When Sir Robert Stewart 1st Duke of Albany was born about 1340, in Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, his father, Robert II King of Scotland, was 25 and his mother, Elizabeth Mure of Rowallan, was 21. He married Margaret Graham Countess of Menteith on 9 September 1361, in Kyle, Ayrshire, Scotland. They were the parents of at least 1 son and 6 daughters. He died on 3 September 1420, in Stirling, Stirlingshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, at the age of 81, and was buried in Dunfermline Abbey, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, United Kingdom.
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Scottish (Lanarkshire) and English: originally an occupational name for an administrative official of an estate, from Middle English stiward, Old English stigweard, stīweard, a compound of stig ‘house(hold)’ + weard ‘guardian’. In the Anglo-Saxon period this title was used of an officer controlling the domestic affairs of a household, especially of the royal household; after the Norman Conquest it was also used more widely as the native equivalent of Seneschal, for the steward of a manor or manager of an estate. In Scotland the term was also used of a magistrate originally appointed by the king to administer crown lands, forming a stewartry.
History: Stuart or Stewart is the surname of one of the great families of Scotland, the royal family of Scotland from the 14th century, and of England from 1603, when James VI of Scotland acceded to the English throne as James I. There were many minor branches of the family left in Britain after the flight of James II in 1688, but not every bearer of the surname can claim relationship with the royal house, even in Scotland. Every great house in medieval England and Scotland had its steward, and in many cases the office gave rise to a hereditary surname. The fall of the house of Stuart in Britain, conversely, led to the establishment of several highly placed branches bearing this surname in continental Europe, which are in most cases related to the old Scottish royal family.
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
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