Biographies: The Montgomerys

Lady Elizabeth Montgomery
The first wife of Sir Hugh Montgomery who played a role in the success of the settlement 

Background in Scotland
Born Elizabeth Shaw, she was the eldest daughter of James Shaw of Greenock. She was the wife of Hugh Montgomery of Braidstane and together they had five children; the two oldest were born in Scotland, with the others probably born in Ulster - Hugh, who went on to become the 2nd Viscount of the Great Ardes, James, who settled at Rosemount, Mary Elizabeth, who married Sir Robert MacLellan of Kirkcudbright, Jean, who married Patrick Savage, and George. 

George was his mother’s favourite - ‘he was in his youthhood indulged by her in his pleasures’. Later in life she was matchmaker when she ‘designed for his wife’ Grizel MacDowall, daughter of the laird of Garthland near Portpatrick.

Life in Ulster 
Elizabeth migrated to Ulster with her husband and older children and her brother, either John or James Shaw, in May 1606. Her uncle, Patrick Shaw, and her sister 
Christian/Christina (who married Patrick Montgomery, later of Creboy or Craigboy, near Donaghadee) also came to Ulster at around the same time. From the surviving records it is clear that Elizabeth was fully involved in the planning and running of the new settlement, in particular when Sir Hugh Montgomery was away in London.
 
Her grandson William Montgomery of Rosemount wrote, ‘Sir Hugh and his Lady’s example, they both being active and intent on the work (as birds, after payring to make nests for their brood), then you might see streets and tenements regularly set out, and houses rising as it were out of the ground … on a sudden, so that these dwellings became towns immediately’.

News of bumper harvests in Ulster in 1606 and 1607 led to a surge of new settlers ‘who came over the more in number and the faster’ and Elizabeth Montgomery rose 
to the challenge: ‘This conference gave occasion to Sir Hugh’s Lady to build watermills in all the parishes, to the great advantage of her house, which was numerous in servants … the millers also prevented the necessity of bringing meal from Scotland, and grinding with quairn stones (as the Irish did to make their graddon) both which inconveniencys the people, at their first coming, were forced to undergo’. 

She also introduced a novel scheme of bartering for new tenants who had arrived from Scotland with little money but some livestock: ‘Her Ladyship had also her farms at Greyabbey and Comber as well as at Newtown, both to supply newcomers and her house; and she easily got men for plough and barn, for many came over who had not stocks to plant and take leases of land, but had brought a cow or two and a few sheep, for which she gave them grass and so much grain per annum, and an house and garden-plot to live on, and some land for flax and potatoes, as they agreed on for doing their work, and there be at this day many such poor labourers amongst us; and this was but part of her good management…’

She also pioneered the early Ulster-Scots textile industry, specifically linen and woollen production, the local manufacture of which reduced the value of Scottish imported ‘breakens’ or tartan: ‘for she set up and encouraged linen and woollen manufactory which soon brought down the prices of ye breakens and narrow cloths of both sorts’. 

Restoring Newtownards Priory; building ‘Newtown House’ 

The first ruined church to be restored by the Scottish settlers was Newtownards Priory. It was here that Elizabeth Montgomery demonstrated her skills and vision for the new settlement, as Sir Hugh was regularly away attending to other duties: ‘In process of time the rest of that church was repaired, roofed, and replenished with pews (before his death), mostly by his Lady’s care and oversight, himself being much abroad’. 

With the Priory restored for worship, the Montgomerys then restored part of the adjacent ruins into a home for themselves, called ‘Newtown House’. It was again 
Elizabeth Montgomery who ‘fully finished’ the building by 1618: ‘This was a work of some time and years, but the same was fully finished by that excellent Lady (and fit helper mostly in Sir Hugh’s absence), because he was by business much and often kept from home, after the year 1608 expired; yet the whole work was done many months before Sir Hugh and she went to London, Ao 1618, as the dates of coats of arms doth shew in the buildings’. Newtown House was destroyed by fire ‘by the carelessness of servants’ in 1664.

