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Campbell of Loudoun History
Sir Duncan Campbell, a junior grandson of Cailein Mor Campbell of Lochow, became founder of the Campbells of Loudoun by marriage with Susannah, daughter of Sir Reginald Crawford of Loudoun. whose great-grandmother had been Margaret heiress of James de Loudoun, for whom the duthus of Loudoun was federalised about 1190. Robert the Bruce erected it into a barony, 1318, which was held by the descendants of Sir Duncan and the heiress of Loudoun from father to son to Hugh. the first Lord Loudoun then they again, with the title, went into the female line. From Sir Duncan and his lady many highly respected families of the name of Campbell in Ayrshire are descended. Sir Hugh Campbell of Loudoun was created Lord Campbell of Loudoun in 1601. His son, John, Master of Loudoun, died before him, leaving a daughter, Margaret who succeeded to all the honours of Loudoun in 1662, and married her namesake, Sir John Campbell of Lawers, who was created Earl of Loudoun by Charles I in 1633. His grandson, James Campbell, fell, a Major-General, at the battle of fontenoy in 1745. Hugh, third Earl of Loudoun, elder brother of the General, died in 1731, and was succeeded by his son, John, fourth Earl, who attained the highest military honours. He died, a General, In 1782, and unmarried. The title thus reverted to his cousin, Major-General James More Campbell, son of the General named above, who married Flora eldest daughter of Mac Leod of Raasay, by whom he had one child. Flora More Campbell, who became Countess of Loudoun, and married, in 1804, General the Earl of Moira, Commander-in-Chief in Scotland, afterwards Governor-General of India, and who, in 1816, was created Marquis of Hastings. The Countess Flora was succeeded by her son George, seventh Earl of Loudoun and 2nd Marquis of Hastings. On the death of Henry, 4th Marquis, the title went to his sister, Edith Maud, who married Mr. Clifton, with whom she assumed the name and Arms of Abney-Hastings. The Countess died in 1874, and was succeeded by her son. Charles, eleventh Earl, He died in 1920, and was succeeded in his Scottish titles by his niece, Edith Maud, Countess of Loudoun. SIMON ABNEY-HASTINGS IS THE GRANDSON OF EDITH MAUD THE COUNTESS OF LOUDOUN http://www.celticstudio.com/celticstudio/database/clans/018.htm |
Loudoun Castle stands about a mile from Galston.
It was the ancestral home of the Campbell family of Loudoun. The earliest tower dates from the 12th or 13th century.
Around 1811, the castle was redesigned by Archibald Elliott for the Countess of Loudoun and her husband the Second Earl of Moira. At that time, it was one of the grandest mansions in the west of Scotland. The castle - with its 90 rooms and 10,000 volume library - became known as the Windsor of Scotland. In 1941, fire took hold at the castle, the fabric of the building was destroyed beyond repair and it was left as a ruin. East Ayrshire Council website
The history of the Barony of Loudoun dates back to the 12th Century, when Richard De Morville, Lord of Cunningham, granted James De Loudoun and his successors the Barony of Loudoun, the Barony passed to the Crawfords of Loudoun through the marriage of Margaret of Loudoun and Sir Reginald Crawford (the reputed Great Grandparents of the great Scottish patriarch Sir William Wallace) and again to the Campbells in the reign of King Robert the Bruce through the marriage of Sir Duncan, son of Donald Campbell, Lord of the Isles, to Susanne Crawford, heiress of Loudoun, the Barony remains in the Campbell Family to this day.
The first stonework on the present Castle’s location (now a ruin after a fire in 1941) is believed to date back to the late 12th, early 13th Century with the building of a single Tower, by the 15th Century this had been expanded into a Four Storey Keep and the present shape took form in the early 1800’s when the Architect Archibald Elliott redesigned the Castle for Flora Mure-Campbell, Countess of Loudoun, the newly built Castle with it’s 90 rooms, 10,000 volume Library and an entrance hall measuring 70 by 30 ft was one of the Grandest in Scotland and was often referred to as “The Windsor of Scotland”.
http://www.discoverayrshire.co.uk/loudoun_castle.html
It was the ancestral home of the Campbell family of Loudoun. The earliest tower dates from the 12th or 13th century.
