The First Documented Heiress of Luss: Agnes de Luss

What good are these charters if no one translates them?

by: Tiffany McCarter Evans

August 8, 2025

A Forgotten Name, Found Again

History remembers the warriors, the earls, and the men who signed their seals. But hidden in the Latin lines of medieval charters are the women who carried bloodlines, brought dowries, and changed the fates of clans.

Our newest Helix Heiress is Agnes de Luss — the first recorded heiress of Luss.

She was the daughter of Malcolm, 4th Earl of Lennox, and his wife Eva de Lenzie (another forgotten heiress now recovered from the records). Born around 1250 AD, Agnes inherited Luss as her dowry.

Her marriage to John of Lennox transformed her husband’s title to John de Luss, and through their line came the later Fair Maid of Luss (whose name remains elusive in the charters) and the eventual union with the Colquhoun's in 1368.

Agnes is the first woman we can name who held Luss in her own right — a legacy too important to remain in the shadows.

The Ark Project: Preserving the Lost Voices

I have begun working my way through The Lennox Charters (beginning in the early 1100s), translating each entry from Latin into English and storing both versions side by side in The Ark — a living digital archive of Scotland’s deepest genealogical records.

Every charter is:

Indexed by name, date, and location
Cross-referenced with related entries
Logged for female mentions — wives, daughters, widows, sisters

Why? Because the women were recorded. They were simply ignored by past translators. Agnes, Eva, and others were always in the charters — their names written in Latin, waiting.

Already, this process has uncovered four lost heiresses in the Lennox line alone. And there are thousands more women hidden in the margins of Scotland’s medieval documents.

Why Agnes Matters

If you are a Colquhoun descendant through the Fair Maid of Luss, then you descend from Agnes de Luss. She is not just a footnote — she is the foundation.

Her dowry (Luss) defined the family’s territorial title.
Her bloodline linked the Lennox earls with later Colquhoun chiefs.
Her name survived in the charters, waiting for modern genealogists to listen.

“Agnes de Luss. Don’t forget her name again.”

Comments

“Our E-M35 Ancestor: The Clan MacArthur Heir Who Changed Everything”

Our E-M35 Ancestor: "The Clan MacArthur Heir Who Changed Everything” The DNA and History Behind the McCarter–Colquhoun Legacy In 1495, a man named John MacArthur of Tirivavich stepped forward to claim what was rightfully his — the leadership of Clan Arthur . He wasn’t just any claimant . He was described in charters as the “nephew” of the last formally recognized chief, Iain (John) MacArthur , executed by King James I of Scotland in 1428. For nearly 70 years, the MacArthur name — once one of the most powerful in Argyll — had been in exile from its own lands. The chief’s execution was a political earthquake, and his estates were seized by the Crown. But in the political chess game of the Scottish Highlands, power never stays buried for long. In 1495, a sliver of that lost birthright was restored when John of Tirivavich received charters returning him lands at Loch Awe . These weren’t the full MacArthur estates, but they were a foothold — and a statement. The DNA Proof: ...

Launching Soon! The Ark: A Living Document of the Lennox

The Ark: A Living Document of the Lennox By Tiffany McCarter Evans, Clans of Scotland Historian For over 700 years, the lands of Loch Lomond and the Lennox have whispered their stories in charters, dowries, and fragments of parchment written in Latin ink. Until now, most of those whispers have been left untranslated, misunderstood, or worse — ignored. That changes here. Welcome to The Ark: A Living Document — this will be the first open, searchable, and scientifically grounded database where medieval charters and modern Y-DNA meet. This is not a hobby project. This is not just a clan fan club. This is history reconstructed from the ground up, sourced line by line, signature by signature, haplogroup by haplogroup. And yes, it is free. No memberships. No gatekeeping. No secrets. What’s Inside the Ark The Ark is not just for Colquhouns or McCarters. It is for anyone descended from the ancient Earls of Lennox. The charters inside stretch from 1100 AD through the 170...

From Scythia to Alba: The Painted Queens of the North

From Scythia to Alba: The Painted Queens of the North By Tiffany McCarter Evans Administrator, Clans of Scotland DNA Society, Founder of the Loch Lomond Clans DNA Project, Editor of The Lennox Chronicles Forget Camelot — the real King Arthur may have ruled from the Scottish Highlands, and his queen was buried in a stone-covered grave guarded by beasts. This isn’t fantasy. It’s archaeology, DNA, and a story 2,000 years in the making — carved into stone by the Picts and echoed in Scotland’s most sacred declaration of freedom. This article explores the origin of the Pictish elite in Scotland through oral tradition, medieval chronicles, archaeogenetics, and symbol stones. It posits that the Scythian warrior ancestry cited in the Declaration of Arbroath aligns with the historical appearance of the Picti in the late 3rd century AD, potentially linked to haplogroup E-M35. We also trace the legend of Guinevere, reframed as Vanora, a Pictish queen whose downfall and executio...

The Lennox Chronicles

Search This Blog