Earl of Dunbar

Earldom of the March

The Arms of the Realm and Ancient Local Principalities of Scotland[1]

The title Earl of Dunbar, also called Earl of Lothian or Earl of March, applied to the head of a comital lordship in south-eastern Scotland between the early 12th century and the early 15th century. The first man to use the title of Earl in this capacity was Gospatric II, Earl of Lothian, son of Gospatric, Earl of Northumbria. It descended to George de Dunbar, 11th Earl of March, whose titles & estates were declared forfeit by the Scottish parliament in 1435, and retired into obscurity in England. His son Patrick retained a barony at Kilconquhar in Fife.[2]

The title of Earl of Dunbar was revived in 1605 for George Home, 1st Lord Hume of Berwick, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and his heirs male.[3][4] This title became dormant[5] only six years after its creation, upon Home's death in 1611. Some of his kinsmen were said to be acknowledged as de jure holders of the title, but none of them ever appears to have assumed the title.[6]

There have been no subsequent creations; however, two other peerages with similar names are Lord of Dunbar and Viscount of Dunbar.

  1. ^ Bartholomew Scotland of old: clan names map; the lands, the arms and the crests. 1983. ISBN 0-7028-1709-0
  2. ^ Miller, James, The History of Dunbar, Dunbar, 1830: 89
  3. ^ Playfair, William, British Family Antiquity, London, 1811, vol.viii: cccxi
  4. ^ Cokayne, G. E; Gibbs, Vicary; Doubleday, H. Arthur, editors, The Complete Peerage, London, 1916, 'Dunbar', p. 510
  5. ^ The Complete Peerage, 1912, Cokayne, et al. eds., Vol IV, p. 511
  6. ^ Paul, Sir James Balfour, ed. (1904) The Scots Peerage, Vol. III, p. 280-89