COMYN, Earl Alexander^[1]

Abt 1217 - 1290  (73 years)  Submit Photo / Document

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• Name	COMYN, Alexander
  Prefix	Earl
  Birth	Abt 1217	Buchanan, Stirlingshire, Scotland
  Gender	Male
  Burial	Apr 1290	Deer Abbey, Banff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
  Death	6 Apr 1290	Buchan, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
  WAC	25 Apr 1939	SLAKE
  _TAG	Reviewed on FS
  Headstones	Submit Headstone Photo
  Person ID	I43364	Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Mack Smith
  Last Modified	19 Aug 2021

  
  

  Father	COMYN, Earl William I ,   b. 1163, Balvenie Castle, Buchan, Aberdeenshire, Scotland Balvenie Castle, Buchan, Aberdeenshire, Scotlandd. 1244, Buchan Castle, Aberdeenshire, Scotland (Age 81 years)
  Mother	BUCHAN, Countess Margaret ,   b. Bef 1185, Buchan, Aberdeenshire, Scotland Buchan, Aberdeenshire, Scotlandd. 8 Apr 1242, Buchan Castle, Aberdeenshire, Scotland (Age > 57 years)
  Marriage	1214	Altyre, Morayshire, Scotland
  Family ID	F23155	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	QUINCY, Elizabeth de ,   b. Abt 1220, Winchester, Hampshire, England Winchester, Hampshire, Englandd. 12 Apr 1282, Buchan, Aberdeenshire, Scotland (Age 62 years)
  Marriage	Abt 1247	Buchanan, Stirlingshire, Scotland
  Children	4 sons and 5 daughters
  + 1. COMYN, Countess Elizabeth ,   b. Abt 1248, Buchan, Aberdeenshire, Scotland Buchan, Aberdeenshire, Scotlandd. Bef 17 Feb 1328, Northumberland, England (Age < 80 years)   2. COMYN, Lady Elena ,   b. Abt 1254, Buchan, Aberdeen, Scotland Buchan, Aberdeen, Scotlandd. Aft 24 Aug 1302, Brechin, Angus, Scotland (Age > 48 years)   3. COMYN, Bridget ,   b. Abt 1257, Altyre, Morayshire, Scotland Altyre, Morayshire, Scotland   4. COMYN, Earl John ,   b. Abt 1250, Buchan, Aberdeenshire, Scotland Buchan, Aberdeenshire, Scotlandd. 3 Dec 1308, England (Age 58 years) + 5. COMYN, Sheriff Alexander ,   b. Abt 1252, Buchan, Aberdeenshire, Scotland Buchan, Aberdeenshire, Scotlandd. 1308, Buchan, Aberdeenshire, Scotland (Age 56 years)   6. COMYN, Roger ,   b. Abt 1261, Altyre, Morayshire, Scotland Altyre, Morayshire, Scotlandd. Aft 1 Jul 1282 (Age > 21 years)   7. COMYN, Lord William ,   b. Abt 1253, Buchan, Aberdeenshire, Scotland Buchan, Aberdeenshire, Scotlandd. Aft 1306, Altyre, Morayshire, Scotland (Age > 54 years)   8. COMYN, Lady Marjorie ,   b. Abt 1265, Altyre, Morayshire, Scotland Altyre, Morayshire, Scotlandd. Abt 1296, Dunbar, Haddingtonshire, Scotland (Age 31 years)   9. COMYN, Catherine ,   b. Abt 1267, Altyre, Morayshire, Scotland Altyre, Morayshire, Scotland
  Family ID	F22833	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Jan 2022

  
  

