Lords
Kinloss (1601-1602)
1st Lord Kinloss, Edward Bruce,
b.1548, a.1601-1602, d.1610-1611
The Bruces of Clackmannan were an offshoot of the main
Bruce line, most likely descended from a younger son of Robert Bruce, 5th
Lord of Annandale. Thomas Bruce of that line fought
alongside Robert Stewart, 7th High Steward (and later Robert II),
against the English in 1334 and was given the estate of Clackmannan. His
descendant Edward Bruce, younger son of Sir Edward Bruce of Blairhall (b.1505,
d.1565) and Alison Reid, was a solicitor in Edinburgh, who became a Lord of Session
between 1597 and 1604. He was Ambassador to England, and was instrumental in
ensuring the James VI succeeded to the English throne. He was raised to the
peerage as 1st Lord Kinloss in 1601 or 1602 and made a Privy
Counsellor in 1603, and he was Master of the Rolls from 1603 until his death.
In 1604 he was made 1st Baron Bruce of Kinloss, and in 1608 he was
made 1st Lord Bruce of Kinloss.
2nd Lord Kinloss, Edward Bruce,
b.?, a.1610-1611, d.1613
Son of the 2nd Lord and Magdalene Clerk.
Shortly after inheriting his titles, he was made a Knight of the Order of the Bath in 1610, and was
also a Gentleman of the Bedchamber. However, he was killed in a duel with Sir
Edward Sackville while still young.
3rd Lord Kinloss, Thomas Bruce,
b.1599, a.1613, d.1663
Younger brother of the 2nd Lord. In 1633 he
was created 1st Earl of Elgin. He graduated from Oxford in 1636 and was knighted in 1638.
Earls
of Elgin (1633)
1st Earl of Elgin, Thomas Bruce, as above
In 1641 he was created 1st Baron Bruce of
Whorlton in the Peerage of England.
2nd Earl of Elgin, Robert Bruce,
b.c.1626-1627, a.1663, d.1685
Son of the 1st Earl and Anne Chichester (b.?,
d.1627). Born and raised in England,
he represented Bedfordshire as an MP and was Lord-Lieutenant of Bedfordshire
from 1660 to 1663. He was created 1st Earl of Ailesbury in the
Peerage of England in 1664/5 and had other English titles bestowed upon him in
respect of his services during the Restoration. In 1678 he was made a Privy
Counsellor and also made Gentleman of the Bedchamber. In 1681 he was Lord-Lieutenant
of both Cambridgeshire and Hampshire, and in 1685 he was presented as a Fellow
of the Royal Society and made Lord Chamberlain.
3rd Earl of Elgin, Thomas Bruce,
b.1656, a.1685, d.1741
Son of the 2nd Earl and Lady Diana Grey
(b.b.1631, d.1689), daughter of Henry Grey, 1st Earl of Stamford.
Like his father, he served as an MP, for Marlborough and then Wiltshire and was
Lord-Lieutenant of Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire from 1685 to 1688, and also
Lord of the Bedchamber during this time. One of only four peers to continue to
support James II at the Revolution, he accompanied the King to Rochester
when he fled London
in advance of the arrival of William of Orange. In 1695 he was imprisoned in
the Tower of London
for conspiring in the restoration of James, but was bailed a year later and
allowed to leave England.
He died in Brussels.
His daughter Elizabeth Bruce (b.1689, d.1745) married George Brudenell, 3rd
Earl of Cardigan, and their youngest son was created 1st Earl of
Ailesbury in the Peerage of Great Britain. The earldoms of Cardigan and
Ailesbury are now united under a single line of the Brudenell-Bruces holding
the title Marquess of Ailesbury.
4th Earl of Elgin, Charles Bruce,
b.1682, a.1741, d.1746-1747
Son of the 3rd Earl and Lady Elizabeth Seymour
(b.c.1655, d.1696-1697), daughter of Henry Seymour, Lord Beauchamp (son of
William Seymour, 2nd Duke of Somerset). He succeeded to his father’s
English barony in 1711 and the remainder of his titles in 1741. He served as an
MP on several occasions, for Great Bedwyn, and for Marlborough. He was created 1st
Baron Bruce of Tottenham in 1746, and when he died, this barony passed by
special remainder to his nephew Thomas Brudenell-Bruce, 1st Earl of
Ailesbury mentioned above. Having only daughters, the remaining English titles
became extinct, but the Scottish titles passed to his heir-male, except for the
Lordship of Kinloss and Barony of Bruce of Kinloss, which went to the Duke of
Buckingham. The earldom and some other of the Scottish titles passed to Charles
Bruce, 9th Earl of Kincardine, he being
the closest surviving male heir, descending from Sir George Bruce (b.?,
d.1625), an elder brother to the 1st Lord Kinloss.
For a continuation of this line, please transfer to the Kincardine page.
(Last updated: 15/07/2009)