Death and Burial 
Elizabeth Montgomery died between two key dates - some time after the marriage of her eldest son Hugh, which took place in either 1620 or 1623, and before her widower husband Sir Hugh Montgomery remarried in 1630. She was buried in Newtownards Priory. Sir Hugh Montgomery’s second wife was Sarah Maxwell, Countess of Wigtown. He ‘brought her to Newtown, to fill up the empty side of his bed … but she not liking to live in Ireland … after some months stay, returned to Scotland, and did remain therein, which obliged his Lordship to make yearly summer visits to her, and to send divers messages (by his son George) to persweade her Ladyship to return and cohabit with him’. 

She was not to be persuaded, so Sir Hugh sent her a page boy called Edward Betty or Beattie - a dwarf with golden curly hair described as ‘the prettiest little man I ever beheld. He was of a blooming damask rose complexion; his hair was of a shining gold colour, with natural ring-like curls hanging down, and dangling to his breast’. Sarah Montgomery died on 29 March 1636 aged 60 and was buried at Holyrood in Edinburgh. By now aged 76, Sir Hugh’s final visit to Scotland was to attend her funeral, but on the way back his coach overturned and he suffered a number of injuries - ‘the pains whereof reverted every spring and harvest till his own fall’. 

Associated sites: 
Newtownards Priory 
Greyabbey 
Comber

Hugh Montgomery (1597-1642), 2nd Viscount of the Great Ardes
Heir of the Montgomery estates and military commander during the 1641 Rebellion

Background in Scotland
Hugh Montgomery was the eldest son of Hugh Montgomery, the laird of Braidstane, and Elizabeth Shaw. Relatively little is known about his life. In the preface of The Montgomery Manuscripts it is noted that ‘The memoir of the second viscount is unfortunately lost, at least for the present, having been probably carried away to Australia by the author’s lineal descendant, Captain Frederick Campbell Montgomery, who settled in that colony about the year 1835’. After a ‘liberal education’ young Hugh travelled abroad, including to Italy. 

Life in Ulster
He returned to Ulster and in 1623 married Jean Alexander, daughter of Sir William Alexander. As a wedding gift Sir Hugh Montgomery built the couple a home called Mount Alexander at Comber, named in honour of the bride’s family. On the death of Sir Hugh Montgomery in 1636, Hugh Montgomery II became the 2nd Viscount of the Great Ardes and moved back to the parental home, ‘Newtown House’. He was appointed to the Irish Privy Council in 1637. 

The 1641 Rebellion
He became a Colonel during the 1641 Rebellion, which began on 22 October, commanding 1000 men and five troops of horses - most of which he funded personally at a cost of £1000. His brother, James Montgomery of Rosemount, also led a regiment during the Rebellion. Writing from Mount Alexander on 31 December 1641, Hugh Montgomery’s description of the scale of the Rebellion was shocking: ‘we are keept exceeding busy with the rebells, whoe burne and kill within a myle and a half to this place; insoemuch as from the Newry to this, ther is not a Scotts or Inglishe dweller; this beingthirty four myles; nor from Downpatrick to Killyleagh, nor from thence hither’. 

There was a massive refugee migration to the safety of the Ards: ‘The people that are fled of the countys of Armagh, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Monoghan, and these of this county itself, from the Newry all the way to this place, ar soe burdensome that in trueth we much fear ther will be scarsety’. His frustration at the lack of State support from London or Dublin is clear: ‘all the supply of armes I have had from the beginning hes come unto me out of Scotland, by the means of a private friend of myne … The more ground the rebells gain on us, the shorter our store must be’. 

Many such reports reached Scotland and the Scottish army arrived at Carrickfergus on 2nd April 1642 to defend the Ulster-Scots. Hugh Montgomery II ‘continued to take an active and successful part in suppressing the rebellion until the time of his death’. 

