Note 92 — INTRODUCTION.

Father Hay states (Genealogie of the St. Clairs, p. 17) that Henry St. Clair “married Elisabeth Sparres, daughter of Malesius Sparres, Prince of Orkney, Earl of Caithness and Stratherne, through which marriage he became Prince of Orkney.” But Malise Sperra never had any connection with the earldoms of Caithness or Stratherne. In another place, p. 33, he says that Sir William Sinclair (who fell fighting with the Saracens in Spain in 1330) “was married to Elizabeth Sparre, daughter to the Earle of Orkney, and so by her became the first Earl of Orkney of the Saintclairs. His name was Julius Sparre. He is also reputed Earl of Stratherne and Caithness.” But this is manifestly a tissue of impossibilities. He seems to have copied the last statement from the Drummond MS. (1681), where the additional statement is made that Elizabeth’s mother was Lucia, daughter of the Earl of Ross. (Genealogie of the House of Drummond: Edinburgh, 1831, p. 237.) Both writers seem to have confounded Malise, Earl of Stratherne, with his daughter’s son, Malise Sperra.