PEERAGE ROMANCE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 268, 13 November 1909, Page 2

PEERAGE ROMANCE.

GRETNA GREEN MARRIAGE IN

CLAIM TO TITLE

A very remarkable peerage case, involving the legality of a Gretna Green, marriage;, will shortly be heard in thie. Scottish, Courts. It will be brought at the instance of Mr Alexander Bosville, of Thorpe Hall, Bridlington Quay, Yorkshire, who, says the Observer, challenges the right of the present Lord Atacdonald, known as the "Lord of the Isles," jto his peerage and estates. The origin of the dispute,goes back to the opening years of last century, when the third Lord Macdonald made a romantic marriage with the daughter of the Duke of Gloucester attd Lady Alnieria' Carpenter, daughter of the last Marquis iof: Tyrconnel. This lady .who went by the name of Fairley Edsir, died in Holyrood Palacje, where she had rooms- in the early part of the century. Lord Macdonald and the. lady fled to, - t Gretna Green,; where they were married. ~ .They had t:wk> children, a son arid' daughter. The daughter became Countess of Hopptoun, and was the great-grandmother, of the present Lord Linlithgow. .. -jj After the birth of her two children Lady Macdonald acquired religious scruples, and insisted on being t©married in the Church of England. By some curious legal quibble this action apparently caused the former marriage to become null; and deprived the two elder children of the advantages of having been born |n wedlock. The . elder son, Mr Alexander Macdonald, took the name of Bosville on inheriting from a relative large estates in Yorkshire. .-

Godfrey, the second son, who was born in 1809, after the marriage ijv England, succeeded to the peerage and the estates in Skye. He was succeeded by his eldest son Somerlecj, on whose death in; Edinburgh thirtyfive years ago the title passed to his younger brother, Mr Ronald Maddonald, who now holds it.

The claimant in the case now to be heard, adds the Observer, is the grandson of the disinherited Alexander Macdonald or Bosville; and he raises the _ question w,hether the second or religious marriage ceremony

did indeed deprive his grandfather of the; righ,t to be considered the ;el<Jest legitimate son of the third Lord Macdonald.

A very interesting case is looked forward to. The sisters of th© present Lord Macdonald are Lady Napier of .Magdala, Lilian Countess of vJromartie, and Mrs Anthony Abdy. Lord Macdonald married Miss Louisa Ross, daughter of the late Colonel Ross, of Cromarty, and has a family of three sons and one daughter. A telegram from Bridlington states that Mr Bosville desires to make it quite clear that he is not entering a claim to the peerage nor to any properties which had been settled by special Act of Parliament last century. His action is prompted by a desire to establish the legitimacy of his grandfather..