Lindsay, a Scottish historical house of Norman extraction. Sir Walter de Lindsay, settling in Scotland under David I., acquired Erildoun in
Berwickshire, and Luffness in East Lothian. His descendant, William Lindsay, Justiciary of Lothian in the 12th century, acquired Crawford in Clydesdale, married Princess Marjory, sister of King William the Lion, and had three sons. The two elder lines of these ended in heiresses, and Crawford eventually came to the descendants of William of Luffness, the third son.
Earls of Crawford and Duke of Montrose.—Sir Alexander Lindsay, younger brother of Sir James of Crawford, the hero of Otterburn, acquired Glenesk and Edzell, and his son David married the sister of Robert III., and was created in 1398 Earl of Crawford. Their chief seat was Finhaven, in Angus. The family attained its climax of power under David, fifth earl, who was made Duke of Montrose in 1488. The grand-nephew of the duke was known as 'The Wicked Master'; and his conduct led his father to transfer the earldom to David Lindsay of Edzell, the next heir. He, however, left it at his death to the son of the 'Wicked Master.' This line ended in the sixteenth earl, and by arrangement, Lord Lindsay of the Byres succeeded to the earldom of Crawford in preference to the descendants of the uncle of the sixteenth earl, who had been created Lord Spynie, and the intermediate cadets of Edzell and Balcarres.
Lord Lindsay of the Byres, Viscount Garnock.—Sir William Lindsay, younger brother of the first Earl of Crawford, acquired extensive estates with his wife, a daughter of Sir William Mure of Abercorn. His grandson was made Lord Lindsay of the Byres, county Haddington, in 1445, but their principal residence was Struthers Castle in Fife. The tenth lord was in 1644 created Earl of Lindsay; and, as stated above, under a new patent of Charles I. he became seventeenth Earl of Crawford. He was High Treasurer of Scotland. His grandson by a younger son was created Viscount Garnock in 1703. The fourth Viscount Garnock succeeded as twenty-first Earl of Crawford; and his son, the twenty-second Earl, dying in 1808, was the last of the direct line of the Byres.
Earls of Balcarres and Crawford.—The Lindsays of Balcarres, in Fife, were a branch, and eventually the representatives, of the Lindsays of Edzell. The first was Lord Menmuir, Secretary of State to James VI. His son David was created Lord Lindsay of Balcarres in 1633, and his grandson, Alexander, Earl of Balcarres in 1651. On the death of the twenty-second Earl of Crawford, James, seventh Earl of Balcarres, became twenty-third Earl of Crawford. A further claim was preferred without success to the dukedom of Montrose, conferred by James III., by the late Earl of Crawford (q.v.). See his Lives of the Lindsays (1849), and Jervise's Land of the Lindsays (2d ed. 1882).