Rothri, 1st Earl of Mar.  In the time of King Alexander I of Scotland, who reigned from 1107 to 1124, the feudal system was replacing the old Celtic system.  The Mormaers, or Great Stewards, were then designated Earls or Comes, and as such appear in the charter founding the Abbey of Scone, 1114-1115.  In this charter the Mormaer of Mar appears as Rothri Comes.  One of Rothri’s predecessors, Donald, Mormaer of Mar, fell at the battle of Clontarf in 1014, a thousand years ago.

Morgund, 2nd Earl of Mar, who witnessed, before 1152, a charter of Kind David I and his son Henry to Dunfermline.  He died before April 1183.

Gilchrist, 3rd Earl of Mar, who witnessed, before 1199, the foundation charter of St Peter’s Hospital, Aberdeen.

Duncan, 4th Earl of Mar, son of the 2nd Earl, who gave the church of St Andrew to the Canons of Monymusk in about 1230.  Duncan died before March 1244 and was succeeded by his son,

William 5th Earl of Mar.  William was one of the Regents of Scotland 1258, and great Chamberlain of Scotland 1264.  He married 1stly Elizabeth, daughter of Comyn, Earl of Buchan, and 2ndly Muriel, daughter of the 1st Earl of Strathearn.  William died in 1281 and was succeeded by his son,

Donald, 6th Earl of Mar, one of the Seven Earls of Scotland, who was knighted by King Alexander III at Scone in September 1270.  Donald, a strong supporter of Robert Bruce, marred Helen, widow of Malcolm, Earl of Fife and daughter of Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales.  He died in or after the year 1297 and was succeeded by his son,

Gratney, 7th Earl of Mar, who married Lady Christian Bruce, sister of King Robert I.  The King created her Lady of Garioch.  Gratney’s sister Lady Isabel of Mar married King Robert I and, through her grandson King Robert II, was ancestress of the Royal House of Stuart.  Gratney, who was therefore brother-in-law twice over to King Robert, died before 1305 and was succeeded by his son,

Donald, 8th Earl of Mar, Regent of Scotland.  He married Isabel Stewart and was killed in August 1332 at the Battle of Dupplin.  He was succeeded by his son,

Thomas, 9th Earl of Mar, to whom the Lordship of Garioch was confirmed by a charter of King David II in fee and heritage,  and who is numbered as the 1st Lord Garioch.  He was Great Chamberlain of Scotland.  He married 1stly Margaret Graham, Countess of Menteith in her own right; and 2ndly Margaret, Countess of Angus in her own right.  Thomas, who died in 1373 or 1374, was succeeded by his sister,

Margaret, Countess of Mar, 10th holder of the Earldom and 2nd Lady Garioch, married 1stly the Earl of Douglas, and 2ndly Sir John Swinton of Swinton.  Margaret died before December 1393 and was succeeded by her daughter Isabel by her marriage to the Earl of Douglas. 

Isabel, Countess of Mar, 11th holder of the Earldom, married 1stly Sir Malcolm Drummond and 2ndly Alexander Stewart, natural son of Alexander, Earl of Buchan (the Wolf of Badenoch).  On 9 December 1404 Isabel made a grant in life-rent in the Earldom (confirmd by the King in 1405) to her second husband, thereafter 12th Earl of Mar, but reserved the heirship to her own lawful heirs.  She died without issue 1408, and her husband became Earl by virtue of the life-rent.  He was Admiral of the Kingdom of Scotland.  In 1411 he defeated the Lord of the Isles at Harlaw.  Although possessing mere life-rent he illegally resigned the Earldom and received in 1426 a regrant to himself and his natural son Thomas (who died before his father) with remainder to the king.  Alexander died without issue in 1435 and was succeeded as 13th Earl by Robert, the kinsman and heir of Countess Isabel.

