Johnson / Bryans Families

Tracing the ancestry of Pamela Murdoch Bryans and Maurice Alan Johnson

First Name Last Name
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Matilda Stewart

Female 1425 -

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  • Name Matilda Stewart 
    Relationshipwith Marion Murdoch Johnson
    Gender Female 
    Birth Between 1409 and 1425 
    Siblings 1 brother 
    Half-siblings 2 half brothers (family of Walter Stewart and "Unknown") 
    Last Modified 24 Jan 2021 

    Father Sir Walter Stewart, of Lennox
              b. Abt 1390  
              d. 24 Mar 1425, Stirling, Stirlingshire, Scotland Find all individuals with events at this location (Age ~ 35 years) 
    Mother Janet Erskine
              b. Between 1349 and 1394 

    Husband Sir William Edmonstone, of Duntreath
              b. Between 1376 and 1439  
              d. 1486 (Age ~ 110 years) 
    Marriage Abt 1456  [1] 
    Age at Marriage Matilda was ~ 47 years old - William was ~ 80 years old. 
    Children 
     1. Sir Archibald Edmonstone, of Duntreath
              b. Abt 1445  
              d. 1502 (Age ~ 57 years)
    Last Modified 7 May 2020 

  • Notes 
    • According to Genealogical Account1, Matilda Stewart was the
      ...illegitimate daughter of Lord James Stewart, the sole surviving son of Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany. This Lord James had 7 sons and a daughter, by a lady of the Macdonald family. Of these, the eldest, created Lord Avondale, Chancellor of Scotland, and two others, were legitimated; but it does not appear that the same grace was obtained for the other sons and for the daughter.


      The Scots Peerage2 also states that Matilda, "who was married to William Edmonston of Duntreath", was a daughter of James More (aka James Stewart).

      However, Burke's Peerage3 describes her as "grand-dau of the last Regent, Duke of Albany, and sister of the celebrated Chancellor, Lord Avondale". The celebrated Chancellor would be Andrew Stewart, son of Walter Stewart of Lennox, the brother of James More. The last Regent, Duke of Albany would be Murdoch Stewart, father of both James More and Walter Stewart of Lennox.

      Finally, in The Parish of Strathblane3, Matilda is again given as the daughter of Walter Stewart. Later, on page 106 of the same document, the author writes:
      "Matilda Stewart, Sir William Edmonstone's spouse, has usually been treated as a daughter of this James Stewart, and Sir Archibald Edmonstone in the Duntreath Book [aka ref 1 below] has adopted this lineage. No doubt, however, he is wrong, the for the lady was a daughter of the second son, Walter - James' elder brother - and sister of Andrew Stewart, afterwards Lord Avondale, and Chancellor of King James III."

      In a footnote, the author continues:
      "Sir Archibald [author of ref 1 below] was led into the error through following George Crawford, who about the year 1713 drew up an account of the Edmonstone family. Sir Archibald, however, by no means always follows him, for he had grave doubts of Crawford's honesty. In writing about this account of the family Sir Archibald says - 'His manuscript is compiled with considerable research, but is defective in some important points, with rather too prominent a disposition to magnify the race whose history he was employed to trace out;' and again 'Crawford, who, like most of the older genealogists, seemed more desirous of flattering the vanity of his employers than of investigating the truth' - a fault unfortunately not altogether confined to the older genealogists. "


      In this tree I follow Burke and the Scots Peerage (as elsewhere when there is equivocation between sources).

      Footnotes
      [1] Genealogical Account of the Family of Edmonstone, Archibald Edmonstone, 1875, pages 32 & 33
      [2] The Scots Peerage, Volume 1 (1904), page 151
      [3] The Parish of Strathblane and its inhabitantsI from Early Times, John Guthrie Smith, 1834, page 73

  • Sources 
    1. [S0397] Sir Archibald Edmonstone of Duntreath, Baronet, Genealogical Account of the Family of Edmonstone, (Edinburgh, Privately Printed; 1875), 1875, Pages 32 & 33.