Around 1811, the castle was redesigned by Archibald Elliott for the Countess of Loudoun and her husband the Second Earl of Moira. At that time, it was one of the grandest mansions in the west of Scotland. The castle - with its 90 rooms and 10,000 volume library - became known as the Windsor of Scotland. In 1941, fire took hold at the castle, the fabric of the building was destroyed beyond repair and it was left as a ruin. East Ayrshire Council website
The history of the Barony of Loudoun dates back to the 12th Century, when Richard De Morville, Lord of Cunningham, granted James De Loudoun and his successors the Barony of Loudoun, the Barony passed to the Crawfords of Loudoun through the marriage of Margaret of Loudoun and Sir Reginald Crawford (the reputed Great Grandparents of the great Scottish patriarch Sir William Wallace) and again to the Campbells in the reign of King Robert the Bruce through the marriage of Sir Duncan, son of Donald Campbell, Lord of the Isles, to Susanne Crawford, heiress of Loudoun, the Barony remains in the Campbell Family to this day.
The first stonework on the present Castle’s location (now a ruin after a fire in 1941) is believed to date back to the late 12th, early 13th Century with the building of a single Tower, by the 15th Century this had been expanded into a Four Storey Keep and the present shape took form in the early 1800’s when the Architect Archibald Elliott redesigned the Castle for Flora Mure-Campbell, Countess of Loudoun, the newly built Castle with it’s 90 rooms, 10,000 volume Library and an entrance hall measuring 70 by 30 ft was one of the Grandest in Scotland and was often referred to as “The Windsor of Scotland”.
http://www.discoverayrshire.co.uk/loudoun_castle.html
Previous Earls of Loudoun
The 4th Earl of Loudoun
The Great Historic Families of Scotland
The Campbells of Loudoun
Campbells of Loudoun are the oldest branch of the house of Argyll, and are descended from Donald, second son of Sir Colin Campbell of Lochaw, and brother of Sir Neil Campbell, the friend of King Robert Bruce. The barony in Ayrshire, from which they derive their title, was originally the possession of the Loudouns of Loudoun, one of the oldest families in Scotland. Margaret of Loudoun, the heiress of the estate, married Sir Reginald Crawford, High Sheriff of Ayr, and was the grandmother of Sir William Wallace, the illustrious Scottish patriot. The barony passed to the Campbells in the reign of Robert Bruce by the marriage of Sir Duncan, son of Donald Campbell, to Susanne Crawford, heiress of Loudoun, and fifth in descent from Sir Reginald Crawford. Sir Hugh Campbell, Sheriff of Ayr, was created a Lord of Parliament by the title of Lord Campbell of Loudoun, by James VI., in 1601. His granddaughter, Margaret Campbell, who inherited his title and estates, married Sir John Campbell of Lawers, a scion of the Glenorchy or Breadalbane family. He was created—
EARL OF LOUDOUN, and Baron Tarrynean and Mauchline by Charles I., 12th May, 1633; but in consequence of his opposition to the measures of the Court, the patent was stopped at the Chancery, and the title was suspended until 1641. Following the lead of the chief of his house, the Earl took an active part in the opposition to the attempt of Charles I. to force the new Liturgy upon Scotland, and was a member of the celebrated General Assembly which met in Glasgow in 1638. In the following year he took and garrisoned the castles of Strathavon, Douglas, and Tantallon for the Covenanters. He was one of the seven Scottish noblemen who signed the letter addressed to the King of France, entreating his assistance, and was in consequence arrested on a charge of treason and committed to the Tower. He regained his liberty through the influence of the Marquis of Hamilton, and was permitted to return to Scotland. He became one of the most active leaders of the Covenanting party, commanded the van of their army at the battle of Newburn, and was one of the commissioners who negotiated the treaty of Ripon. He presided at the opening of the Scottish Parliament, 15th July, 1641, and when the King visited Scotland in the following month Loudoun’s title of Earl was allowed with precedence from 1633, and he was appointed High Chancellor of Scotland and First Commissioner of the Treasury. But these favours failed to win him over to the royal side, and he continued to support with great vehemence all the measures adopted by the Presbyterian party. He took a prominent part in promoting the ‘Act of Classes,’ excluding all who had taken part in the ‘Engagement’ from offices of trust and from Parliament. Much to his discredit, when the Marquis of Montrose was brought to the bar of the Parliament House to receive sentence of death, the Chancellor bitterly upbraided him for his violation of the Covenant, his league with Irish rebels, and his invasion of the country. The behaviour of Loudoun on this occasion—so unbecoming his high office—and the virulent abuse which he poured upon the great Royalist, may be accounted for, but not justified, by the sanguinary defeat of the clan Campbell at the battle of Inverlochy, where his elder brother, the Laird of Lawers, fell. The Earl, however, after the execution of Charles I., embraced the cause of his son, and was in consequence, along with his son, Lord Mauchline, excepted out of Cromwell’s Act of Grace and Pardon in 1654; but £400 a year was settled out of his estates on his wife. At the Restoration he was deprived of his office of Chancellor, and fined £12,000 Scots. He died in 1663. His son—
JAMES, second Earl, lived and died abroad.
