshire 1,670 acres, Aberdeenshire 9,855 acres, total 13,480 acres worth £39,252 a year (of which the Lancashire estate contributed £31,763 a year); Sir Coutts Lindsay: Fife 4,672 acres worth £9,619 a year.