A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

OF THE BEND. 3 S
him, Alexander tie Monteitb. lie had three sons, Allan and Murdoch, successively
Earls of Monteith, and the thud son, Alexander, wa.s the first of the family of
Monteith of Kuskie ; \vhich family was in use to carry quarterly, first and fourth
or, a bend cheque, sable and argent, for Monteith ; second and third azure, three
buckles or.
The MONTEITHS of Carss were in use to carry quarterly, first and fourth, Mon-
teith as before ; second and third or, a lymphad, or ship, with one mast sable, and,
in chief, three buckles azure, as in Sir James Balfour's Mami.script of Blazons.
Allan Earl of Monteith, before-mentioned, died without issue, and was succeeded
by his brother Murdoch, who left behind him a daughter, his heir, who wu
married to Sir John Graham in the year 1341.
yohannes de Graham Conies de Monteith, is frequently mentioned in charter-
He was taken prisoner in the battle of Durham, the 171!! of October 1346 ; and, by
order of Edward III. was barbarously murdered with Duncan, tenth and last Earl
of Fife. The wife or daughter of this John Graham Earl of Monteith, was married
to Robert Stewart, third son to King Robert II. who, in her right, was Earl
of Monteith, and thereafter Duke of ALBANY. She bore to him several children,
the eldest Murdoch Stewart, second Duke of Albany Earl of Monteith, who wa-.
executed and forfeited by King James I. Tiiat King gave the earldom of Monteith,
in lieu of the earldom of Strathern, to Malise Graham, of whom before
But to return to the bend.
Fig. 2. Plate V. azure, a bend argent ; by some Books, argent, a bend azure, by
the name of BISSET. There was an ancient family of that surname with us in the
reign of King Alexander II. : One Walter Bisset is. a witness in a charter, by that
King, to the abbacy of Paisley ; and again I find him a witness, with William
Bisset, in another charter of that King's to the abbacy of Dunfermline ; and, by
the chartulary of Melrose, Walter Bisset, in the year 1233, married a daughter of
Rowland Earl of Galloway.
In the year 1258, Sir John Bisset of Lovat mortifies an annuity out of his lands
to the Bishop of Murray. He died without heirs of his own body, leaving his es-
tate to his three daughters ; the eldest married to David Graham, thereafter de-
M^ned of Lovat, as in an agreement betwixt him and the Bishop of Murray, con-
cerning the fishing of the water of Torn ; the second daughter was married to Sir
William Fenton of Beaufort ; and the third to Sir Andrew de Bosco. In the year
1291, amongst the Barons convened at Berwick, at the desire of Edward I. as arbitrators
between the competitors for the crown of Scotland, is William Bisset, on
uhose seal of arms there is a shield charged with a bend, and over it a label of
three points. His grand-child, Thomas Bisset, by marrying Isabel M'Duff, eldest
daughter and heiress of Duncan Earl of Fife, was Earl of Fife four years, and died
without issue, in the reign of David II.
BISSET Lord Beaufort, carried azure, a bend argent, as Workman in his Manusctipt.
Sir James Balfour, says in his Blazons, azure, a bend sinister argent ; and
that BISSET of that Ilk carried argent, a bend gules. Fig. 3. Plate V. arjjii', a bend ingrailed gules, by the ancient name of COLE-
PEPER in England. Sir THOMAS COLEPEPER of Bedgebury, was governor of one of
the
Cinque-ports in the reign of Edward II. whose arms were argent, a bend in-
grailed gules ; of which the famous Drayton, in the Barons' wars, in the reign of
Edward II. enumerating the arms of the noted families of each side, says
" And Colepeper, with silver arms inrail'd,
" Bare thereupon a bloody bend ingrail'd."
Sir JOHN* COLEPEPER, a branch of the family of Bedgebury, was a knight of the
>hire ot Kent in the Parliament which met in the year 1641. He was a man of
perfect loyalty and great ability, as appears by all the accounts of these times, being
one of the first, that, on the irruption of the civil wars, stood up for the King;
, utter twenty years service to the crown, and twelve years exile with King
Charles II. he returned with his said Majesty into England, and died Master of the
Rolls, in July 1660. The supporters to the arms of this Lord, granted by Sir Ed-
Vv'alker Gaiter, principal King of Anns, are two dragons argent, each of
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