HUGH, third Earl, grandson of the Chancellor, was declared by the Earl of Argyll, when recommending him to Carstares, to be ‘a mettled young fellow. He has,’ added the Earl, ‘a deal of natural parts and sharpness, a good stock of clergy [learning], and by being in business he will daily improve.’ In consequence of this recommendation, the young Earl obtained from King William the appointment of Extraordinary Lord of Session. After the accession of Anne, he held successively the offices of a Commissioner of the Treasury, joint Secretary of State for Scotland, and Keeper of the Great Seal. He served as a volunteer at the battle of Sheriffmuir, under the chief of the Campbells, where he behaved with great gallantry. He was six times appointed High Commissioner to the Scottish General Assembly, and was for twenty-four years one of the sixteen Representative Peers of Scotland. His only son—
JOHN, fourth Earl, was one of the Representative Peers for the long period of forty-eight years. He was distinguished for his military talents, and held numerous important offices both at home and abroad. In 1745, when the Jacobite rebellion took place, he raised a regiment of Highlanders for the service of the Government, of which he was appointed colonel. He fought at the battle of Preston, and was active and energetic in suppressing the rising in the northern counties. in 1756 the Earl was appointed Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of the province of Virginia, and shortly after was nominated Commander-in-Chief of all the British forces in America. He was second in command of the British troops sent to Portugal in February, 1762, when Spain declared war against that country. He died in 1782, in his seventy-seventh year. ‘Loudoun’s bonnie woods and braes’ were greatly indebted to this Earl, who was the first to introduce extensive planting into this district. During his long military services in foreign countries he sent home specimens of every valuable kind of tree he met with, and he especially formed a most extensive collection of willows, which he interspersed in his plantations. As he died unmarried, his title and estates were inherited by his cousin—
JAMES MURE CAMPBELL, grandson of the second Earl of Loudoun. His father, Sir James Campbell of Lawers, was a distinguished military officer, who served under the Duke of Marlborough, and contributed greatly to the victory of the allied forces at Malplaquet, 11th September, 1709. He distinguished himself also at the battle of Dettingen, 10th June, 1743, and was mortally wounded at Fontenoy, where he commanded the British cavalry. His son James, the fifth Earl, assumed the name of Mure on succeeding to the estate of his grandmother, the Countess of Glasgow, heiress of the ancient family of Mure of Rowallan. He attained the rank of major-general in the army, and died in 1786, leaving an only child—
FLORA MURE CAMPBELL, Countess of Loudoun, who married in 1804 the Earl of Moira, created Marquis of Hastings in 1816, who was an eminent statesman, and held for some years the office of Governor-General of India. The Marquis died in 1826 at Malta, of which he was governor and commander-in-chief. He had promised his wife that they should lie in the same grave. As this could not in the circumstances be carried into effect, he desired his right hand to be amputated at his death and sent home, that it might be buried with the Marchioness. It was deposited in the family vault in Loudoun Kirk, and when she died in 1840 it was laid in the grave beside her body. The eldest of her three daughters was Lady Flora Hastings, and her only son became second Marquis of Hastings and sixth Earl of Loudoun. His eldest son, an officer in the army, was drowned at Liverpool in 1851 in his nineteenth year, and was succeeded by his brother, a poor unhappy and misguided youth, who made shipwreck of title, character, and estates. On his death in 1868, his sister, Edith Maude, wife of Charles Frederick Clifton, a member of an old Lancashire family, became Countess of Loudoun. She died in 1874 in her forty-first year, and directed by her will that her right hand be cut off and buried in Donington Park, the ancient possession of the Hastings family, which had been alienated by her brother, and the spot to be marked by a stone with the inscription, ‘I byde my time.’ Before her death she had succeeded in proving her right to no less than four ancient peerages—Botreaux, Hungerford, De Malynes, and Hastings, which had fallen into abeyance. They have descended to her son, the ninth Earl of Loudoun. Her eldest daughter married, in 1877, the fifteenth Duke of Norfolk.
