MENTEITH, Helena ¹

   User ID: Q594

Helena married Sir Colin CAMPBELL 3rd of Lochow, son of Sir Neil CAMPBELL 2nd of Lochow and Alice CRAWFORD.¹ (Sir Colin CAMPBELL 3rd of Lochow was born about 1303(1304) and died on 2 May 1343.)

  Marriage Notes:

In The Scots Peerage (vol 1) we read that:

"Sir Colin (Campbell, 3rd of Lochow) died before May 1343. He is said to have married Helena, daughter of Sir John Mor, son of the Earl of Lennox"

The Clan Campbell website follows this line on the parentage of Helena:

"(Sir Colin Campbell, 3rd Lord of Lochow) Married: Helena de Levenax of Lennox, daughter of Sir John 'Mor' de Levenax of Lennox, son of the Earl of Lennox
Children: 1. Sir Archibald Campbell later 4th Lord of Lochow 2. Dugal Campbell of Glassary, m Margaret, sister and heiress of John Glasreth of Glassary 3. John Campbell 1. Alicia Campbell"

Other secondary sources, too, reproduce this: e.g. stirnet.com has "Sir John 'Mor' of Lennox" as second son of Malcolm 4th Earl of Lennox who died in 1291.

But was there actually son named John born to Malcolm, 4th Earl of Lennox?

It would seem not, for in The Scots Peerage (vol 5) we read in reference to Malcolm 4th Earl of Lennox, one of the Celtic Earls of Lennox at the time in question, that:

"The name of the fourth Earl's wife was Margaret, but her parentage has not been ascertained. He had issue, so far as known, one son, Malcolm, who succeeded."

There may have been a confusion with another man whom we know was named John, and who temporaily at least, was elevated to the status of Earl of Lennox. However, he is not to be found among the ancient Celtic Earls of Lennox. He was, as the Dictionary of National Biography describes him:

"MENTEITH, Sir JOHN de (d. after 1329), Scottish knight, [....] the younger son of Walter Stewart, earl of Menteith, and of his wife, the daughter and heiress of William Comyn, earl of Menteith, whose marriage brought the Menteith earldom for a time into the house of Stewart (Douglas, Peerage of Scotland, p. 472, ed. 1764)."

In Scottish history Sir John de Menteith was a somewhat ambivalent figure, for he was reputed to have captured William Wallace at Glasgow, and delivered him to London in captivity, and on those grounds John was considered to have been treasonous to Scotland. The Dictionary of National Biography goes on:

"Menteith took his captive, loaded with chains, to London. A month after Wallace's death on the scaffold Menteith was nominated one of the representatives of the Scots barons in the parliament of both nations which assembled at London in September. He was chosen a substitute for the Earl of March [see under Dunbar, Agnes], who had not attended, and was put upon the Scottish council, which was appointed to assist John of Brittany, Edward's nephew, the new regent of Scotland, in the English interest (Palgrave, Doc. illustrating Hist. of Scotland, p. 293). He was further rewarded with a grant of lands valued at 100l. (ib. p. 295), and on 1 June Edward ordered that the earldom of Lennox should be conferred on him, while on 15 June he gave him his Dumbarton office for life (ib. p. 305). Before October Menteith received his final grants, and was despatched to Scotland on the king's business (Cal. Doc. Scotland, iv. 488, 489)."

By December 1307 he had re-chosen Scotland, and "abandoning his newly won earldom of Lennox, henceforth steadfastly adhered to the popular cause." In 1309 he was sent with Sir Nigel (or Neil) Campbell to treat with Richard de Burgh, earl of Ulster.

We know that John de Menteith's daughter, Joanna, married John Campbell, Earl of Atholl, son of that same Sir Neil Campbell of Lochow by his third wife Mary de Brus.

It would not be a surprising or an outlandish hypothesis, then, if another daughter married Sir Neil Campbell's other son by his first wife, Colin Campbell, 3rd of Lochow. The Scots Peerage (vol 6) tells us that Sir John de Menteith had three daughters, and since he had a sister named Elena, who married John Drummond, son of the Malcolm Drummond, Seneschal of Lennox, it would be not totally unlikely that one of them was named Helena.

This, of course, is speculative and not proven, but it does count in some degree to a solution of the confusion about who "Sir John Mor, son of the Earl of Lennox" might have been.


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