Robert, 13th Earl of Mar and 6th Lord Garioch, who was great-great-grandson of Gratney, the 7th Earl.  Robert was created 1st Lord Erskine in or shortly before 1438.  He was retoured heir of Countess Isabel in 1438 on the death of Alexander Stewart and was enfeoffed (given freehold land in exchange for service) in the Earldom in November 1438, his possession being only indirectly interfered with by the Crown.  He died in 1451 or 1452, leaving by Elizabeth his wife, daughter of the 1st Earl of Crawford, a son,

Thomas, lawful 14th Earl of Mar, 7th Lord Garioch and 2nd Lord Erskine.  In 1457 his father’s service was illegally reduced at the instance of King James II before an assize of error when the Earldom was held to have devolved on the Crown on the decease of Earl Alexander and a large part of the lands were alienated.  In 1626 the Court of Session described the grant of 1426 as a “pretendit provisioun of tailzie” (that is, a document pretending to confer some right of inheritance) and ruled that the Crown had no right to the Earldom.  Thomas died about 1493 having had issue by his wife Janet Douglas, a son,

Alexander lawful 15th Earl of Mar, 8th Lord Garioch, 3rd Lord Erskine.  He married 1stly Christian, daughter of Sir Robert Crichton, and 2ndly Helen, daughter of Sir Alexander Home of that Ilk, and died 1508 or 1509 leaving a son,

Robert, lawful 16th Earl of Mar, 9th Lord Garioch, 4th Lord Erskine.  Robert married Isabella, daughter of Sir George Campbell of Loudoun.  Robert fell at Flodden on 9 September 1513, and was succeeded by his son,

John, lawful 17th Earl of Mar, 10th Lord Garioch, 5th Lord Erskine.  John married Margaret, daughter of Archibald, 2nd Earl of Argyll.  He died in 1552 and was succeeded by his son,

John 18th Earl of Mar, 11th Lord Garioch, 6th Lord Erskine.  The 18th Earl was Regent of Scotland in 1571-72 and guardian of King James VI. The 18th Earl was restored to the Earldom of Mar by Queen Mary in a charter dated 23 June 1565 declaring that the Queen “being moved by conscience to restore the lawful heirs to their just inheritance, of which they had been kept out by obstinate and partial rulers and officers . . . restored him, his heirs and assigns, hereditably as heirs of the late Isabel, Countess of Mar (1404), to all and hail the said Earldom with lands, castle, etc.”  This charter was witnessed by John Archbishop of St Andrews, James Earl of Morton, Lord Dalkeith, William Earl Marshall and others at Perth on 23 June 1565 and ratified by Act of Parliament 19 April 1567, making distinction between restoration of the Earldom to heirs-general and the Captaincy of Stirling Castle to heirs male.  The 18th Earl of Mar married Annabella, daughter of Sir William Murray of Tullibardine, and died 1572, having had a son,

John, 19th Earl of Mar, 12th Lord Garioch, 7th Lord Erskine.  He was Lord Treasurer of Scotland 1616-1630.  In the Decree of Ranking of 1606 the Earl of Mar was assigned a position comformable to writs of 1395 and 1404, the oldest evidence produced by him, but protests have continually been made by his successors down to a very recent date for precedence before all other earls, to which if antiquity of creation were alone considered, they were undoubtedly entitled.  An Act of Parliament in 1587 in favour of the 19th Earl and a decree of the Court of Session, in an action by him against Lord Elphinstone for the recovery of Kildrummie, contain the most explicit recognition of his succession as heir-general to the Countess Isabel, and of the status of his ancestor, the 13th Earl and 1st Lord Erskine, as Earl of Mar.  The 19th Earl married 1st, before 1 November 1580, Anne, daughter of the 2nd Lord Drummond.  He married 2nd, Mary Stewart, daughter of Esme Duke of Lennox, by whom he had seven sons and five daughters.  He died 14 December 1634, having recovered all the lands alienated by the Crown from the Earldom during the period of its usurption. He was succeeded by his son John, from his first marriage. 