According to the ‘Doomsday Book,’ the Loudoun estate consists of 18,638 acres, with a rental of £15,286 a year, and in addition the minerals yield £2,259 a year.
http://www.electricscotland.com/webclans/families/cambells_loudoun.htm
The Campbells of Loudoun
Campbells of Loudoun are the oldest branch of the house of Argyll, and are descended from Donald, second son of Sir Colin Campbell of Lochaw, and brother of Sir Neil Campbell, the friend of King Robert Bruce. The barony in Ayrshire, from which they derive their title, was originally the possession of the Loudouns of Loudoun, one of the oldest families in Scotland. Margaret of Loudoun, the heiress of the estate, married Sir Reginald Crawford, High Sheriff of Ayr, and was the grandmother of Sir William Wallace, the illustrious Scottish patriot. The barony passed to the Campbells in the reign of Robert Bruce by the marriage of Sir Duncan, son of Donald Campbell, to Susanne Crawford, heiress of Loudoun, and fifth in descent from Sir Reginald Crawford. Sir Hugh Campbell, Sheriff of Ayr, was created a Lord of Parliament by the title of Lord Campbell of Loudoun, by James VI., in 1601. His granddaughter, Margaret Campbell, who inherited his title and estates, married Sir John Campbell of Lawers, a scion of the Glenorchy or Breadalbane family. He was created—
EARL OF LOUDOUN, and Baron Tarrynean and Mauchline by Charles I., 12th May, 1633; but in consequence of his opposition to the measures of the Court, the patent was stopped at the Chancery, and the title was suspended until 1641. Following the lead of the chief of his house, the Earl took an active part in the opposition to the attempt of Charles I. to force the new Liturgy upon Scotland, and was a member of the celebrated General Assembly which met in Glasgow in 1638. In the following year he took and garrisoned the castles of Strathavon, Douglas, and Tantallon for the Covenanters. He was one of the seven Scottish noblemen who signed the letter addressed to the King of France, entreating his assistance, and was in consequence arrested on a charge of treason and committed to the Tower. He regained his liberty through the influence of the Marquis of Hamilton, and was permitted to return to Scotland. He became one of the most active leaders of the Covenanting party, commanded the van of their army at the battle of Newburn, and was one of the commissioners who negotiated the treaty of Ripon. He presided at the opening of the Scottish Parliament, 15th July, 1641, and when the King visited Scotland in the following month Loudoun’s title of Earl was allowed with precedence from 1633, and he was appointed High Chancellor of Scotland and First Commissioner of the Treasury. But these favours failed to win him over to the royal side, and he continued to support with great vehemence all the measures adopted by the Presbyterian party. He took a prominent part in promoting the ‘Act of Classes,’ excluding all who had taken part in the ‘Engagement’ from offices of trust and from Parliament. Much to his discredit, when the Marquis of Montrose was brought to the bar of the Parliament House to receive sentence of death, the Chancellor bitterly upbraided him for his violation of the Covenant, his league with Irish rebels, and his invasion of the country. The behaviour of Loudoun on this occasion—so unbecoming his high office—and the virulent abuse which he poured upon the great Royalist, may be accounted for, but not justified, by the sanguinary defeat of the clan Campbell at the battle of Inverlochy, where his elder brother, the Laird of Lawers, fell. The Earl, however, after the execution of Charles I., embraced the cause of his son, and was in consequence, along with his son, Lord Mauchline, excepted out of Cromwell’s Act of Grace and Pardon in 1654; but £400 a year was settled out of his estates on his wife. At the Restoration he was deprived of his office of Chancellor, and fined £12,000 Scots. He died in 1663. His son—
JAMES, second Earl, lived and died abroad.
