Collection of Manuscript Letters: concerning the claim of Fleming and his descendants to the title of Earl of Wigton.

AN ASTONISHING CACHE OF LETTERS ON A FAMILY'S CLAIM TO A SCOTTISH PEERAGE
circa 300 manuscript letters in various hands (most clearly legible) and on various sizes of notepaper and many with the postal address and date, very good.

Charles Ross Fleming (1711 ca. - 1769), M. D., eldest son of Rev. James Fleming of Kilkenny, Chaplain to the Lord Lieutenant in 1712, was educated at Trinity College Dublin. In 1743 he married Ann Hamilton of Killyleagh, Co. Down, in St. Werburgh's Church, Dublin. His son Hamilton Fleming had an only child, a daughter Harriet, who married William Gyll of Wraysbury House, Buckinghamshire. Charles Ross claimed to be a great grandson of Alexander Fleming, 4th. son of the 1st. Earl of Wigton and in 1747, when the 7th. Earl died without male issue, Charles Ross assumed the title of 8th. Earl of Wigton. Although his claim to the title was recognised by the Scottish Lords of Session in 1848 and he voted as 8th Earl of Wigton in several elections of Scottish representative peers he had difficulty having his claim to the title accepted by the House of Lords. After many lengthy investigations and petitions Charles Ross appeared before the House of Lords in 1761 which examined his claim and resolved that he had no right to the title in 1762. When he died in 1769 his son Hamilton Fleming, an officer in the 13th regiment of foot, assumed the title and petitioned the House of Lords in 1769 but his claim was also rejected. His Gyll descendants were still trying to claim the title in 1862. A remarkable source for social history and an understanding of the importance of titular rank. The earlier letters, to Charles Fleming (addressed to "8th Earl of Wigton") at various addresses in Dublin seem to hold out great hope for his claim to the title. In 1755 Robert Dalrymple advises him that "The Lord Advocate [is] my near relation & friend and ... I would get a favourable report from him and things after would go through the canal of the King and House of Lords easily". But later in the same year he cautions that "I don't think your promotion will come by Scots Interest". The matter was conducted in secret. "Moncrieff in Chancery is ye only person in Secrecy with us ... one false step wou'd bring down the whole Fabrick ...". The whole process dragged on for years and in 1759 attempts to get information from an elderly lady failed because "Mr. Fleming, Printer [of Edinburgh] is in the Interest of the Representatives of the late Lord Wigton who will probably not wish to see a distant relative prove his right to the peerage".
A second group of letters from 1801 to 1805 mainly concern the claim of Charles's son Hamilton to the title and interestingly these contain many personal letters from other titled people who all address him as "My Lord" and the letters are actually addressed to Lord Wigton. The final group of letters concern the claims of Hamilton's grandson G. W. J. Gyll to the title and contain numerous long-suffering replies from clergy who had gone through their parish archives on his behalf in the family's almost obsessive search for prove of the right to title. One letter of 1872 to "G.W.Gyll, Esq." from the Treasury Chambers states that "no trace .. can be discovered" of a "pension said to have been granted to the Earl of Wigton in 1761".Charles Fleming, 7th Earl of Wigton (1675-1747) died unmarried and without male heirs. On his death the title became dormant and his estates were inherited by his niece Clementina, daughter of his brother the 6th Earl. The title is still in abeyance.