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• Notes

  Alexander Comyn, 2nd Earl of Buchan (died 1289) was a Scoto-Norman magnate who was one of the most important figures in the 13th century Kingdom of Scotland. He was the son of William Comyn, jure uxoris Earl of Buchan, and Marjory, Countess of Buchan, the heiress of the last native Scottish Mormaer of Buchan, Fergus. He was the chief counsellor of Alexander III, King of Scots for the entire period of the king's majority and, as Scotland's leading magnate, played a key role in safeguarding the independence of the Scottish monarchy. During his long career, Alexander Comyn was Justiciar of Scotia (1258–89), Constable of Scotland (1275–89),[1] Sheriff of Wigtown (1263–66), Sheriff of Dingwall (1264–66), Ballie of Inverie (in Knoydart) and finally, Guardian of Scotland (1286–89) during the first interregnum following the death of Alexander III. In 1284 he joined with other Scottish noblemen who acknowledged Margaret of Norway as the heiress to King Alexander.[2] He died sometime after 10 July 1289. Alexander had at least nine children with his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Roger de Quincy, 2nd Earl of Winchester: John Comyn, 3rd Earl of Buchan, Alexander's successor as Earl of Buchan Roger Lord Alexander Comyn, sheriff of Aberdeen, married Joan, sister of William le Latimer, and had issue. Henry de Beaumont would claim the Earldom of Buchan through marriage to their daughter, Alice. Lord William Comyn, Provost of St. Mary's Church, St. Andrews Lady Marjorie Comyn, m. Patrick Dunbar, 8th Earl of Dunbar Lady Agnes Egidia Comyn, m. Maol Íosa III, Earl of Strathearn Lady Elisabetha Comyn, m. Gilbert de Umfraville, 1st Earl of Angus Lady Elena Comyn, m. Sir William de Brechin Lady Annora Comyn, m. Nicholas de Soules THE LIGHTER SIDE OF LIFE For Bob and Sherman Kirkham VERY CLOSE ENCOUNTERS IN 1960'S In the late 1960's, my brother Sherman was operating a café in downtown Shelley. He and I (Sherman’s brother Bob) had grown quite close to one another. We spent a lot of time together, usually late at night when my family had retired. I dedicated those moments encouraging him and helping him to adjust to a new way of life. Our time was usually spent in being involved with our common love of music and some harmless pranks or challenges (so long as they were humorous and non-destructive). One evening while at our mother’s home, Sherman shared with me an article he had cut from a magazine. The article described how some young men back east had taken plastic bags and inserted a cross made of drinking straws into the bottom, or opening, and taped the ends of the straws to the sides. On the (cross) straws they melted wax drops and inserted a birthday candle on each drop until they cooled – eight total for a small plastic bag. After completing that task and sealing the top of the bag, they lit the candles and held the bag until the heat lifted the bag from the ground and carried it up into the sky, usually a hundred to two hundred feet. He and I decided we would try the fete. The next day we went to the local cleaners and purchased a dozen plastic clothes bags, the kind they put over a coat or shirt after cleaning it. I suggested that working with straws might be too complicated because they were round and I thought that using thin strips of balsam wood might be better, and I had some. Deona furnished some birthday candles and Scotch tape. At our home on the bank of the River, about 10:30 in the evening we attempted to construct such a device. There was quite an Idaho breeze that evening and we had a difficult time getting the object to rise, except in our garage. We kept at it all evening. Then about 2 or 3 in the morning we got one off the ground in the back yard and it rose up 50 to 100 feet off the ground. The family had been watching us in our attempt earlier and were interested but just couldn’t stay awake that long because of school the next day. Nevertheless, I rushed in the house and got Deona out of bed, as well as each of the children. They all came out on the lawn and watched the object strangely “hover” in the air. We had accomplished this supposedly harmless project with great success.. The next day, to our surprise, the children returned from school on the bus with a wild story to tell. They said that in the early morning hours some students reported that their parents had seen a “flying saucer” hovering in the sky about 3:00 A.M. and were very excited. They said it was round and had about eight or so lights glowing. They said that after a short time its lights dimmed and it “shot off into space!” When they told Deona and I, we both began to chuckle. We explained to them that it was the plastic bag with birthday candles that the people had seen. They insisted it was not. They said it had been described as larger and different than what they had seen when we took them out in the night. It should be noted that in those days airplanes did not have landing lights turned