HUGH, third Earl, grandson of the Chancellor, was declared by the Earl of Argyll, when recommending him to Carstares, to be ‘a mettled young fellow. He has,’ added the Earl, ‘a deal of natural parts and sharpness, a good stock of clergy [learning], and by being in business he will daily improve.’ In consequence of this recommendation, the young Earl obtained from King William the appointment of Extraordinary Lord of Session. After the accession of Anne, he held successively the offices of a Commissioner of the Treasury, joint Secretary of State for Scotland, and Keeper of the Great Seal. He served as a volunteer at the battle of Sheriffmuir, under the chief of the Campbells, where he behaved with great gallantry. He was six times appointed High Commissioner to the Scottish General Assembly, and was for twenty-four years one of the sixteen Representative Peers of Scotland. His only son—
JOHN, fourth Earl, was one of the Representative Peers for the long period of forty-eight years. He was distinguished for his military talents, and held numerous important offices both at home and abroad. In 1745, when the Jacobite rebellion took place, he raised a regiment of Highlanders for the service of the Government, of which he was appointed colonel. He fought at the battle of Preston, and was active and energetic in suppressing the rising in the northern counties. in 1756 the Earl was appointed Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of the province of Virginia, and shortly after was nominated Commander-in-Chief of all the British forces in America. He was second in command of the British troops sent to Portugal in February, 1762, when Spain declared war against that country. He died in 1782, in his seventy-seventh year. ‘Loudoun’s bonnie woods and braes’ were greatly indebted to this Earl, who was the first to introduce extensive planting into this district. During his long military services in foreign countries he sent home specimens of every valuable kind of tree he met with, and he especially formed a most extensive collection of willows, which he interspersed in his plantations. As he died unmarried, his title and estates were inherited by his cousin—
JAMES MURE CAMPBELL, grandson of the second Earl of Loudoun. His father, Sir James Campbell of Lawers, was a distinguished military officer, who served under the Duke of Marlborough, and contributed greatly to the victory of the allied forces at Malplaquet, 11th September, 1709. He distinguished himself also at the battle of Dettingen, 10th June, 1743, and was mortally wounded at Fontenoy, where he commanded the British cavalry. His son James, the fifth Earl, assumed the name of Mure on succeeding to the estate of his grandmother, the Countess of Glasgow, heiress of the ancient family of Mure of Rowallan. He attained the rank of major-general in the army, and died in 1786, leaving an only child—
FLORA MURE CAMPBELL, Countess of Loudoun, who married in 1804 the Earl of Moira, created Marquis of Hastings in 1816, who was an eminent statesman, and held for some years the office of Governor-General of India. The Marquis died in 1826 at Malta, of which he was governor and commander-in-chief. He had promised his wife that they should lie in the same grave. As this could not in the circumstances be carried into effect, he desired his right hand to be amputated at his death and sent home, that it might be buried with the Marchioness. It was deposited in the family vault in Loudoun Kirk, and when she died in 1840 it was laid in the grave beside her body. The eldest of her three daughters was Lady Flora Hastings, and her only son became second Marquis of Hastings and sixth Earl of Loudoun. His eldest son, an officer in the army, was drowned at Liverpool in 1851 in his nineteenth year, and was succeeded by his brother, a poor unhappy and misguided youth, who made shipwreck of title, character, and estates. On his death in 1868, his sister, Edith Maude, wife of Charles Frederick Clifton, a member of an old Lancashire family, became Countess of Loudoun. She died in 1874 in her forty-first year, and directed by her will that her right hand be cut off and buried in Donington Park, the ancient possession of the Hastings family, which had been alienated by her brother, and the spot to be marked by a stone with the inscription, ‘I byde my time.’ Before her death she had succeeded in proving her right to no less than four ancient peerages—Botreaux, Hungerford, De Malynes, and Hastings, which had fallen into abeyance. They have descended to her son, the ninth Earl of Loudoun. Her eldest daughter married, in 1877, the fifteenth Duke of Norfolk.
According to the ‘Doomsday Book,’ the Loudoun estate consists of 18,638 acres, with a rental of £15,286 a year, and in addition the minerals yield £2,259 a year.
http://www.electricscotland.com/webclans/families/cambells_loudoun.htm
The 4th Earl of Loudoun
 The 4th Earl of Loudoun
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PORTRAIT OF THE 4TH EARL IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM Portrait of John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun, whole-length, standing on a bank with trees behind to left, directed to right, looking towards the viewer, his right hand on hip, holding Scottish beret, leaning on sword-hilt with the left; wearing kilt, tartan socks and powdered wig, tied at the nape; illustration to 'The London Magazine'; after Ramsay. |
Charles Rawdon-Hastings, 11th Earl of Loudoun
Charles Rawdon-Hastings, 11th Earl of Loudoun, accompanied by his Wife
Alice, and Nephew on the Day of George V coronation in 1911.
Charles and Alice, married without bearing Children, attended the coronation of George V. The Earls of Loudoun have traditionally been bearers of the Golden Spurs.
Charles and Alice, married without bearing Children, attended the coronation of George V. The Earls of Loudoun have traditionally been bearers of the Golden Spurs.
13th Countess of Loudoun on her wedding day in front of Loudoun Castle
Barbara Huddleston Abney-Hastings, 13th Countess of Loudoun (1919–2002), was a Scottish countess in her own right, and a member of the House of Lords.
