Ancestor Index

The Anstruther descent from the Saxon King Egbert

King Egbert's mythical descent from Woden ...

Woden - Baeldaeg - Brand - Beorn - Frithugar - Freawine - Wig - Gewis - Esla -

Elesa - Cerdic - Cynric (?534-560) - Ceawlin (560-592) - Cuthwine (d. 584) -

Cuthwulf or Cutha - Coelwald - Cenred (d. 690) - Ingild - Eoppa - Eafa -

Ealhmund, (under-king in Kent, 784-786) - Egbert (802-839).

The Sons of King Egbert

King (1016) Edmund II Edmund Ironside

The son of King Edmund Ironside was Edward the Exile d 1057

Athelstan d 1015

Edwig killed 1017

Ealdgyth = Edric Streona

Alfred murdered 1036

King (1042-1066) Edward the Confessor = Ealdgyth, daughter of Godwin the sister of King (1066) Harold who was killed at the Battle of Hastings.

Goda = Drogo, Count of Mantes whose son Ralph (the Timid) was Earl of Hereford (d 1057)

(Drogo - Dreux - widely accepted as the progenitor of family Drew)

The son of Edward the Exile

Edgar Atheling d 1106

Her father-in-law was King Duncan who was murdered by Macbeth in 1040. Her daughter, Matilda, married King Henry I of England who was the third son of King William (the Conqueror). St. Margaret died in 1093.

The great grandson of Robert Bruce and Isabella of Huntingdon was Robert the First, "Robert the Bruce", King of Scotland 1306-1329. His daughter, the Princess Margaret, married Walter Stewart. Their son was Robert II, King of Scots, 1370-1390, father of King Robert III, 1390-1406, who in turn was father of James the First of Scotland, 1406-1437, who was father of James II of Scotland, 1437-1460.

James II of Scotland had a daughter, the Princess Mary who married James, Lord Hamilton. Their son, James, Earl of Arran, was the father of James, Duke of Chatelherault, Regent of Scotland, who died in 1575. His great grandson was James, Duke of Hamilton, who was beheaded in 1649, leaving no son.

One of the seats of the Dukes of Hamilton was Ashton Hall in Lancashire. The ownership of the Hall descends through an original family, Lawrence, being granted the demesne as a result of valiant deeds performed during the 3rd. Crusade at the siege of Acre in 1191. It was this same military occasion that saw the grant of arms for bravery to a Smyth/e (Carrington) ancestor who, it is believed, was also of Lancaster. In fact, several of the Smith/e - Smyth/e families treated on this site may be traced back to the original Carrington ancestor, Sir Michael Carrington, who was the Standard Bearer to King Richard Ist. The family name, Carrington, was changed to Smyth in order to protect the identity of one Carrington ancestor during the mid 15th century. The above name link expands this information. Ashton Hall ownership descended through Boteler (Butler) of Rawcliffe to Radcliff of Winmarleigh, and so by marriage to Gilbert Gerard who purchased an outstanding moiety from the Crown. Thus the whole became united in him and his descendants, the Gerards of Bromley and the Dukes of Hamilton. Richard Skillecorne held part of it of the king in socage in 1534. Thomas Rigmaiden in 1520 held the reversion of the fourth part of the manor. John Boteler in 1534 held the manor of the king as duke in socage. Sir Gilbert died in 1593 holding the manors of Ashton, Stodday, and Scotforth of the queen as of her crown of England in a fee farm by the hundredth part of a knight's fee and a rent of £16.11s. 4d. In August 1648, the Duke of Hamilton stayed a night at Ashton Hall which was, in later years, to become the inheritance of the family. The Smith/e - Smyth/e family were connected through marriage to Lawrence family and had connection to the Rigmaiden lineage. (qv Smyth/e link above.)

The eldest daughter of the executed James, Duke of Hamilton was Anne of Hamilton who (unusually) succeeded him as Duchess of Hamilton in her own right. By her husband, William Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, she was the mother of James, 4th Duke of Hamilton who was killed under suspicious circumstances in a duel in 1712 - fighting over Cheshire property. His son, Lord Anne Hamilton, 1709-1748 (named after his Godmother, Queen Anne) was the ancestor of the present Dukes of Hamilton and by his wife, Mary Powell, had a younger son, Lieutenant Colonel James Hamilton, of the Coldsteam Guards, 1746-1804.

The daughter of Lieutenant Colonel James Hamilton, Charlotte Lucy Hamilton, died in 1833 having married at Margate in 1799, Brigadier General Robert Anstruther who died during the lifetime of his father - Sir Robert Anstruther - 3rd Baronet of Balcaskie, Fife, Advocate.

General Robert Anstruther was killed on active service at the time of the Battle of Corunna during the Peninsular War, in 1809. His son, Sir Ralph A. Anstruther, succeeded as 4th Baronet (1804-1863), and married Mary Jane Torrens. Their son was Sir Robert Anstruther, 5th Baronet, whose second son was Henry Torrens Anstruther, M.P., who married the Hon. Eva Isabella Henrietta Hanbury-Tracy.

Their two children were Douglas Tollemache Anstruther and Joyce Anstruther, who married Anthony Maxtone Graham and by whom she had two sons and a daughter.

Douglas Anstruther married firstly, (1914) Enid Campbell 2nd daughter of Lord George Granville Campbell, son of 8th Duke of Argyll, K.G., K.T. The children of this marriage were Adrian Fagus Campbell Anstruther (died young), Ian Fife Campbell Anstruther (present Baronet) and Janet Finetta Campbell Anstruther.

He married secondly, Evelyn Mabel (Babs) Wormald. The only child and daughter of this marriage was Jean Dionis Anstruther who married Capt. Richard David Somerset Drew-Smythe in 1949. The children of this marriage were Ian David Drew-Smythe (1950) and Janet Diana Drew-Smythe (1954).

N.B. Sir Philip Anstruther, 2nd. Bt. married Catherine Hay of Spott whose family line also traces back to the Saxon line via King Edward III.

See The Hastings Legacy - image link adjacent - which shows further allied family descendancy from King Egbert through William the Conqueror to Henry VII (Tudor) and thence to the present era via the marriage of Henry (Harry) Torrens Anstruther to The Hon. Eva Isabella Henrietta Hanbury-Tracy.

In particular, note the history of Cecily Neville - whose Neville family lineage connects with a number of Smith/e - Smyth/e dynasties. Cecily Neville's nephew was Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (1428-1471) - nicknamed 'the Kingmaker'. The Kingmaker's niece, Isabella Neville, married (thirdly) Sir William Smythe of Elford in Staffordshire.

Also, linked through the maternal line, is William Smyth, Apothecary of Shrewsbury, whose daughter, Corbetta Smyth was the 'common law' wife of Lord William Manners, 2nd son of the 2nd Duke of Rutland. Corbetta Smyth bore ten children to Lord William Manners - nine of whom survived to adulthood. She died a spinster.

The Hastings Legacy - Part 2