Nithsdale

Nithsdale, WILLIAM MAXWELL, EARL OF, was born in 1676, and at seven succeeded his father as fifth earl. In 1699 he married at Paris Lady Winifred Herbert (c. 1679–1749), youngest daughter of the Marquis of Powis, and thenceforward lived almost constantly at his Kirkcudbrightshire seat, Terregles, much embarrassed in circumstances, and sorely troubled as a Catholic by the neighbouring Presbyterian ministers. In 1715 'Nithsdale's bonnie lord' at once joined the English Jacobites under Forster and Derwentwater, and was taken prisoner at Preston. He was tried for high-treason in London, and sentenced to death in spite of abject excuses; but on 23d February 1716—the night before the day fixed for his execution—not knowing he had just been reprieved, he escaped from the Tower in woman's apparel, through the heroism of his countess. Naturally delicate and then advanced in pregnancy, she had ridden up to London in the depth of winter; and after her lord's escape she came back to Terregles, and dug up the family deeds, which she had buried in the garden, and by one of which the estates had been disposed in 1712 to their only son. They now settled at Rome, where the earl died on 20th March 1744. See Sir W. Fraser's Book of Carlaverock (2 vols. 1873).