Lady Loudoun was the oldest daughter of Reginald Mowbray Chichester Huddleston and Edith Abney-Hastings, 12th Countess of Loudoun. Her only brother, Ian Huddleston Abney-Hastings, styled Lord Mauchline (1918–1944), was killed in Italy in World War II, so as the oldest sister Barbara succeeded in the earldom in 1960.
Lady Loudoun was a member of the House of Lords until 1999 when the right of hereditary peers to sit in the Lords was abolished. She sat as a cross-bencher, and was concerned with social justice. She lived in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, England.
Ancestry On her mother's side, she was descended from and heir-general of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence. Her other notable ancestors include Mary Tudor, Queen of France, Lady Mary Boleyn, King James IV of Scotland, William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley and Alice Spencer, Countess of Derby. She was also descended from ancient Scottish nobility.
Marriages and children Lady Loudoun married three times:
Wikipedia
Lady Loudoun was the oldest daughter of Reginald Mowbray Chichester Huddleston and Edith Abney-Hastings, 12th Countess of Loudoun. Her only brother, Ian Huddleston Abney-Hastings, styled Lord Mauchline (1918–1944), was killed in Italy in World War II, so as the oldest sister Barbara succeeded in the earldom in 1960.
Lady Loudoun was a member of the House of Lords until 1999 when the right of hereditary peers to sit in the Lords was abolished. She sat as a cross-bencher, and was concerned with social justice. She lived in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, England.
Ancestry On her mother's side, she was descended from and heir-general of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence. Her other notable ancestors include Mary Tudor, Queen of France, Lady Mary Boleyn, King James IV of Scotland, William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley and Alice Spencer, Countess of Derby. She was also descended from ancient Scottish nobility.
Marriages and children Lady Loudoun married three times:
- She married firstly Captain Walter Strickland Lord in 1939. They had one child:
- Michael Abney-Hastings, 14th Earl of Loudoun (1942-2012).
- She married secondly Captain Gilbert Frederick Greenwood in 1945. They had two children:
- Lady Selina Mary Greenwood (b. 1946).
- Hon. Frederick James Greenwood (b. 1949).
- She married thirdly Peter Griffiths in 1954. They had three children:
- Lady Margaret Maud Abney-Hastings (b. 1956).
- Lady Mary Joy Abney-Hastings (b. 1957).
- Lady Clare Louise Abney-Hastings (b. 1958).
Wikipedia
Michael Abney_Hastings 14th Earl of Loudoun
14th Earl of Loudoun , Michael Abney-Hastings
14th Earl of Loudoun , Michael Abney-Hastings
John Campbell (1598–1663), 1st Earl of Loudoun --
John Campbell was the eldest son of James Campbell of Lawers. He married Margaret, the daughter of George Campbell, around 1620. Margaret was heir to her grandfather Hugh Campbell, 1st Lord Loudoun, who resigned his peerage in John's favour. As the second Lord Loudoun, Campbell inherited the Loudoun estates in Ayrshire; he was granted the earldom of Loudoun by King Charles I in 1633.
Loudoun was among the noblemen who supported the protests against the King's attempts to introduce innovations into the Scottish church and at his interference in the traditions of the Scottish nobility. Naturally eloquent and persuasive, Loudoun emerged as a leading spokesman for the Covenanter movement at the Glasgow Assembly of 1638. In July 1639, he was a commissioner at the treaty negotiations held at Berwick after the First Bishops' War; the following year he was one of the Scottish commissioners sent to London to negotiate with the King. In March 1640, a letter was discovered from the Covenanters to Louis XIII of France requesting his support. King Charles regarded the request as treasonous. As one of the seven signatories of the letter, Loudoun was arrested in London on 11 April and imprisoned in the Tower of London.
He was released after promising to attempt to persuade the Covenanters to disband the army that was gathering in Scotland. However, Loudoun accompanied the army when it invaded England during the Second Bishops' War and once again played a leading role in the treaty negotiations at Ripon and London.
He resisted Charles I, and in 1641 was appointed Lord Chancellor of Scotland, an office which he held for 19 years, until he was deposed at the Restoration; and was also First Commissioner of the Treasury. From 1649 to 1660 he was President of the Privy Council. He was Chancellor of the University of St Andrews from 1643 til his death in 1662.
Loudoun resisted the Cromwellian subjugation of Scotland for as long as he could, refusing to make his formal submission to General George Monck until March 1655. He lived peaceably until the Restoration in 1660 when he was obliged to resign the office of Lord-Chancellor and was fined for his past support of the Covenanters.
Loudoun died at Edinburgh in March 1662. Wikipedia