John Munro, 3rd of Balconie

Biographical Summary

"IV. John Munro, third of Balconie. He married Catherine, second daughter of Robert Munro, XIV. of Fowlis, with issue —

• Hugh, his heir and successor.
• Robert, who studied for the ministry, and after passing his secondary trials before the Presbytery of Abertarff was recommended by that body for ordination on the 23rd of February, 1676, was ordained accordingly on the 2nd of March, and admitted to Abertarff on the 12th of the same month and year. He is best known to fame as the minister who on the 7th of October, 1697, married Simon Fraser, Master of Lovat, afterwards the notorious Lord Simon, to Lady Amelia Murray, daughter of the Marquis of Atholl, then Dowager Lady Lovat, under the most brutal and repulsive circumstances, for which Simon was subsequently sentenced to death and his estates forfeited,* At the same Court, " Robert Munro, minister of Abertarfif, was, among several others, for his part in the outrage upon the Dowager Lady Lovat " — none of them having appeared — put to the horn, his moveable goods and gear forfeited, declared an outlaw and 'a fugitive from the laws, and formal sentence pronounced for doom in the usual way in such cases. He however, died a natural death, without issue, if not also unmarried, a few weeks after the forcible marriage of her Ladyship, in the same month, and nearly a year before the 6th of September, 1698, when the sentence of outlawry was pronounced against him.
• John, of whom nothing is known.
• Margaret, who married Thomas Urquhart of Davidston, son of Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty.
• Catherine, who married Donald Simpson of Bannans, with issue.
• Isobel, who married Bailie Alexander Clunas of Cromarty.
• Janet, who married Thomas Dingwall, of Chanonry.
• A daughter who died in infancy.

John was succeeded, on his death, 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 347-348