"Amongst the chief historical families of Scotland, few have risen to greater power . . . 
and few have fallen into more complete and disastrous decay."

"The rowan tree grows ower their w’a,  The deer grass in their tower, And the howlet, the bat, and the mowdiwart  Are rife in Burd Ellen bower."     . . . . Old Ballad

AMONGST the chief historical families of Scotland, few have risen at various periods to greater power and Higher honours, or have possessed more extensive estates than the Livingstons, and few have fallen into more complete and disastrous decay. Acquiring in the male line three distinct Earldoms, Linlithgow, Callendar,and Newburgh, and two Viscounties, Kilsyth and Teviot, with numerous Baronies and minor honours, Livingston, Falkirk, Almond, Kynnaird, Campsie, and Flacraig, they almost rivalled in feudal power the mighty house of Douglas; but nearly the whole of their splendid inheritance has disappeared. It is believed that there is not now a single landed proprietor of the name of Livingston (in the male line), in the possession of lands in the counties of Linlithgow and Stirling, where they were once so powerful. The titles of the Earldom of Newburgh, indeed, still remain, in the person of an Italian princess, naturalized here, Marie Cecilia Princess Giustiniani, and Marchesa Bandini, to whom they were adjudged in 1858, by the House of Lords; and the heir of the Earls of Erroll and Kilmarnock still holds his unattainted earldom, and his great office of Lord High Constable of Scotland, in virtue of his descent from Lady Margaret Livingston, his direct ancestress,  the only surviving child of James, Earl of Callendar and Linlithgow (attainted in 1715); but the whole of the wide-spreading lands and baronies have passed into other hands.

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Livingston of Drumry and Wemyss