John,  20th Earl of Mar, 13th Lord Garioch, 8th Lord Erskine, KB, PC (Scotland), Governor of Edinburgh Castle 1615-38, married Jean Hay, daughter of the 9th Earl of Erroll, and died 1653.  He was succeeded by his son,

John 21st Earl of Mar, 14th Lord Garioch, 9th Lord Erskine, who married 1st in 1641 Elizabeth (dsp) daughter of 1st Earl of Buccleugh, and 2nd Jean, daughter of 2nd Earl of Seaforth.  He died in 1668 and was succeeded by his son,

Charles, 22nd Earl of Mar, 15th Lord Garioch, 10th Lord Erskine, PC, born 19 October 1650.  He raised the Royal Scots Fusiliers.  Earl Charles married Mary, daughter of 2nd Earl of Panmure, and died in May 1689, when he was succedeed by his son,

John, 23rd Earl of Mar, 16th Lord Garioch, 11th Lord Erskine, KT, a Representative Peer 1707-15,Secretary of State for Scotland 1713.  The 23rd Earl was attainted for his share in the Jacobite rebellion of 1715 when all his honours were forfeited.  The titular King James III created him Duke of Mar in the Jacobite Peerage 1715 with remainder to his heirs-general.  The 23rd Earl married 1stly in April 1703 Margaret, daughter of the 7th Earl of Kinnoull and 2ndly Frances, daughter of 1st Duke of Kingston and sister of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.  The 23rd Earl died abroad in May 1732, leaving a daughter from his 2nd marriage, Lady Frances Erskine, who but for her father’s attainder would have been Countess of Mar in her own right.  She married in 1740 her cousin-german James Erskine, younger son of the judge Lord Grange, and she died in 1776, leaving a son,

John, 24th Earl of Mar, 17th Lord Garioch, 12th Lord Erskine, who succeeded in the lifetime of his father to the estates of Mar in Alloa on the death of his mother in 1776.  He was restored to the ancient Earldom of Mar by Act of Parliament on 17 June 1824 as 24th Earl of Mar: he was specifically restored to the Earldom as “grandson and lineal representative” of the 23rd, being the son of the 23rd Earl’s daughter Lady Frances. He was born in 1741, married 17 March 1770, Frances, daughter of Charles Floyer, Governor of Madras, and died on 20 August 1825, when he was succeeded by his son,

John, 25th Earl of Mar, 18th Lord Garioch, 13th Lord Erskine, born 1772, married in March 1795 Janet, daughter of Patrick Miller of Dalswinton, and died in Septemer 1828, when he was succeeded by his son,

John, 26th  Earl of Mar, 19th Lord Garioch, 14th Lord Erskine, born 1795 and died without issue in 1866.  John also succeeded a kinsman as 11th Earl of Kellie.  He was succeeded in the Kellie Earldom and in the Erskine Lordship by his cousin; but in the Mar Earldom he was succeeded by his nephew,

John, 27th Earl of Mar, 20th Lord Garioch, born 1836.  He was for 36 years a Representative Peer for Scotland.  His succession as heir-general was confirmed with precedence of 1404 by the Declaratory Act of Parliament 1885 (Restitution of Mar Act).  He married in 1866, Alice Mary Sinclair daughter of John Hamilton of Hilston Park, Monmouthshire, and died in 1930, when he was succeeded by his son,

John, 28th Earl of Mar, 21st Lord Garioch, born 1868, who married in 1903 Sybil, daughter of Robert Heathcote, and died in 1932 without issue.  He was succeeded by his cousin,

Lionel, 29th Earl of Mar, 22nd Lord Garioch, great-nephew of the 27th Earl, born 1891 and died unmarried in 1965, when he was succeeded by his kinsman,

James, 30th Earl of Mar, 23rd Lord Garioch, born 1914.  Lord Mar was the 10th Duke of Mar in the Jacobite peerage.  He married 1stly Millicent Mary, daughter of William Salton, and had a son David, The Master of Mar, Lord Garioch, who died unmarried in 1967.  He also had two daughters, Lady Margaret and Lady Janet.  Lord Mar married 2ndly Marjorie, daughter of John Reginald Miller and widow of Major CWS Grice, Indian Army, but had no issue by this marriage.  On his death in 1975, Lord Mar was succeeded by Lady Margaret, the elder heir-portioner presumptive in general to the Earldom.

Margaret, Countess of Mar, 31st holder of the Earldom, 24th Lady Garioch, born 19 September 1940.  By her first husband, Edwin Noel Artiss, she has issue:

Lady Susan of Mar, The Mistress of Mar, born 1963, who is the heiress-presumptive to the Earldom.

Since 1982 Lady Mar has been married to John H. Jenkin, MA (Cantab), FRCO, LRAM, ARCM.