Isabel (MacDuff) MacDuff Countess of Fife
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Elizabeth (MacDuff) MacDuff Countess of Fife (abt. 1320 - aft. 1389)

Elizabeth (Isabel) MacDuff Countess of Fife formerly MacDuff
Born about in Scotlandmap
Ancestors ancestors
[sibling(s) unknown]
Wife of — married [date unknown] [location unknown]
Wife of — married [date unknown] [location unknown]
Wife of — married 1360 (to 1360) in Fife Scotlandmap
Wife of — married 1363 [location unknown]
Wife of — married after 1366 [location unknown]
Descendants descendants
Died after after about age 69 in Scotlandmap
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Declaration of Arbroath
Isabel (MacDuff) MacDuff Countess of Fife was descended from a signer of the Declaration of Arbroath.
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Contents

Biography

Isabel (MacDuff) MacDuff Countess of Fife is a member of Clan MacDuff.

Isabel MacDuff was suo jure Countess of Fife from 1363 until she resigned the title in 1371. She was the only child of Duncan, Earl of Fife, by his wife Mary de Monthermer, daughter of Ralph, Lord Monthermer and Princess Joan Plantagenet, of Acre.[1]

In 1332 she and her mother had been captured at Perth by supporters of Edward Balliol. She was sent as a ward to Northumberland.

In a charter dated 22nd July 1360 Isabel de Fyfe, as daughter and heiress to Duncan, Earl of Fife, lost a claim over the feudal barony of Kinnoul to Sir Robert de Erskine. As there is no mention of a husband in this charter it may have been inbetween her marriages.[2]

Isabel married:

  1. Sir William Ramsay of Colluthie in Fife. He, as Earl of Fife (in her right), is witness to a charter of King David II dated 12th April 1357. He also obtained from that monarch a charter erecting the town of Cupar into a free burgh, and soon afterwards died[3] leaving a son by an earlier marriage;
  2. Walter Stewart, second son of Robert Stewart, later King Robert II[4][5], they married before June 1361. He died without issue.
  3. Sir Thomas Bisset of Upsettlington in Berwickshire, to whom David II granted a charter of the Earldom of Fife, in right of his wife, 8th June 1363.[6][7] He had died by April 1366;
  4. John Dunbar. A charter of David II grants to John de Dunbar and Isabel, Countess of Fife, the Earldom with all its pertinents.[8][9] He died before 1371.

Isabel died shortly after 12 August 1389 and was buried next to Walter Stewart.</blockquote>

Research Notes

Most sources, including the Medieval Lands database,[10] as well as the Dictionary of National Biography,[11] state Isabel's first marriage was to William Ramsay.

However, Richardson has her married first to William de Felton, and gives her children, John (Knt.), Duncan (clerk), and Constance Felton. [12][13] [14]

Not included under his Isabel entry, Richardson, Rosie Bevan, and others, have also now given her a daughter, Joan, married to Sir Walter Faucomberge/Fauconberg (see corrections and discussion, under Sources, below). Other sources, like The History of Parliament, have her granddaughter, Joan, daughter of John, marrying Walter Fauconburg. [15]

Although it doesn't mention Isabel, Constance, or Duncan, the post mortem inquisition of her grandson, John, sorts out many of the family relationships.

Facts from Primary Sources

William de Felton married Isabella — by 5 April 1345, because on that date at Matfen, Alexander de Cheswyk granted all his lands in Edlingham and Newton, Northumberland to Lord William de Felton, knight, and his wife, Isabella.[16]

Felton may have married an Isabella but what other details about her parentage does this source offer?

Sources

  1. Wikipedia contributors, "Isabella, Countess of Fife", Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 25 September 2016, 22:56 UTC, (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Isabella,_Countess_of_Fife&oldid=741184569 accessed 27 December 2017).
  2. The Great Seal of Scotland, appendix 1, no.142, p.496.
  3. The Scottish Nation by William Anderson, Edinburgh, 1867, vol.iv, p.211.
  4. Anderson, 1867, vol.iv, p.211.
  5. Scottish Kings 1005-1625 by Sir Archibald H. Dunbar, Bt., Edinburgh, 1899, p.166, who states that Stewart is her fourth husband.
  6. The Great Seal of Scotland, no.158.
  7. Anderson, 1867, vol.iv, p.211.
  8. The Great Seal of Scotland, appendix 2, no.1624, p.624.
  9. Anderson, 1867, vol.iv, p.211.
  10. MedLands: ISABEL Macduff (-after 12 Aug 1389). Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
  11. Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 47: Ramsay, William (fl.1356-1360) (DNB00) [1]
  12. Some corrections and additions to the Complete Peerage: Volume 5: Felton [2]
  13. Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families, 2nd Edition, 2011, p 532-535 [3]
  14. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2nd Edition, 2011, p 472 [4]
  15. The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe., 1993 [5]
  16. The National Archives Website: Discovery: ZSW/3/11, 155 - Northumberland Archives: ZSW - Swinburne (Capheaton) Estate Records: ZSW/3 - Swinburne Manuscript Vol. 3: ZSW/3/11 - Grant, http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/07d01f67-d6fd-4e3d-9be2-38e0f5cb8dd7, 21 November 2017.
  • The Complete Peerage by G. E. Cockayne, edited by the Hon. Vicary Gibbs and H. Arthur Doubleday, vol.v, London, 1926, p.374-5 and notes.

See also:





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Comments: 5

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Unknown-241290 and MacDuff-50 appear to represent the same person because: Unknown-241290 lacks any biographical data. In the header, however, Unknown-241290 and MacDuff-50 have the same mother, both are listed as the countess of Fife, and both died in 1389. Sources interchangeably refer to Elizabeth or Isabel MacDuff. In any event, Elizabeth/Isabel was the only child of Duncan and Mary (Monthermer) MacDuff:

<ref name = "Cawley">Cawley, C. (21 September 2020). Scotland, mormaers, earls, lords (Ch. 4, sec. B). Retrieved from Foundation for Medieval Genealogy: Available online; accessed 24 October 2020.</ref>

posted by Pamela Lohbeck
MacDuff-52 and MacDuff-50 appear to represent the same person because: Duncan (IV) Macduff, ninth earl of Fife (1289/90–1353), in 1306–7 married the nine-year-old Mary de Monthermer, daughter of the earl of Gloucester, for which a papal dispensation was granted in 1307.

They had one daughter, whose name was Isabella sometimes called Elizabeth.

The Peerage website incorrectly says they had 2 daughters.

Death is a problem. Australia was not even discovered until much, much later than 1389
posted by Allan Stuart
Scratch that. Does now have a daughter Joan, along with other issue, but not marrying another Felton, and not using a different LNAB. So, I'll make a new one with the proper LNAB.
posted by Jason Clark
Doesn't actually seem to have a daughter, Joan.
posted by Jason Clark