Reverend Charles Fleming (ca 1669 - 1747)

Charles succeeded his brother John 6th Earl of Wigtown and 11th Lord Fleming on his death aged 71 in London on 10 February 1742. Just five years later he followed his brother to the grave, thus ending a dynasty of Fleming clan chiefs that had run for 441 years since Robert Fleming had been granted the baronies of Cumbernauld and Lenzie by King Robert I in 1306.

Charles was succeeded in the Fleming estates by his 28-year-old niece Lady Clementina Fleming (daughter of John 6th Earl of Wigtown). This land was retained by her descendants for a further 128 years before Cumbernauld was finally sold in 1875. 

While Lady Clementina inherited the estates she could not inherit the title of Earl of Wigtown. It was claimed by Charles Ross Fleming, a doctor in Dublin who maintained that he descended from Reverend James Fleming who had been described in documents dated 1654 and 1660 as a son of Alexander Fleming, brother (or son) of John 1st Earl of Wigtown. But when Charles Ross Fleming was allowed to vote in the House of Lords on 22 September 1753 it was on the basis that he was a great-grandson of another son of John 1st Earl of Wigtown, Malcolm. This claim was challenged in 1761 and he was suspended from voting until he could prove by what authority he claimed the title. After his death in 1769 his son Hamilton Fleming persisted with the claim but the House of Lords decided in 1782 that he possessed no title.

With no further claimants having come forward, the leadership of Clan Fleming has been in abeyance ever since.