Alexander (Home) Home First Earl of Home (1570 - 1619)

Born 1570 in Scotland

Ancestors

Husband of Christian (Douglas) Douglas Countess of Home — married 9 Jan 1585 in Scotland

Husband of Mary (Sutton) Home — married before 28 Jun 1607 in Scotland [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 5 Apr 1619 at about age 49 in London, England

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Alexander (Home) Home First Earl of Home was a member of Scottish Nobility. Join: Scotland Project Discuss: Scotland

Biography

Alexander (Home) Home First Earl of Home is a member of Clan Home.

Alexander Home was a member of the aristocracy in Scotland.

Son and heir, he was said to be aged 27 years in July 1597.^[1]

He was in great favour with the King, and was restored by an Act of Parliament dated 25th July 1578, to the forfeited title [Lord Home] and estates of his father; he was subsequently served heir to his father on 17th November 1580. He was Warden of the East Marches 1582-1599. He supported the King against Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell, on whose forfeiture, in 1592, he obtained a grant of the Priory of Coldingham, Berwickshire. He still adhered to Roman Catholicism and had to "make repentance" in the New Kirk on 17th May 1594.^[2]

Feud

"May 1598: Lord Home came to Lauder an asked for William Lauder [a Bailie of that Royal Burgh, commonly called William at the West Port], being the man who hurt John Cranstoun [nicknamed John with the gilt sword]. William fled to the Tolbooth, it being the strongest and surest house, for his relief. But the Lord Home caused a fire to be put to the house, and burnt it all. The gentleman remained therein till the roof fell in. In the end he came desperately out amongst them, and hazarded a shot of a pistol at John Cranstoun, and hurt him. But it being impossible to escape with his life, they most cruelly and without mercy hacked him with swords and whingers to pieces. Lady Marischal, sister of Lord Home, hearing [of] the certainty of the cruel murder of William Lauder, did mightily rejoice thereat, and writ [wrote] it for good news to sundry of her friends in the country. But within less than 24 hours after, the lady took a swelling in her throat, both without and within, after a great laughter, and could not be cured till death seized upon her with great repentance. A remission for this barbarous slaughter was granted by the King, in 1606, to the [now] Earl of Home, Hume of Hatton Hall, Thomas Tyrie, Tutor of Drumkilbo, John Hume in Kells, and other persons.^[3]

On 10th May 1598 Home was one of the leaders, with the Cranstouns, of the infamous Tolbooth Raid at Lauder, Berwickshire, where three of the Baillies, including Robert Lauder of that Ilk and two of his nephews, sitting there in Court, were brutally murdered. The feud had apparently been started by his sister. He was excommunicated by the Haddington Presbytery for his part and apparently fled abroad, to Rome.^[4]

Earldom

On 16th November 1600 he stated in a letter to the Master of Gray that he had declined the offer of being created Earl of March, when the Earldom of Winton and Barony of Roxburgh were created. By 1603 he accompanied the King to England who made him Justiciary over the three Marches.

He was created 1st Earl of Home in the Scots' Peerage on 4th March 1605.^[5]

He married twice. In July 1597 the Lord Home was said to be "married to the [Douglas] Earl of Morton's daughter".^[6] This may also indicate she is still living at this point. His second wife was Mary, daughter of Edward Sutton, 5th Lord Dudley, whom he married before the 28th of June 1607.

Lord Home was said to be aged 52 at death. His body was brought by sea from London to Scotland for burial and he was interred in the [now ruined] Dunglass Church, East Lothian, Scotland, near the family seat. His Testament was not proved for another decade.

Sources

1. ↑ Rogers, Rev. Charles, LL.D., F.S.A.Scot., Estimate of the Scottish Nobility, London, 1873, p.64.
2. ↑ The Complete Peerage by G.E.Cockayne, revised & enlarged by the Hon. Vicary Gibbs, edited by H. Arthur Doubleday, Duncan Warrand, and Lord Howard de Walden, vol.vi, London, 1926, p.555.
3. ↑ Robert Chambers, F.R.S.E., F.S.A.Scot., LL.D., Domestic Annals of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1874, p.300-1 citing Pitcairn's Criminal Trials vol.iii, p.116.
4. ↑ Mackie, J. D., C.B.E., M.C., LL.D., editor, Calendar of the State Papers relating to Scotland 1547-1603, Edinburgh, 1969, vol. xiii, part 1, number 156, pps: 205-207-8.
5. ↑ Paul, James Balfour, Sir, 1846-1931 :"The Scots Peerage : Founded On Wood's Ed. Of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage Of Scotland; Containing An Historical And Genealogical Account Of The Nobility Of That Kingdom : Free Download, Borrow, And Streaming : Internet Archive". 2021. Internet Archive. Alexander Home 1st Earl of Home, Vol IV, pps 461-3
6. ↑ Rogers, Rev. Charles, LL.D., F.S.A.Scot., Estimate of the Scottish Nobility, London, 1873, p.64.

• The Complete Peerage by G.E.Cockayne, edited by the Hon. Vicary Gibbs, vol.1, London, 1910, p.205.
• The Complete Peerage by G.E.Cockayne & Hon. Vicary Gibbs, edited by H. Arthur Doubleday & Lord Howard de Walden, London, 1929, volume vii, p.489.
• The Manuscripts of The Duke of Athole, K.T., and of The Earl of Home, Historical Manuscripts Commission, Twelfth Report, Appendix, Part VIII, London, 1891, p.101.
• The Royal Families of England Scotland and Wales, with their descendants etc., by John and John Bernard Burke, London, 1851, volume 2, pedigree CLXIII.
• Index to Genealogies, Birthbriefs and Funeral Escutcheons, recorded in the Lyon Office by Francis J. Grant, W.S., Rothesay Herald & Lyon Clerk, Edinburgh, 1908, p.27/8.
• A History of the House of Douglas by Sir Herbert Maxwell, London, 1902, volume 2, p.165.
• The Dictionary of National Biography. The Concise Dictionary. Part 1, From the beginnings to 1900. London: Oxford University Press, 1953. Contains abstracts of the biographies found in The Dictionary of National Biography (21 volumes, New York: Macmillan Co.; London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1908). (DcNaB)
• The Peerage: Alexander Home
• Cracrofts Peerage: Alexander Home