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My Leslie connection is through my paternal 6 x Great Grandmother, Elspet Leslie , who married (c1747) Archibald McKain (a Shoemaker and Burgess of Elgin, Morayshire, Scotland). Family tradition has it that Elspet was "of the family of Leslie of the Glen of Rothes" (see the Application for Arms, dated 1904, by the Reverend William James McKain, my 2nd cousin, 4 times removed).
Although Elspet's parentage/grandparentage has not yet been positively identified, it seems highly likely that she was descended from William, the 1st Laird of the Glen of Rothes, through one of his sons, Andrew (the 2nd Laird) or his half brother George. The line of "Leslie of the Glen of Rothes" was such a small and short-lived part of the huge Leslie dynasty that it is likely that only a person with an intimate knowledge of it would even think to claim ancestry from it.
William Leslie, third son of Andrew Leslie, 2nd Laird of Bucharn, was a merchant in Elgin in the early to mid 17th century. He founded the line of "the Leslies of the Glen of Rothes" by purchase of the Glen of Rothes in feu from the Earl of Rothes. Andrew Leslie, the son of William Leslie by his first marriage, succeeded his father to the estate of the Glen of Rothes. Subsequently, Andrew disponed the estate of the Glen of Rothes to his son-in-law Robert Cumming of Logie, with whose descendants the estate remained until 1869.
The ancestry of William Leslie, the 1st Laird of the Glen of Rothes, traces back 600 years, through the Leslies of Balquhain, to the founder of the great Scottish family of Leslie, Bartholomew (or Bartolf), said to be a Hungarian nobleman, who came to Scotland in 1067. Bartholomew was Lord Chamberlain to Margaret, Queen of Scotland, and married Beatrix Canmore, sister of Malcolm III, King of Scotland. The origin of Bartholomew and whether he was actually Hungarian is somewhat of a mystery (see a discussion of this in "Grip Fast Down Under".)
(With acknowledgement to Janet & Bruce Bishop and the efforts of my cousin Hannah Davies)
