George Munro, 4th of Milntown

Biographical Summary

"IV. George Monro, to whom Dingwall of Kildun, by deed dated at Inveran, the 20th of April, 1541, sold his half of the lands of Ferncosky in Braechat, parish of Creich ; and on the 22nd of June following James V. granted him a Crown charter of the same lands. In 1542 the same King granted him a Crown charter of a fourth of the lands of Easter Aird, in the Parish of Tarbat, called the Intown of Tarbat, which had been sold to him by his cousin, James Dunbar of Tarbat...

...He married Janet, daughter of James Fraser, I. of Phopachy, whose uncle, John Fraser, was Bishop of Ross from 1485, until his death on the 5th of February, 1507. Her brothers, the Rev. Paul Fraser and the Rev. Almond Fraser, were settled in Rosskeen and Alness respectively, while her brother, John Fraser, progenitor of Dunballoch, was Chamberlain, alter oculus, for their uncle, the Bishop, at Nigg, another brother, Robert, being Chamberlain to the Abbot of Fearn. By her George Munro had issue —

• Andrew, his heir and successor.
• Donald, I. of Tarlogie, of whose descendants in their order.
• George, Chancellor of Ross, from whom are descended the Munros of Pitlundie and Bearscroft, Auchenbowie, Craig Lockhart and Cockburn, Argaty, Edmondsham, Fearn and Ingsdon.
• Janet, who married John Murray of Pulrossie, with issue —
  • George, and
  • John. In 1579, or some time previously, John Murray granted "to his wife Janet Munro, the daughter of the deceased George Munro of Dauchcarty, and in heritage to the heirs got between them, with reversion to John himself and his heirs, the lands of Pulrossie and the lands of Floid, lying in the Earldom of Sutherland and Sheriffdom of Inverness," and in the same year James VI. confirmed the grant. Murray died in 1599, when his son George was served heir in the lands of Spinningdale, with the mill, Achany, Floid, and Pulrossie, all " in the lordship, of the old extent of £14 13s 4d." George Murray appears again on record in 1613, "as having or pretending to have a right to the lands of Farr." On the 4th of June, 1616, he is a member of the assize which served John eighteenth Earl of Sutherland as heir to his father John.
• Margaret, who married Hugh Fraser, II. of Guisachan and Culbokie ; for in that year Mary granted to Hugh Fraser and Margaret Munro, his wife, the Western half of Easter Culbokie, with the house and gardens made and to be made near the shore, in the place called Querrel, in the lordship of Ardmanach, resigned by Hugh. She was served to her terce in Culbokie, as his widow, on the 29th of May, 1597. They had issue — three sons and a daughter — William, Alexander, Hugh, and Janet, who married Thomas Chisholm, XV. of Chisholm, without issue.
• Isabel, who married Hugh Ross, II. of Achnacloich, parish of Rosskeen, with issue. She died on the 24th of December, 1594, her husband surviving her until the 10th of September, 1621.

George of Milntown had also a natural son, John, I. of Pitonachy, now Rosehaugh, ancestor of the Munros of Novar, of Eindon, Poyntzfield, and several other families, of whom in their order.

He died at Milntown Castle on the 1st of November, 1576, and was buried in Kilmuir-Easter Churchyard, when he was succeeded by his eldest son."

SOURCE: History of the Munros of Fowlis: with genealogies of the principal families of the name to which are added those of Lexington and New England; Alexander Mackenzie; 1898; page 274-277