on, and thence none of the witnesses felt it was an airplane. They insisted it was a “flying saucer.” One of our neighbors reported that she had seen it and described it as being the size of a Volkswagen, glowing and hovering about the height of a telephone pole. OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT From USAF Project Blue Book: April 11, 1967; Woodville, ID 9:30 p.m. PST. While driving, a woman saw an amber-colored object shaped like a disc with a tall dome. She estimated that it was at a height of two telephone poles and as large as a car. The object looked like plastic and had vertical risers evenly spaced around a "conning tower." A bright curved surface appeared to be hanging from a "brim which extended from rim to rim" of what looked like a "top hat." The object hovered, moved slowly against the wind, passing directly overhead, hovered over lava beds where it emitted two fireballs with sparkles, then two more a few minutes later. Finally it went dark and disappeared. (Ricks letter, NICAP files; The U.F.O. Investigator, Vol. IV, No. 1, May-June 1967, p. 1.) [Note: The main reported features of appearance, performance, and mode of disappearance all suggest a hoax hot-air balloon carrying candles or flares.] Sherman and I were overwhelmed at the response to our harmless project; however, we decided to try it again. We did so, somewhat consistently, over the next several months. While in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, we purchased a whole role of the larger (taller) plastic bags from a cleaning business there. And in our construction, we increased the number of candles to 16. We had great success in launching the “saucers” every evening we had a chance, and the rumors flowed throughout Shelley, Blackfoot and Idaho Falls, which became our launching areas. OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT from USAF Project Blue Book: April 17, 1967; Shelley, ID 9:30-10:00 p.m. PST. A woman and her daughter, age 16, saw a large amber-colored light approaching their car at an altitude of 60-80 feet. As it moved closer, the object was seen to be round with windows on top, and light coming from a bottom bulge. The object passed over the road behind the car, and disappeared after about 3-5 minutes. (Ricks letter in NICAP files; U.F.O. Investigator, Vol. IV, No. 1, May-June 1967, p. 1.) It is difficult to believe the stories people told of what they witnessed unless you were to witness what they thought they saw. One evening Sherman and I lifted one off the ground and jumped in our car and drove around the mile block. We then joined in with the spectators to hear what they were describing. I might note that when the candles would burn down after about 8 or 10 minutes, droplets of burning wax would fall to the ground. Because of this, some of the people witnessing construed it as jet fire launching the object off into space – disappearing (because the candles burned out.) OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT USAF Project Blue Book - April 28, 1967; Shelley, ID 9:35 p.m. MDT (11:35 p.m. EDT). A private pilot and his family saw a flattened ellipse with a superstructure and a large orange light. Through binoculars, rods or supports could be seen between the superstructure and the body. Arriving home with the object still in view, they saw it accelerate and a small ball of fire ("fire ball") fell from the left side and drifted, after which a second fire ball fell away. The object then disappeared. (Ricks-Carter report dated 5/24/67, NICAP files; U.F.O. Investigator, Vol. IV, No. 1, May-June 1967, p. 3) As Sherman and I stood by the fence and listened to their description, I said to him, “Sherm, it does actually look like a flying saucer zooming off into space!” With that we left the group. We could see why they believed what they described. We continued our enjoyable, harmless construction of our plastic bags with birthday candles for a number of months, later joined by Ron Lundquist (local Shelley policeman) and his friend Val Morris. One afternoon, word reached us that the U.S. Air Force’s (top secret) “Blue Book” investigating team had arrived in town to question what was being observed. We became a bit nervous, having discovered that any man made object over 50 feet above the ground must have a flashing light to prevent aircraft from hitting it. We decided to grab some bags and headed to the home of the neighbor to demonstrate to the Air Force officers what we had done. They welcomed us and we presented our project as a simple launching of plastic bags with balsam wood and birthday candles. They listened intently. Afterward the neighbor lady discounted our story, saying that was definitely not what she had seen. Consequently, we picked up our supplies and were excused. One of the officers followed us out and very courteously expressed that they appreciated what we had shown them. He said they had decided during our demonstration that what we were doing was definitely not what the lady