Niel Stewart, 3rd of Garth and Fothergill

Married 1) Christian Stewart 2) Mariota McQueen

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from Highlight of Garth Castle

In 1502, Neil Gointe Stewart became the Laird of Garth Castle and for years he and his henchmen attacked only the king’s enemies. Wild-tempered and probably bored when the king’s enemies were not around, Neil led his many sons and soldiers against his neighbors in an attempt to seize more land. They burned nearby Castle Menzies to the ground and captured Sir Robert Menzies, throwing him into the dungeon at Garth. Through starvation and ill-treatment his captors tried to force him to sign over all of his nearby lands to Neil, the Laird of Garth.​

King James (Stewart) IV went north with his knights to sort out the mess at Garth. Neil quietly released the Laird of Menzies after extracting a signed document of forgiveness from him, but Neil was rebuked by the king and warned to keep to himself.

Neil could not avoid conflict. Suspected of killing his second wife Mariota McQueen Stewart by dropping a rock on her head as she strolled through the burn below the castle and near the stream where it flows yet today, folk stories tell how Neil was sentenced by the King to dwell in his own dungeon for nine years until his death in 1554.

• http://genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00006335&tree=LEO
  • Historic Memoirs of the Stewarts of Fothergill, Edinburgh, 1879., Stewart, Charles Poyntz. GT1, page 23.
• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Nov 16 2016, 20:07:50 UTC