William Stewart of Monkton

William Stewart of Monkton and Carstairs (died 1588) was a Scottish landowner and courtier.

He was a son of Andrew Stewart, 2nd Lord Ochiltree and Agnes Cunningham. His elder brother was James Stewart, Earl of Arran and his sister Margaret Stewart married John Knox.

According to the English diplomat Thomas Randolph, he was known as "William the Sticker."[1]

His estates were at Monkton, Ayrshire and Carstairs. In November 1584 James VI granted him a pension from the lands of Whithorn Priory which had previously been paid to his sister-in-law, Margaret Stewart, Mistress of Ochiltree.[2] He was Provost of Ayr in 1585.

In 1588 James VI hired a ship from Robert Jameson, probably the James Royall of Ayr, for Stewart to pursue the rebel Lord Maxwell with 120 musketeers or "hagbutters".[3] Maxwell escaped but Stewart caught him at Crossraguel. Stewart then joined James VI at the siege of Lochmaben Castle. He negotiated a surrender with David Maxwell, but it is said the king insisted on using cannon borrowed from England against the castle, and David Maxwell and the other commanders were hung.[4]

Stewart was keeping custody of Lord Maxwell in Robert Gourlay's house in Edinburgh, when Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell killed him on Blackfriar's Wynd in July 1588.[5] Bothwell stabbed him with his rapier, and Stewart ran and tried to hide in a cellar, where Bothwell's men "stobbed him with whingers till he was despatched.[6] The murder followed a quarrel in the king's presence in which, according to David Calderwood, Stewart asked to Bothwell to kiss him behind.[7]

Marriage and family

He married Helen Cunningham. Their children included a son William, and a daughter Margaret.

This William Stewart killed James Douglas, Lord Torthorwald, a son of George Douglas of Parkhead, in Edinburgh on 14 July 1608, in revenge for the murder of his uncle James Stewart, Earl of Arran.

Others called William Stewart

William Stewart of Monkton can be confused with his contemporaries: Sir William Stewart of Houston known as Colonel Stewart; the king's valet William Stewart; Sir William Stewart of Traquair, and with Sir William Stewart of Caverstoun, who was Captain of Dumbarton Castle.[8]

References
  1. William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 8 (Edinburgh, 1914), p. 245.
  2. Gordon Donaldson, Register of the Privy Seal: 1581-1584, vol. 8 (Edinburgh, 1982), p. 441 no. 2521.
  3. Miles Kerr-Peterson & Michael Pearce, 'James VI's English Subsidy and Danish Dowry Accounts, 1588-1596', Scottish History Society Miscellany XVI (Woodbridge, 2020), pp. 29.
  4. Robert Chambers, Domestic Annals of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1858), p. 185: John Mackenzie, A chronicle of the kings of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1830), p. 141
  5. Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 9 (Edinburgh, 1915), pp. 587-8.
  6. David Calderwood, History of the Kirk of Scotland, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1843), pp. 679-80
  7. Maurice Lee junior, John Maitland of Thirlestane and the Foundation of the Stewart Despotism (Princeton, 1959), p. 164.
  8. Gordon Donaldson, Register of the Privy Seal: 1581-1584, vol. 8 (Edinburgh, 1982), p. 400 no. 2310.
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