James Stuart, 4th Earl of Moray explained

James Stuart, 4th Earl of Moray (c. 1611 – 4 March 1653) was a Scottish nobleman and landowner.

He was the son of James Stuart, 3rd Earl of Moray and Lady Anne Gordon, a daughter of George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly and Henrietta Stewart.

He married Lady Margaret Home, daughter of Alexander Home, 1st Earl of Home and Mary Dudley, on 18 October 1627 (contract). The couple had eight children:

The Earl and Countess refurbished their house at Donibristle, employing English artisans including painters, Edward Arthur and George Crawford.[2] They installed a fountain with a bronze figure of Mercury. The Countess lived as a widow till 1683, she maintained Moray House in Edinburgh and its gardens, and planted woods at Donibristle.

In 1677 and 1679 there were portraits of "Lord Doune" and Ham House in "Her Grace's Bed Chamber", possibly of this Lord Moray before 1638 as "Lord Doune" or his eldest son, James, also Lord Doune, who married Katherine Tollemache in December 1677. A portrait of Katherine, Lady Doune at Ham was the work of Lodewijk van der Helst.[3] Ham belonged to the earl's brother-in-law, John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale, whose first wife was Lady Anne Home.

Sources

Notes and References

  1. Olive Geddes, The Laird's Kitchen (Edinburgh, 1994), p. 15.
  2. HMC Laing Manuscripts in the University of Edinburgh, vol. 1 (London, 1914), p. 194.
  3. Alastair Laing, 'Fitting Rooms to Pictures', in Christopher Rowell, Ham House (Yale, 2013), pp. 408, 412, 422, 425 .