Robert Kerr, 1st Earl of Ancram

Robert Kerr (or Carr), 1st Earl of Ancram (c. 1578–1654), was a Scottish nobleman and writer.

He descended from a third son of Sir Andrew Kerr of Ferniehurst, and entered public life as laird of Ancrum in Roxburghshire. He was born about 1578, and succeeded to the family estate in 1590 on the death of his father, who was assassinated by his kinsman, Robert Key, younger of Cessford. He was cousin to Robert Carr, the favourite of James VI. Kerr appears to have also been honoured at an early age with court favour. Soon after the king’s accession to the English throne, Kerr occupied a considerable station in the household of Prince Henry. The household of that time was more splendid and consisted of more people than the present royal household. He subsequently was employed by Prince Charles, who became his patron through life. Charles mediated a match between Sir Robert and the Lady Anne Stanley, daughter of the Earl of Derby.

In 1620, Kerr was involved in a fatal quarrel with a young man named Charles Maxwell, who insulted him without provocation as he entered the palace at Newmarket. In a duel that followed, Sir Robert killed Maxwell. Even though Maxwell's friends acquitted Kerr of blame, the king's strict rules for prevention and punishment of duels forced him to flee to Holland, where he remained about a year. During his exile, he collected pictures, for which, like his royal master, he had good taste. He eventually presented those he brought back with him to the prince. He was also distinguished by his literary taste.

On the accession of Charles I to the throne, in 1625, Sir Robert Kerr was made a gentleman of the bedchamber, and on 24 June 1633, when the king was in Scotland at his coronation, he was elevated to the peerage, under the titles of Earl of Ancram and Lord Kerr of Nisbet, Langnewton, and Dolphinstoun. Previously, his son William, by his first wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Murray of Blackbarony, had married his relative, Anne, Countess of Lothian in her own right, and had been, by the king, endowed with full participation in that title. It was therefore arranged, in the patent granted to Kerr, that his own title should descend to the children of his second marriage. Thus, he was father of two peers.

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