WILLIAM KER (c. 1605-1675), who thus became 3rd earl of Lothian, signed
the Scottish national covenant in 1638 and marched with the Scots into
England in 1640, being present when the English were routed at Newburn,
after which he became governor of Newcastle-on-Tyne. During the Civil
War he was prominent rather as a politician than as a soldier; he
became a Scottish secretary of state in 1649, and was one of the
commissioners who visited Charles II. at Breda in 1650. He died at
Newbattle Abbey, near Edinburgh, in October 1675. William's eldest son
Robert, the 4th earl (1636-1703), supported the Revolution of 1688 and
served William III. in several capacities; he became 3rd earl of Ancrum
on the death of his uncle Charles in 1690, and was created marquess of
Lothian in 1701. His eldest son William, the 2nd marquess (c.
1662-1722), who had been a Scottish peer as Lord Jedburgh since 1692,
was a supporter of the union with England. His son William, the 3rd
marquess (c. 1690-1767), was the father of William Henry, the 4th
marquess, who was wounded at Fontenoy and was present at Culloden. He
was a member of parliament for some years and had reached the rank of
general in the army when he died at Bath on the 12th of April 1775. His
grandson William, the 6th marquess (1763-1824), married Henrietta
(1762-1805), daughter and heiress of John Hobart, 2nd earl of
Buckinghamshire, thus bringing Blickling Hall and the Norfolk estates of
the Hobarts into the Kerr family. In 1821 he was created a peer of the
United Kingdom as Baron Ker and he died on the 27th of April 1824. In
1900 Robert Schomberg Kerr (b. 1874) succeeded his father, Schomberg
Henry, the 9th marquess (1833-1900), as 10th marquess of Lothian.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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