Death and Burial
Hugh died suddenly at Newtownards on 15 November 1642 and was probably buried at Newtownards Priory. He was succeeded by his eldest son, also called Hugh Montgomery, who became the 3rd Viscount of the Great Ardes and, in 1661, the 1st Earl of Mount Alexander. The 2nd Viscount’s fourth child and only daughter, Elizabeth, married her cousin William Montgomery, the author of The Montgomery Manuscripts.

Associated sites:
Newtownards Priory
Mount Alexander in Comber

Sir James Montgomery of Rosemount (1600-1652) 
The first builder of Rosemount who was killed by pirates

Early life
Sir James Montgomery was the second son of Sir Hugh Montgomery and his wife Elizabeth Shaw. He was born at the family seat at Braidstane in Ayrshire in 1600. Of 
his early life little is known, but he probably came to Ulster as a young boy with his father in 1606 or shortly after. His boyhood would have been spent in that part of Newtownards Priory that his father had restored as the family home. He was educated at St Andrews and was renowned as someone of considerable learning, no doubt broadening his knowledge considerably through his travels across continental Europe before continuing his studies at the Inns of Court.

Following the marriage of his sister Jean to Patrick Savage of Portaferry, James assisted his brother-in-law with developing Portaferry from a fishing village into prosperous town. His undoubted abilities saw him, while still a young man, appointed a gentleman usher of the Privy Chamber and a member of the Privy Council, as well as being granted a knighthood. 

Settles at Rosemount
In 1629 Sir Hugh gifted his son James a small estate at Greyabbey and another in the barony of Castlereagh. In 1631 James married Katherine Stewart, daughter of Sir 
William Stewart of Newtownstewart. Their son William, the chronicler of the family’s history and one of the first historians of the Ulster-Scots, was born in 1633. 

James built a home for his family at Greyabbey. In his Description of Ards Barony of 1683 William Montgomery described this house as a ‘double-roofed house with four flankers, stables, and all needful office houses, all slated and built after the foreign and English manner with outer and inner courts walled about and surrounded with pleasant gardens, orchards, meadows and pasture enclosures under view of the said house (called Rosemount, from which the manor thereof taketh name)’. It was completed in 1634 and ‘only some small convenient additions of building and orchards’ have been added since then. 

1641 Rebellion
Following the outbreak of the 1641 Rebellion James Montgomery raised and armed his own regiment. One of the castles he garrisoned was the old Norman stronghold at Dundrum. The next decade proved to be one of considerable unrest in Ireland and James played a leading role in events in County Down. After the death of their parents in 1643 and 1644, Sir James raised the orphaned Savage children at Rosemount. Hugh Savage was raised alongside William Montgomery till 1649 when James and William fled to Scotland following Cromwell’s arrival in Ireland. 

Because he was considered to have failed wholeheartedly to embrace the Covenants, James was banished from Scotland in January 1650, sailing for Holland. He returned to Scotland a few months later along with Charles II to fight the Cromwellians. This campaign was a disaster for the Scots. James himself was forced to flee to Edinburgh and from there he travelled to London under an assumed name and disguised as a merchant. Thinking the journey overland to be too hazardous, he boarded a coal barque to sail down the east coast of England. 

Death
In March 1652 Sir James was sailing from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to London when his ship was attacked by pirates near Flamborough Head, East Yorkshire. He was struck in the neck and shoulder by a 4lb cannonball which left ‘a gapp incurable’. The pirates boarded Montgomery’s ship and one turned out to be ‘one of the Smiths, followers of Mr Savage of Portaferry’ - i.e. from Quintin Castle. Montgomery ‘was a friend to all the relations he [the pirate] had in Lecaile, and the Ardes’. The pirates were eventually captured and all of them (17 of whom were Irishmen), including Smith of Quintin, were hanged at Harwich. A fine monument was erected to Sir James’ memory in Grey Abbey.

