Evening star., 1923-11-09
Great Responsibility Rests
Upon Gen. Lord Ruthven

arch, the family being thereupon de
clared forfeit of its honors. Fifty
years later Thomas Ruthyen, the
great-grandson OF the second lord.
land by Charles II. the date of the
creation being given as 1851, that
is to say, shortly after the execution
Of Charles l.
Now, although 1851 is given as the
date of the creation of this Charles II
barony. the exact date of the patent
is unknown. 1t was never registered
as required by law, nor was a copy
made of it and, moreover, as there
is no "docquet" or sign manos"
thereof, the contents and nature of
the patent are wholly unknown. But
the fact remains that this Lord
Ruthven of Freeland sat in the up
per house of ScotIand's parliament at
Edinburgh in 1861 after the restora
ton. We have the word of the pres
ent Ruthvens that the original pat
ent was in existence for more than
100 years, and that it was destroyed
in a fire which took place at Freeland
in 1850. OF course, the question
would naturally arise as TO why it
was that, while it was in existence
for ninety-nine years and in the pos
session of the family, no copy there
of should have been made or any
steps taken to register it.
This first Lord Ruthven of Freeland,
of the present me- Ieft a son, David
who succeeded him in the barony and
who was one of the lords of the
treasury for King William Ill. He
was succeeded in his honorS and
estates by his unmarried sister Jean,
and after her death they went to his
niece Isabel, daughter of Sir Francis
Ruthven of Redcastle, in Forfarshire.
She married Col James Johnston OF
Greatiney. and applied for a sum
mons to the coronation of George II,
as Baroness OF Ruthven in her own
right. This summons she received,
bearing the sign manual and seal of
George IL, and this may be considered
as an Acknowledgement by the crown
of the validity of her claim to the
Ruthven barony. She was succeeded
in her honors and estates by her son
and grandson, and on the latter'S
death without issue, they went to his
sister, Mary Ruthven, married to an
Irish territorial magnate, Walter
Hare of Harpers Town, County Wex-
ford She was the grandmother OF
the present Lord Ruthven.
OF course there are some genealo-
gists who deny the right of Lord
Ruthven to the Ruthven barony OF
Freeland, because of the loss of the
patent in the fire at Freeland in 1850.
which renders 1t impossible to ascer-
tain whether 1t contained any clauses
providing for the descent Of the peer
age in the female line. But there is
plenty of ccrroborative proof to this
effect, as, for instance, the retention
of the title on the union roll of Scot
land, after the extinction of the di-
rect male issue of the first lord, on
the death of his only son without
issue Moreover, all the lords of
Ruthven, since then, that is to say,
those who have descended from the
daughter of the first lord of the Free
land line, have been permitted to cast
their votes at the periodical elections
at Holyrood Palace by the peers of
Scotland, for the sixteen representa-
tives of their order in the house of
lords at Westminster. Especially in
the eighteenth century, every dubi5is
vote was challenged and no question
was ever raised there against the LORD
of Ruthven's right to vote. Then, too,
every holder of the barony of Ruth
ven has been summoned as such by
the crown, to attend the coronation
of the successive rulers of Great
Britain. Finally. when the lords of
sessions were directed by the crown
to carefully enumerate and report on
the various Scottish peerages about
the validity Of which it was thought
possible that any question could be
raised, the barony of Ruthven was
not included in the list. Finally, the
new commander in chief of the met
ropolitan district of London, owes his
title of Lord Ruthven not only to
his uncontested inheritance Of the
Charles ii Scotch barony of Ruthven
of Freeland, repeatedly acknowledged
as valid by the crown, in the eight
eenth and nineteenth centuries. but
also by virtue of the United Kingdom
barony of Ruthven of Gowrie be-
slowed upon his grandfather.