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Heiress of Charles 7th Earl of Wigton; wife of Charles 10th Lord Elphinstone
The death in 1747 of the 7th Earl of Wigton and 10th Lord Fleming, the Reverend Charles Fleming brought an end to a line of 18 chiefs of Clan Fleming. The family’s lands passed to his niece and heiress Lady Clementina Fleming but she could not inherit the title of Earl of Wigton (so the leadership of Clan Fleming has been in abeyance ever since).
Lady Clementina married Charles Elphinstone (who became the 10th Lord Elphinstone in 1757 on the death of his father) and produced a large family. Her son John succeeded his father as 11th Lord Elphinstone but his mother survived him. She died on the first day of 1799 and was the last in a direct line of distinguished Flemings to be buried in Biggar Kirk.
Her grandson John 12th Lord Elphinstone laid claim to all the Fleming estates that she had held but this was contested by his brother Charles (who maintained that they were entailed for the second son). The case was decided in Charles' favour by the House of Lords and he therefore assumed the Fleming arms and surname. His son John eventually succeeded as 14th Lord Elphinstone.
His sister Clementina Elphinstone Fleming (pictured left) was a noted pioneer photographer whose collection is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. She married in 1844 Cornwallis Maude, 4th Viscount Hawarden, an Irish peer who succeeded her brother in the property. He was later created 1st Earl de Montalt.
The Countess of Hawarden died in 1865 and her son Cornwallis Maude succeeded to the Wigton estates and consequently assumed the Fleming surname. He visited Biggar and Cumbernauld on 30 April 1867. A subsequent Act of Parliament allowed him to sell the estate, so in 1875 he sold Cumbernauld to Mr John William Burns of Kilmahew for 160,000 pounds, thus sadly terminating the continuous connection to the estate that his Fleming ancestors had held since 1306.
Cumbernauld House
(c) James Michael Fleming 2023
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