Robert Munro, 16th Baron of Foulis

Biographical Summary

"XVI. Robert Munro, Sixteenth Baron, who has a Royal charter under the Great Seal, dated in 1589, of the lands of Easter Fowlis, Daan, Inverlael, and others in the counties of Ross and Inverness, addressed to Roberto de Foiilis, as registered in the public archives. This disproves the statement in the Coul MS. of his having been only a "fiar" — a person in fee of an estate — and heir apparent of the barony, and that he predeceased his father by three months.

He married three times, first, Marjory, youngest daughter of Kenneth Mackenzie, X. of Kintail, by Lady Elizabeth Stewart, third daughter of John third Earl of Atholl, by his wife Lady Mary Campbell, third daughter of Archibald second Earl of Argyll, the marriage being confirmed by a charter granted under the Great Seal on the 11th of July, 1574, by "Robert Munro of Fowlis to Marjory, sister to Colin Mackenzie of Kintail, of the lands of Meikle Findon," in the Black Isle. Kenneth Mackenzie of Kintail died on the 6th of June, 1568. The Lady of Fowlis died a few months after her marriage, without issue.

Robert was to have married, secondly, Eleanor Gordon, third daughter of John tenth Earl of Sutherland, by his second wife, Helenor Stewart, Dowager-Countess of Erroll, daughter of John third Earl of Lennox, grandfather of Lord Darnley. But Lady Eleanor died at Dornoch " on the night before the day fixed for her marriage with the Laird of Fowlis ; and that day, which was thought to have been the day of marriage and of mirth, fell forth to be a day of mourning and of sorrow." She cannot therefore be described as a wife, as she has been by certain genealogists. In some Peerages it is correctly stated that she died unmarried. Sir Robert Gordon, her nephew, makes the statement just quoted, and he could not have been mistaken about the contract of his aunt's marriage, or the peculiar circumstances connected with it. The deed is dated the 15th of April, 1579, and is preserved in the Sutherland charter chest.

Fowlis married, secondly, soon after, in the same year, Janet Sinclair, daughter of George fourteenth Earl of Caithness, who died shortly after her marriage, also without issue.

In 1587 he married, thirdly, Elizabeth, sixth daughter of Hugh Rose, X. of Kilravock (by his wife, Catherine, daughter of David Falconer of Halkerton), and widow of Walter Urquhart of Cromarty, to whom she was " contracted " on the 31st of August, 1579, with a "tocher of 2000 merks." The contract with Urquhart also states that she is to be infeft in the liferent of the lands of Little Suddie ; the Sub-Chanter's croft within the Chanonry of Ross ; Wester Balblair ; Balakervie ; Kinbreachie ; nineteen roods of a field lying within the burgage of Rosemarkie ; and the wester oxgang of Little Rhynie, within the Abbey of Fearn. She was Walter Urquhart's second wife, and at his death, in November, 1586, there was no surviving issue. By Munro she had one child, a daughter Margaret, who married Robert Munro, III. of Assynt in Ross, with issue.

Robert died in July, 1589, and shortly afterwards his widow married as her third husband John Gumming of Ernside, a cadet of the family of Altyre, in Morayshire, descended from John, third son of Sir William Gumming of Altyre.

John Gumming did not long survive his marriage with Munro's widow, and after his death she married as her fourth husband, Wilh'am Gordon of Carnborrow, afterwards of Rolhiemay ; "by all which husbands," the annalist of the Roses of Kilravock says, " there is none descended of her but Munro of Inveran and Achness, by a daughter." Robert died eight months after the death to his father, and was buried at Kiltearn, when he was succeeded by his brother."

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 60