We are the descendants of the Stewarts of Dunduff in Ayreshire, Scotland. These Stewarts are descended in the male line from
the Stewards of Jedworth, ancestors of the Stewart Earls of Galloway. They are also maternally descended by several Stewart
Daughters. Starting with Marion Stewart, daughter of Sir Walter Stewart of Dalswinton, descended from Sir John Stewart of Bonkyl.
The family history, research and information contained on this site covers descendants of the High Stewards of
Scotland and their Royal descendants. These trees were compiled using documents from the National Archives of the USA, Delaware State
Archives, National Archives of Ireland, National Archives of Scotland, the Exquecher Rolls of Scotland, Charters of the Abbey of Crosreguel,
The Wicklow Papers national Library Ireland, information transcribed from Latin documents, information held at the Stewart Society
in Scotland, Wills and Probate records, Court records, Bible records, Proni and private Stewart family papers.
William Stewart Laird
of Dunduff, was the First of the family to live in Ireland was granted 1000 acres of land in Ireland in 1610 by King James
I. This land was in the Portlough precinct in the County Donegal and called Cooleaghy. On August 29, 1629 it was re-granted and made
into the Manor of MountStewart. The family continued to live partly in Scotland until 1668 when they were declared malignant
(they were Royalists) Major John Stewart of MountStewart served under the Duke of Hamilton in 1648 at the battle of Preston. This
Support for King Charles I and the continued support of the Royal Stewart Family is what eventually lead to declaring the Stewarts
of Dunduff being malignant in 1668. Shortly after the Dunduff estate, along with their other properties in Scotland
was sold.
The Stewarts of Ballintoy descend from King Robert II’s illegitimate son John Stewart Hereditary Sheriff of
Bute. There is an incorrect version of the Dunduff Stewarts descent from the Sheriff of Bute given by John O’hart in
a book written in 1872, called Irish Pedigrees-The Origin of the Irish Nation. There are several problems that a user
of O’Hart’s work should be aware of. While he undertook a great deal of research, using the majority of available published sources,
many Gaelic scholars have superseded his work over the last 100 years. He was not familiar with the abundant unpublished Gaelic manuscript
sources available. These have shown that many of his genealogies are incorrect for the years prior to 1600 AD. Despite these limitations,
careful use of his work can be very productive. His genealogies for the years after 1600 have great value, and are often unavailable
elsewhere. Research on the Dunduff branch has shown that although it is descended from King Robert II. it is maternally and not
parternally descended. Other books that list the incorrect Pedigree include; General A. P. Stewart, His Life and Letters’ by Marshall
Wingfield, ‘Stewart Family Records’ by J. Montgomery Seaver, ‘History of the British Empire’ by William Francis Collier, Americans
of Royal Descent by Charles Henry Browning and ‘Dictionary of Royal Lineages of Europe and Other Countries, from the Earliest Times
to the Present’ by Carl Magnus Allstrom and The Isle of Bute in the Olden Times.
There is but one line of this ancestry
in America. Several members of the family were driven from different states of Europe, as exiles on account of religious and
political persecution; and several others came as colonists. All came to seek homes and to try to find that boon of liberty
which had been crushed out of the old world by king craft, and priest craft. So far as it is known or has ever been heard, every
one of our ancestors believed in the principles of democracy and liberty. The first to arrive in America was James Stewart of
Rockland Manor who espoused the cause of Prince Charles Stuart, called in history the young pretender, who claimed the throne of Great
Britain. James settled in Brandywine Hundred, New Castle County, Delaware and died in 1788. the Family trees on this site
are on the best information available at this time.
.
in whole without written consent.
She initially became the Steward's mistress. He married her in 1336 but the marriage was criticized as uncanonical, so he remarried her in 1349 following a papal dispensation dated at Avignon 22 November 1347.
She died before her husband inherited the crown at the rather advanced age of 54, and he married again (Papal Dispensation dated 2 May 1355), so she was never queen of Scotland.
On 27 March 1371, "The Lord John (who later took the title of King Robert III, changing his name because of what he saw as John de Baliol's unpatriotic desecration of the name John), Earl of Carrick and Steward of Scotland, first-born son of King Robert II" was declared heir to the Crown by Parliament in Scone Abbey.
They had at least ten children - some accounts say thirteen. Doubts about the validity of her marriage led to family disputes over her children's right to the crown.
Very little is known of his youth. He was probably brought up in a mixture of the Anglo-French culture of northern England and south-eastern Scotland, and the Gaelic culture of Carrick and the Irish Sea, French being his father-tongue and Gaelic his mother-tongue. He may have been fostered with a local family, as was the custom (Barbour mentions his foster-brother); it is suspected that his brother Edward was fostered with his second-cousin Domhnall O'Neill. Robert's first appearance in history is on a witness list of a charter issued by Alasdair MacDomhnaill, Lord of Islay. His name appears in the company of the Bishop of Argyll, the vicar of Arran, a Kintyre clerk, his father and a host of Gaelic notaries from Carrick.
In 1292 his mother died, elevating the 18 year old Robert to the Earldom of Carrick; this had the side effect of stripping his father of his jure uxoris claim to the title and lands. In November of the same year he saw Edward I, on behalf of the Guardians of Scotland, award the vacant Crown of Scotland to his grandfather's first cousin once removed, John Balliol, after a lobbying campaign known as the 'Great Cause'. Almost immediately his grandfather, Robert de Brus, 5th Lord of Annandale, resigned his Lordship of Annandale to Robert's father, possibly to avoid having to swear fealty to John as a vassal lord.
Later both father and son sided with Edward I against John, whom they considered a usurper and to whom Robert had not sworn fealty.
In April 1294, the younger Bruce had permission to visit Ireland for a year and a half, and, as a further mark of King Edward's favour, he received a respite for all the debts owed by him to the English Exchequer.
In 1295, Robert married his first wife, Isabella of Mar the daughter of Domhnall I, Earl of Mar and his wife Helen.
Some sources claim that Helen was the daughter of the Welsh ruler Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, Prince of North Wales, Llywelyn 'The Great' (1173–1240) and his spouse Joan, Lady of Wales, an illegitimate child of King John of England. However, as both Llywelyn and Joan were dead by 1246, that theory would most likely be incorrect. However, there are suggestions that Helen may have in fact been the daughter of Llywelyn's son Dafydd ap Llywelyn and his Norman wife Isabella de Braose, of the south Wales dynasty of Marcher Lords.