Publications of the Clan Lindsay Society - Electric Scotland

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JOHN DE LINDSAY, as we learn from
charters in wliich his uiane occurs as a witness,
was Great Cliamberlain of Scothmd in the
reign of King Alexander III.* To have attained to
this office he must have been a man of distincti(jn, and
to be such in those days rank and wealth and family
connection counted for more than character and ability.
Yet in the meagre records of the time he stands com-
pletely isolated from those of his name who lived
before him or who were his contemporaries, and we
are quite unable to assign him his place in the family
pedigree. Lord Lindsay has conjectiu-ed that he was
a younger son of Sir David de Lindsay oC LuHiiess ; f
but a formidable objection to this affiliation is the fact
that his descendants claimed to be the representatives
of the eldest line of the Lindsays— a claim which
must be proved to have been unfounded before any
theory which ignores it can meet with acceptance. \
* Reg. de Dunfermehjn {anno 1278), i)p. 52, fi.i.
Raine, Hist, of North Durham (annu 1280), App. No. LXXVII.
Reg. Hon. d-. Morton, Vol 11. p. 9.
t Lives of the Lindsaijs, Vol. I., pp. 33, 4U1». Sir David was of the
Byres and of Chirdeu in Tynedale. W. A. Lindb,iy in Scots Peerage,
article Crawford.
X When they adofjted the fess chutjue Lhcy addod a label of three
points. Sir David Lindsay's Heraldic MS.