Drummond, James, first Baron Maderty 1540?-1623, second son of David, second lord Drummond, by his wife, Lilias, eldest daughter of William, second lord Ruthven, was born about 1540. He was educated with James VI, who throughout his life treated him with marked favour. On his coming of age his father gave him the lands and titles of the abbey of Inchaffray in Strathearn, in virtue of which possession he was known as commendator of Inchaffray. He also had charters of the baronies of Auchterarder, Kincardine, and Drymen in Perthshire and Stirling, 3 Sept. 1582, and 20 Oct. of the lands of Kirkhill. In 1585 he was appointed a lord of the bedchamber by James VI. He was with the king at Perth 5 Aug. 1600, during the so-called Gowrie plot, and afterwards gave depositions relative to the affair. In 1609 (31 Jan.) the king converted the abbey of Inchaffray into a temporal lordship, and made Drummond a peer, with the title of Lord Maderty, the name being that of the parish in which Inchaffray was situated. He had further charters of Easter Craigton in Perthshire, 23 May 1611; of the barony of Auchterarder (to him and his second son), 27 July 1615; and of the barony of Innerpeffray, 24 March 1618. He died in September 1623. He married Jean, daughter of James Chisholm of Cromlix, Perthshire, who through her mother was heiress of Sir John Drummond of Innerpeffray, which property she brought into her husband's family, and by her he had two sons (John, second lord Maderty, and James of Machany) and four daughters, Lilias, Jean, Margaret, and Catherine.

Sources:
     Douglas and Wood's Peerage of Scotland, ii. 550
     Anderson's Scottish Nation, iii. 529.

Contributor: A. V. [Alsager Vian]

Published: 1888