This is a letter from my mother to me. My mother LOVES geneology, which CAN be quite boring, but not on this occasion.
You guys know how I plug on in spare minutes looking up leads on one ancestor or another. Well I was digging on the Mitchell side of Daddy's family and decided to see if therewere any Mitchell names that popped up in Germany. I find this guy who is an ambassadorfrom Scotland in Germany. In the article it throws around names like the Keiths and theEarl of Mar, and the Dunbars etc. which are names from MAMAs side of the family tree. SoI run across an article about James Francis Edward Keith l696 - l758, and start scanningdown through it. Find out that he never married, but had a mistress named Eva Mertens. I thought. That sure sounds like a pair in my tree. So I go looking through the 50 someodd pages of charts and BA BAM there they were!!! So I looked up more articles online onthe pair. This is the abbreviated version:
James was the second son of the Earl Marischal Keith. His older brother, George, and hehad to flee Scotland when the "Pretender" lost the battles with England. This James wasnamed after the Pretender whose full name was James Francis Edward Stuart. Their motherLady Mary Dunbar sent them whatever money she could to help them in France and Spain. Lands and titles were removed by the regent in England because they took the wrong side. The queen of Spain was the mother of the Pretender and she sponsored James for a coupleof years in military school in France. Then he goes to Russia and becomes quiteimportant in the court of Peter the Great. For a short time he was GOVERNOR OF UKRAINE.(Isn't that ironic Sandi?) When Peter dies, Elizabeth, a daughter, takes over. She wasquite the bawdy flirt and had lots of lovers. Its not clear if they were ever actuallylovers, but she sure wanted him and wrote him letters. She wanted him to father herchildren and raise them up to fulfill Peter's dreams. About that time war breaks outwith Sweden and he is sent off to win battles. A young orphan girl about l5,l6 years oldis in the camp (according to one story) and he falls in love with her and takes her hometo be his mistress. In another story he "captures" her during the war. At any rate hecan't marry someone below his estate...but he has children by her. Puts her up on theproperty that Elizabeth had given him in Lithuania. After the war was over, Elizabethstill pressures him to marry, and he kindly writes back that it would not be good for herpolitically and he takes Eva (the girl) and the black valet, and goes to Prussia where hewas welcomed by King Frederick. The king makes him a field marshal. Things go well inPrussia for some time. Eva is quite the striking girl and attracts men. This is aheadache, but James is badly in love. She liked to party and one night she went toofar....either said the wrong thing or did something very inappropriate...and Frederickexpells her from Prussia. She goes back to her hometown of Riga, Sweden. They said shehad striking eyes and a stately figure. Whatever that means. So she lived in exile andJames fought more battles. He never married. She never married until after his death. He died in battle, and was buried with honors in Berlin. There is a painting of him inone of the articles. Wearing the white wig. Doesn't look like anyone I know! :) Afterhis death, Eva and his brother George get into it over James' will. They both burnletters that they were afraid the other would use against them. When it was all said anddone...he had a grand total of 25 pounds!!! Not much for the family to live off of!Perhaps that is why their son, our ancestor, Alexander Keith,came to the colonies inl745.He needed a fresh start in a land of promise.
Love, Georgia/Mom
No comments:
Post a Comment