In 1820 folklorist and historian Peter Buchan, published An Historical and Authentic Account of the Ancient and Noble Family of Keith, Earls Marischal of Scotland. This text is usually disregarded today as unreliable as a historical source. That may be the case, but it is still a very interesting text if properly understood.
Buchan states that his account was copied from two manuscripts which detailed the history of the family. The first and older manuscript stopped with the life of Earl William (1510-1581), the second, newer manuscript repeated the contents of the first and continues the accounts to 1778.[1] Buchan does not state where he acquired the manuscripts; although it is possible they belonged to the Earl of Kintore, to whom he dedicated the publication.
We can be confident that Buchan has not fabricated the history, or invented the existence of the manuscripts, as genealogical papers in the National Library of Scotland repeat exactly what Buchan published from the older manuscript and then contains a later history of the family which varies when compared to Buchan’s later manuscript.[2] We therefore know of the existence of at least three manuscripts, all of which contain the same material up to c.1581, but then either stop or diverge.
The final entry of the older manuscript, detailing the life of Earl William, mentions George as Earl Marischal, but does not include any further information.[3] This might suggest that the pre-1581 genealogy was written during the lifetime of earl George, assuming at least it was not just an unfinished later copy, where the scribe got to earl William, put the pen down and never picked it up again.
In William Ogston’s funeral oration to the deceased earl George in 1623, Ogston makes the following claim;
Et quo hujusce rei veritas vobis omnibus innoteseat, neve existimetis (Auditores) vel ad aures ficta, vel ad gratiae aucium haec commenta, repetam & qua fas fide & memoria recitabo, quae ante biennium ab illustrissimo nostro Comite de per vetusta KETHORUM origine coram accepi, & quae ex doctissimorum hominum, C. Taciti, Munsteri, Fordonii, Boethii annalibus (qua erat doctrina, erudition & ingenii praestantia) sese excerpsisse & deprompsisse dictitabit.
Translated thus;
And so that the truth of this matter may become known to you all, and lest you (listeners) think that these things are either invented to please the ear or contrived for the sake of favour, I shall repeat—and, as far as is permitted, faithfully and from memory recount—those things which I heard two years ago from our most illustrious Earl concerning the very ancient origin of the Keiths, and which he used to say he had selected and drawn forth from the annals of the most learned men—Tacitus, Münster, Fordun, and Boece—men distinguished for their learning, scholarship, and excellence of intellect.
Ogston’s brief genealogy compares very well to that of Buchan’s older manuscript. As that text contains clear references to Tacitus, Munster, Fordun and Boece, it might be considered more than a coincidence, and that the two are closely linked.
The lack of inclusion of George’s life in the manuscript might be taken as evidence that it was written before his death in 1623. However authorship is more problematic. Ogston’s passage quoted above can be read in two ways. Either the Earl Marischal was the author, consulting the various sources mentioned, or it was Ogston, who consulted Marischal’s own knowledge then the various sources to produce the oration and presumably the family history.
That Marischal was the author is possible as he was considered a learned man. Sir Thomas Hope wrote to Marischal in 1620 to see if he would supply some documents Hope needed to research into the Erskine family.[4] Certainly Macfarlane commented on the ‘famous library’ of Dunnottar, which means we know that Marischal was reading, although this doesn’t necessarily follow that he was composing as well.[5] If we assume that George either wrote or commissioned the manuscript using his library and documents, we can look again at the text and use it to see how that earl viewed his family and his own history.
In the next few months I hope to add some discussions of some aspects of the genealogy. In the meantime, see my chapter
- 2016 ‘A Classical Send-off: the funeral oration of George Keith, 4th Earl Marischal (1623)’ in D. McOmish and S. J. Reid (eds) Neo-Latin Literature and Literary Culture in Early Modern Scotland, Brill Studies in Intellectual History, pp. 182-202.
[1] Peter Buchan, An Historical and Authentic Account of the Ancient and Noble Family of Keith, Earls Marischal of Scotland (Buchan, Peterhead, 1820) pp.v-vi.
[2] National Library of Scotland MS21187A
[3] Buchan, Account of the Ancient and Noble Family of Keith, p.42
[4] Brown, K., Noble Society in Scotland (Edinburgh University Press, 2004) p.33; National Archives of Scotland GD 124/5, no 7, 14/4.
[5] Mitchell, A. ed., Macfarlane’s Geographical Collections, Vol. 3 (Scottish History Society, Edinburgh, 1908) p.233