Laurence, fourth Lord Oliphant, was sent to England as a hostage for his father in 1543. In 1563 he was one of the assize who sat in judgement on the Earl of Huntly's dead body; the Master of Oliphant's kinship to the Earl of Argyll, Justice-General, was one of the grounds on which their verdict was set aside. He was served heir to his father's extensive estates on 2 May 1566. In April 1567 he was on the assize who acquitted Bothwell of the murder of Darnley; he signed the 'Ainslie's Supper' bond, and was present at Queen Mary's marriage to Bothwell. On 16 May 1567 he was admitted to the Privy Council. After the Queen's escape from Lochleven, he acted along with her other adherents, and on 6 January 1568-69 she appointed him one of the advisers of her lieutenants in Scotland. But on the 16 of the following month he was one of those who, declaring themselves faithful subjects of the King, and for that reason in danger from the Earl of Huntly, obtained commission to resist that nobleman; and on 15 April thereafter both Huntly and Oliphant subscribed a bond of allegiance to the King and the Regent Murray. After the slaughter of the latter, Lord Oliphant is again found among the Queen's men; but he gave the party no active support, and gradually came to be regarded as an adherent of the Government, though it does not appear that he ever conformed to the established religion. His extensive estates in Caithness brough him into collision with the Sinclairs; in July 1569 he was besieged and taken in his castle of Auldwick (Oldwick) by John, Master of Caithness, and the feud reappears in 1587 and 1591. An English agent's report of 1577 represents him as depending wholly upon Lord Ruthven; yet he had been at feud with that nobleman in 1571, and in 1580 an attack on Ruthven's party, as the passed near Dupplin in returning from the marriage of the young Earl of Mar, which resulted in the slaughter of one of Ruthven's followers, came near to ruining the house of Oliphant; the protection of the Regent thwarted Ruthven's vengeance, but Morton's attitude in this affair was reckoned one of the causes of his final downfall next year. Lord Oliphant attended the Convocation of Estates on 1 July 1585, which agreed to a league with England; and his name occurs occasionally on the sederunts of the Privy Council till 1591. He died in Caithness 16 January 1592-93, and was burried in the church of Wick.
He married (contract 11 May 1551) Margaret Hay, daughter of George, seventh Earl of Erroll; they had a charter from the third Lord Oliphant of the baronies of Glensaugh and Newtyle and the lands of Wester Cluthy in the barony of Gask, 11 May 1552. She was alive 21 November 1587, but died before 9 February 1593-94. Issue:-
1) Laurence, Master of Oliphant (the father of Laurence, fifth Lord Oliphant)
2) John, who on 11 Octover 1588, being then past twenty-one years of age, had from this father a charter of two-thirds of Ochtertyre and Balcraig, and the lands of Newtyle, which remainder to William, his brother german. He was thereafter styled of Newtyle. After his fathers death he became 'Master of Oliphant'. His relations with the young Lord's guardian were not friendly, and was complained of for molesting (disturbing) the tenants. There was also a feud between him and the Tyries, with whom he was connected by his wife's former marriage. It was in a conflict with her blood relations that he lost his life, early in 1603. A letter of 1 February 1602-3 states the he'is slayne be the sherife of Angus (Gray) justifiably by the lawes, the master being at the horne and this long tyme disobedient. Some of the Grays had a remission for his slaughter, 30 May 1604. He married (contract dated 20 October 1592) Lilias, youngest daughter of Patrick, fourth Lord Gray, widow of David Tyrie of Drumkilbo. Issue:
1) Patrick, later sixth Lord Oliphant
2) John
3) William
4) Elizabeth, married to William, tenth Earl of Angus
5)Jean, married to Mr Alexander Bruce of Cultmalundie
6) Euphame, married to James Johnson of Westraw |
