Isabail de Luss: The Fair Maid of Luss, Found at Last

 Isabail de Luss:

The Fair Maid of Luss,

Found at Last

(Latin: Isabella de Luss)

For centuries, she was remembered only as “the Fair Maid of Luss.” A shadow in the chronicles, a nameless heiress passed from one generation to the next. Today, thanks to the painstaking work of charter transcription and yDNA-supported genealogy, her name has finally emerged from the silence of Latin parchment. She is Isabail de Luss. Born about 1351, Isabail was the daughter and heiress of Godfrey de Luss, 6th of Luss. Her mother’s name remains unconfirmed, but the evidence suggests she belonged to the powerful Erskine or Hamilton families. At approximately 17 years old in 1368, Isabail was married to Robert de Colquhoun of Ilk, 5th of Colquhoun. Their union was sealed in a dowry charter, preserved in The Lennox Charters (Vol. I, published in 1869 by William Fraser). This singular document fixes the date of her marriage and confirms her name in black and white Latin ink. But the story deepens. In 1375, another Lennox charter records Godfrey de Luss naming his son John de Luss as heir. Yet John must have died before 1385, for when Godfrey himself passed, it was Robert Colquhoun who inherited—not merely as husband of Isabail, but as 7th of Luss in her right. Charters also reveal that Robert’s younger brother, Malcolm de Colquhoun, married Isabail’s first cousin Agnes of Luss, daughter of Godfrey’s younger brother John de Luss. Thus, two Colquhoun brothers married two Luss heiresses, uniting bloodlines that still echo in DNA projects today. These findings are not speculative. They come straight from the Latin Lennox charters—a source long overlooked because they were never translated into English. Orville W. Calhoun, who authored Our Calhoun Family (1900), missed these details. He relied instead on Fraser’s Chiefs of Colquhoun (Vols. I & II, published 1868), where Isabail was known only as the “Fair Maid.” The very next year, Fraser published the Lennox Charters—and within those untouched Latin lines, her name has waited 150 years to be recognized. Now, at last, she speaks: Isabail. This discovery reshapes our understanding of both Colquhoun and Luss lineages. Through careful transcription, Isabail has stepped out from behind the veil of anonymity. She is no longer just a poetic epithet—she is a named woman, an heiress, and the keystone of two great Scottish houses. And she is not alone. The same charters are yielding the names of **Robert 5th of Colquhoun’s brothers—Malcolm, John, and Patrick—**and confirm their father as Humphrey, 4th of Colquhoun, son of Ingram (Ingelramus) de Colquhoun. Even their mother surfaces, most likely a daughter of Sir Robert de Erskine. Piece by piece, the family is taking shape again after seven centuries. This is the power of combining DNA with charters: restoring names to those forgotten by history. So let us raise a glass to her, as her kin once surely did on Loch Lomond’s shore: To Isabail de Luss, the Fair Maid of Luss. Heiress. Mother. Legacy reborn. Her name will never be forgotten again. ⸻ Researched and Published in The Lennox Chronicles Blog Part of the Lennox yDNA Ark (the ARK) — where lost voices rise again from ink and DNA. Founded, Transcribed & Researched by Tiffany McCarter Evans. Stay tuned: our next article will uncover the Kilpatrick origins of Umfridus de Colquhoun, Ancestor and Great Great Grandfather of Robert 5thof Colquhoun, and the charter evidence that proves the Colquhoun brothers’ true descent.We now know Umfridus de Kilpatrick's father, Uncles and Grandfather...