LADY ANSTRUTHER is the daughter of Charles Wetherell, Esq., late of the Honourable East India Company's Civil Service, and wife of Sir Windham Carmichael Anstruther of Elie House, Fifeshire, a baronet of Nova Scotia, and of Great Britain.

The Anstruthers are of great antiquity in the county of Fife, having been proprietors and superiors of the lands, barony, and town of Anstruther, nearly seven hundred years ago. They assumed their surname from their territorial possessions, and the first of them we find upon record was designated De Candela dominus de Anstruther.

WILLIELMUS DE CANDELA, the progenitor of the family, lived in the reigns of David I. and Malcolm IV. His lineal descendant, ROBERT DE ANSTRUTHER, married Isabel Balfour, of an ancient and honourable family in the county of Fife, by whom he had issue, Andrew, his heir;

Robert and David who entered the French service, and, for their gallantry, were promoted to the rank of officers of the Scots Guards by Francis I. about the year 1515. In this regiment both acquired a high reputation. The younger, David, married a lady of distinction, and settled in France, where his posterity still remain, and have ever shewn themselves worthy the ancient race whence they had originally sprung. The lineal descendant of this David, Francis Cæsar Anstruther, afterwards

VOL. III.NO, VI.

Anstrude, was elevated by Louis XV. to the dignity of a baron of France, by the title of Baron d'Anstrude, of the seigniory of Barry.

Robert de Anstruther died in the reign of King James III., and was succeeded by his eldest son,

Andrew Anstruther, of that ilk, a gentleman of distinguished valour, who accompanied James IV. to the fatal field of Flodden, and fought and fell by the side of his royal master. He espoused Christian, daughter of Sir James Sandilands, ancestor of Lord Torpichen, and widow of David Hepburn, of Waughton, by whom he had a son and successor, John Anstruther, of that ilk, who married Margaret, daughter of Thomas Douglas, of Lochleven, progenitor of the celebrated Earl of Morton. The great grandson of this John Anstruther,

Sir James Anstruther, a person of profound knowledge and extensive literary attainments, became a favourite of King James VI., and was by that monarch knighted, and appointed heritable carver to the king. He married Jean, daughter of Thomas Scott, of Abbotshall, lord-justice-clerk in the reign of James V., by whom he had, with five daughters, two sons,

William, his successor,

Robert, who received the honour of knighthood, and was frequently employed by Government in negotiations of the high est importance. In 1620, he was sent

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ambassador extraordinary to the Court of Denmark; and in 1627, to the emperor and States of Germany. He was afterwards plenipotentiary to the Diet of Ratisbon, and, in 1630, ambassador at the meeting of the princes of Germany at Hailbrun; and in all these negotiations he acquitted himself with credit and fidelity. He married Catherine, daughter of Sir Edward Swift, knight, by whom he had two sons; Robert, who died without issue; Philip, of whom presently; and an only daughter, Ursula, who married George Austen, esq. of Shalford, from which alliance lineally descends the present Sir Henry Edmund Austen, of Shalford House, in the county of Surrey.-(See Burke's History of the Commoners.)

Sir William Anstruther, the elder son of Sir James, succeeded his father in 1606; was appointed one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber to James VI., aud, on the accession of that monarch to the crown of England, was created a Knight of the Bath. He was also Gentleman Usher to Charles I., and married Eupheme, daughter of Sir Andrew Wemys, one of the senators of the College of Justice, by whom he had no issue: he died in 1649, and was succeeded by his nephew,

Sir Philip Anstruther, son of the abovementioned Sir Robert, the ambassador. This Sir Philip, a zealous royalist, commanded King Charles the Second's army on its march into England, and was taken prisoner at the battle of Worcester. He had a fine of a thousand marks imposed on him by Oliver Cromwell, and his estate continued sequestrated till the Restoration. Sir Philip died in 1702, and was succeeded by his eldest son,

SIR WILLIAM ANSTRUTHER, who was chosen a member of the Scots' parliament, and firmly opposed the measures of the Duke of York, then Lord High Commissioner of Scotland. He was one of the first to join the Revolution, and by King William and

Queen Mary was appointed a Senator of the College of Justice, and a Lord Justiciary. He was afterwards created A BARONET OF NOVA SCOTIA; and, dying in 1711, was succeeded by his eldest son,

SIR JOHN, Second baronet of Nova Scotia. This gentleman married, in 1717, Margaret Carmichael, eldest daughter of James the Second, Earl of Hyndford. His great grandson, THE RIGHT HON. SIR JOHN ANSTRUTHER, fifth baronet of Nova Scotia, a distinguished lawyer, was created a baronet of Great Britain, 18th May, 1798, and nominated Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Judicature in Bengal. Sir John married Miss Bryce, and had issue John, his successor, Windham, present baronet, Mary Anne.

Sir John died 26th of January, 1811, and was succeeded by his eldest son,

SIR JOHN, Sixth baronet of Nova Scotia and second of England, who married, 11th January, 1817, Jesse, daughter of MajorGeneral Dewar, by whom he left one posthumous child, John. Sir John Anstruther succeeded in 1817, on the death of the Earl of Hyndford, to his lordship's entailed property in Lanarkshire, and took the additional surname and arms of Carmichael. He died 28th January, 1818, and left his honours to his son,

SIR JOHN, Seventh and third baronet, who was accidentally killed while on a shooting expedition in October, 1831, and the title was inherited by his uncle,

SIR WINDHAM CARMICHAEL ANSTRUther, the present baronet, who served with some distinction during the Peninsular war on Lord Roslyn's staff, and was wounded in Portugal. Sir Windham espoused, in 1824, MEREDITH MARIA (second daughter of Charles Wetherell, Esq.), the lady who forms the subject of this month's portrait, by whom he has a son, Windham, Charles James, born in 1825.