From the profile's About:
1st letter from Douglas Hickling based on research of Jean Munro, Ph.D., and R. W. Munro.
"I am going to comment on the name of Alexander's wife. Virtually all of the authorities state, without any documentary proof, that Alexander's wife was Elizabeth Seton, a daughter of Sir Alexander Seton and his wife Elizabeth Gordon. The Munros in their ACTS OF THE LORDS 0F THE ISLES, at 302-303 and elsewhere provide convincing evidence that Elizabeth's surname was Haliburton. At, 63, the Munros set forth a 1443 note of a discharge to Sir John Scrymgeour by "Dame Elizabeth Haliburton, countess of Ross," apparently the only contemporary record which gives Elizabeth's surname. The Munros, at 241, set forth a reference to a papal indult, dated 19 October 1433, to Alexander and Jacobella, his wife, for a portable altar. There seems to be no other record of this earlier marriage or of any children resulting therefrom. On 2 November 1467, Alexander's son John granted a charter confirming a gift to the monastery of Fearn "for the salvation of the souls of his parents, Alexander earl of Ross and Elizabeth his wife." (See Munros, at 143.) This shows that Elizabeth, not Jacobella, was John's mother. BURKE'S PEERAGE & BARONETAGE (106th edition), at 328, accepts "Elizabeth Halyburton, probably of Dirletoun," as Alexander's wife. "
Douglas Hickling (August 2003)
2nd letter from Douglas Hickling
Based on my previous e-mail to you, you now show that the wife of Alexander Macdonald ID: I37488, and the mother of John, Lord of the Isles, was Dame Elizabeth Haliburton.
A correction seems to be needed. In the fall 2003 issue of THE GENEALOGIST, there is an article by Andrew B. W. MacEwen, beginning at 222, on Cristina de Brus, Countess of Dunbar. At page 225, the author, as an illustration of the difficulty in sometimes determining a woman's maiden name, says:
And the twice married Isabella Stewart of Albany in a discharge dated 10 December 1443 was styled "Dame Elizabeth Haliburton, countess of Ross," taking the rank of her first husband, Alexander Lesley, Earl of Ross, and the surname of her second husband, Sir Walter Haliburton of Dirleton--and seriously misleading such acute modern scholars as the Munros.
Footnote 13 says: "Jean Munro, Ph.D., and R. W. Munro, eds. ACTS OF THE LORDS OF THE ISLES 1336-1493, Scottish History Society, 4th ser., 22 (1986); 63, No. 41. Corrected in WEST HIGHLAND NOTES & QUERIES [Isle of Coll. Argyll], ser. 2, No. 19 (March 1999): 24-25."
The foregoing means that Isabel, daughter of Robert Duke of Albany, married (in 1398) Alexander, Earl of Ross (died 1402). She subsequently married Sir Walter Haliburton of Direlton. The wife of Alexander, Lord of the Isles and Earl of Ross (died 1499) [? date should be 1449?] and the mother of their son John, the last earl of Ross and lord of the Isles, cannot be named with certainty. As the Munros point out at p. 63 in their comment regarding the note of a discharge No. 41, and in a subsequent comment at p. 303, Elizabeth Seton, daughter of Sir Alexander Seton and Elizabeth Gordon, and sister of the first earl of Huntly, has been accepted as the wife of Alexander, but she is not so named in any contemporary record. Her place as the wife of Alexander, Lord of the Isles and Earl of Ross depends upon a 16th century Gordon genealogy by John Ferrerius . Ferrerius is generally well-regarded and I suggest that you may wish to show Elizabeth Seton as the earl's wife.
The Munros were not alone in failing to discern the true identity of "Dame Elizabeth Haliburton, Countess of Ross," referred to in the note of a discharge cited above. Complete Peerage V. 11, p. 151, published in 1949, makes the same mistake.
Doug Hickling (November 2003)