Associated sites:
Rosemount
Grey Abbey

Lady Jean Montgomery, nee Alexander (-1670)
2nd Viscountess of the Great Ardes and ‘Vehement Presbyterian’ 

Background in Scotland 
One of 11 children, Jean was the eldest daughter of Sir William Alexander and his wife Janet Erskine, who later became the Earl and Countess of Stirling. William was a poet and a friend of King James VI of Scotland; he assisted the King with a new version of the metrical Psalms. William Alexander was also a ‘gentleman usher’ to the King’s son, the young Prince Charles.

Marriage 
Jean Alexander married Hugh Montgomery in 1623, a marriage which had been arranged around 1618 when her father and Sir Hugh Montgomery, 1st Viscount of the Great Ardes, were in London. Both men were ambitious and visionary colonisers - Hugh Montgomery in Ulster and William Alexander in Nova Scotia. Their marriage was solemnised at Kensington Church in London on 3 August 1623. After the wedding they initially lived in Newtownards: ‘The new wedded couple were comely and well bred personages, who went that summer with Sir Hugh (now Viscount) Montgomery 
and his Lady, to their new built and furnished house aforesaid in Newtown’. As a wedding gift, Sir Hugh built a home called Mount Alexander at Comber, named in 
honour of the bride’s family.

A ‘Vehement Presbyterian’
Faith was an important element in Jean’s life, but while her husband and parents were committed Anglicans, she was described as a ‘vehement Presbyterian’. She also had a talent for creative writing and is said to have ‘inherited a portion of her father’s genius, which she exhibited by composing sacred verses’.

Presbyterians faced increasing persecution in Ulster in the late 1620s and 1630s at the hands of the bishops. A famous example of Jean Alexander’s stance in support of the Presbyterians is often quoted, from July 1635: 

‘No man shall get that report suppressed, for I shall bear witness of it to the glory of God, who hath smitten that man for suppressing Christ’s witnesses’. This was in response to an attempt to hide Bishop Echlin’s deathbed expressions of regret for having persecuted Presbyterian ministers in his diocese.

Remarriage
Jean’s husband, Hugh Montgomery, 2nd Viscount of the Great Ardes, died suddenly on 15 November 1642. Throughout the last year of his life he had commanded 
a defensive force of 1000 men to protect the Ulster-Scots against the Irish rebellion which had begun in October 1641. In April 1642 reinforcements from Scotland arrived, under the command of Major-General Robert Monro. Jean married Monro, either in 1644 or 1653. 

When Cromwell came to power, Monro was arrested in 1648 and imprisoned for five years in London. Cromwell had confiscated the Mount Alexander estate, but on 
Monro’s release the property of his wife, the dowager Lady Montgomery, and his stepson Hugh Montgomery, 3rd Viscount Montgomery, was restored and Monro
evidently spent the rest of his life in their household at Comber in County Down. In later years he was described as ‘honest, kind Major-general Munro’. 

When Jean’s father Sir William Alexander died, bankrupt, in 1640 her mother - Janet Erskine, Countess of Stirling - moved to Mount Alexander and is believed to have 
spent the rest of her life there. She used a walking stick which was made from a broken bow that King Charles I had given to the Montgomerys. 

Relationship with her son, the 3rd Viscount of the Great Ardes
Jean had worked hard to raise her son, Hugh Montgomery III, the 3rd Viscount of the Great Ardes and 1st Earl of Mount Alexander, as a Presbyterian - ‘when her son, the third viscount, succeeded to the estates in 1642, he certainly appears to have been also imbued with Presbyterian principles’. In a letter he wrote to the Scottish General Assembly on 20 June 1643 he referred to the early ejections of the Presbyterian ministers: ‘the violent acts of prelates in driving away some of our best ministers’. However as years went on he moved towards a Church of Ireland and Royalist position. In 1645 ‘James Gordon came to Comber as the Presbyterian minister, mainly through the influence and exertions of the Lady Jean Alexander’. In 1649, when her first granddaughter was born, Jean found that Gordon was a Presbyterian even more vehement than herself! She pleaded with him to baptise the child but Gordon refused to do so unless the child’s father - Hugh Montgomery III - stood on the penitential stool and recanted his support for the Church of Ireland. Montgomery refused to do so and the baptism was eventually carried out by Rev. Matthews of Comber parish church. Gordon was arrested in 1663 for his involvement in ‘Blood’s Plot’ but Jean intervened and negotiated that he live out his sentence in Comber.

Death and Burial
Jean’s son, Hugh Montgomery III, died in 1663. At his funeral service in Newtownards Dean Rusk referred to Jean’s early Presbyterian influences on her son ‘who stated on that occasion that the deceased nobleman, in becoming, as he did, a faithful churchman, had risen superior to the prejudices of his early education’. The next year Newtown House was destroyed in an accidental fire. Jean Alexander ‘dyed in harvest, 1670’, and is thought to have been buried at Newtownards Priory. In 1836 some workmen at the Priory uncovered a number of old tombstones, including one which was thought to be to a ‘John Alexander’, but more probably ‘Jean’. Monro died in 1675. 

In 1679 the manor and Lordship of Mount Alexander (two thirds of the original estate) were sold to Sir Robert Colville for £9780. The Montgomerys retained the house, farm buildings and a few townlands. By the late 1700s the male family line died out and the estate became the property of the Ards Peninsula-based Hugenot families of de la Cherois (Donaghadee) and Crommelin (Carrowdore). 

Associated sites:
Newtownards Priory 
Mount Alexander in Comber

William Montgomery (1633-1707)
Landowner, prolific writer and family historian

Family background
William Montgomery was born at Aghintain in County Tyrone in October 1633, the son of Sir James Montgomery of Rosemount, County Down, and Katherine Stewart, daughter of Sir William Stewart of Newtownstewart, County Tyrone. His paternal grandfather was Sir Hugh Montgomery, 1st Viscount of the Ards. His mother died in 1634 and he seems to have spent part of his early life at Newtownstewart Castle, the home of his paternal grandfather.

1641 Rebellion

His early life was eventful and he has left us an account in his own words of the outbreak of the 1641 Rebellion: Upon hearing this news William Montgomery was 
taken for his own safety to Londonderry and then on to Scotland. He later studied at the universities of Glasgow and Leiden and was fluent in Latin, French, Greek and 
Dutch. 

Rosemount estate
His father was killed by pirates in 1652 and William spent much of the 1650s trying to recover the Rosemount estate, which had been confiscated by the Cromwellians. Eventually the estate was recovered following the Restoration of 1660. He held a number of public offices including Member of Parliament for Newtownards from 1661 to 1667, High Sheriff of County Down and Justice of the Peace. 

Family historian
William Montgomery wrote prodigiously, though apart from two dissertations published in Leiden in 1652, his writings seem to have been intended primarily for his family’s benefit. He was the author of a collection of papers that were published as The Montgomery Manuscripts. It is from these writings that we know so much about the early Scottish settlements in County Down. Among his other writings was a topographical description of the Ards peninsula (1683, updated in 1701) and a fascinating document entitled ‘A treatise of men’s rights to dispose of tombs which themselves have made and dedicated’. 

Family
In 1660 he married his cousin Elizabeth Montgomery, whose father had been the 2nd Viscount of the Great Ardes. They had one son, James, who inherited the 
estate following his father’s death in 1707. In 1717 mounting debts forced the Montgomery family to sell the Rosemount estate to a distant cousin, William 
Montgomery, a descendant of John Montgomery of Gransheogh, a cousin of the original Sir Hugh Montgomery. 

Associated sites:
Rosemount
Memorials in Grey Abbey