had seen. They said other witnesses had described, as she had, a different observation. We left feeling relieved and had a good laugh. OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT USAF Project Blue Book: Dec. 8, 1967; Idaho. Falls, ID 7:40 p.m. MST. A 15-year-old girl saw a very bright white illuminated circular object (disc) the size of a car hovering over her house. The object tilted and rotated so she could see a transparent dome on top with two humanoid figures inside. It appeared to wobble as it moved away, and in the distance the light dimmed and turned orange. (Hall, 2001, p. 459, from: Keyhoe and Lore, 1969a, pp. 29-30.) Idaho Falls Disc You might say our project culminated with an article published in the Idaho Falls newspaper, The Post Register. The article was entitled, “Unearthly Craft Pose Interesting Questions,” with a subtitle that read, “Unidentified Objects Seen By Many Area Residents.” The article was just a fraction under a full page in the newspaper. The story begins with the following: SHELLEY, July [12, 1967]. A bright glowing object, or objects, hovering over the Shelley area has everyone watching the skies this summer, as reports of UFO’s (Unidentified Flying Objects) grow here. The object is definitely not – to many people who have seen it – a figment of the imagination. And all observers were very cooperative in their description and recollection of the occasions. It is described as being as large as a car, oval in shape, brightly lit with an orange-red glow, topped by an enclosed glass or clear casing held together by metal bars and covered by a mushroom-shaped cap. It travels slowly or very fast and makes absolutely no sound whatever. It is usually seen about 60 to 80 feet from the ground. The article then gives a number of eye witness reports of what was observed. A typical report by a witness included the following: “ . . . we got out of the car and listened, but there was no sound. It lit up the entire area, and with the bright round light we couldn’t determine the shape of the object . . . We watched it for about 10 minutes, and then the light went out and a red light replaced it. The glowing ball took off going south at a high rate of speed, gaining altitude, and then disappeared behind the foothills.” What had begun as a simple, harmless experiment blossomed into a full fledged scientific entertainment for Sherman and I. We never expected such an outcome, and even in our attempts to explain the truth to those who had witnessed the events, we were usually always dismissed as not having created what had been seen. To Sherman and I it was a very, very “close encounter of the second type! FUN WITH MUSIC Sherman and I had much fun together in the 1960's. We, along with our brother Bill, had organized a musical (?) group called “Three Sons and a Tub.” Bill played the guitar, I played the harmonica, and Sherman had taken a tub, put a hook in the middle, tied a rope to it and extended it to the top of a shovel handle. The handle would fit on the side of the tub and he would pull the handle creating a variation in the pitch the rope would play, if strummed like a base instrument. We had much fun entertaining ourselves, our mother, my family and any others who could endure our horsing around. We were even asked to perform at a Second Ward Building Fund Banquet wherein, unbeknown to those gathered at the banquet, we placed a live chicken under the tub. We did our usual 5 to 10 songs, then Sherman went off key. We acted like we were attempting to get him back on, but he stayed off key. I grabbed a pair of scissors (from my pocket) and went over and cut his rope. He picked up his tub and walked off stage, exposing the chicken thereunder. It sat a moment then walked off stage also. The crowd roared. During one time at a performance, we dawned ape masks – for no special reason other than to look as stupid as we could. That also went over quite well. You may be able to hear a track or two of "Two Sons and a Tub" via the following links (copy and paste to your web browser to download an MP3 file): **************************************************************** **************************************************************** A HUMOROUS BUT SOMEWHAT DANGEROUS PRANK Occasionally, I look back on the 1960's and my association with my brother Sherman, and I wonder if we might have gone a bit too far with our humorous pranks. One such case is the following. One morning I was in back with Sherman in his café. He got out two of the ape masks which we used while performing as “Three Sons and a Tub” and said, “Let’s go to the bank with them on and give them a scare.” I didn’t think too clearly for laughing at his suggestion, and said, “Why not?” (We often did humorous tricks when dealing with the Bank employees.) We went to the bank, put on the ape masks and entered. We walked to the teller window, and Sherman said, “This is a stick-up!” We just stood there shaking a bit to hold back the laughter. Well, we actually thought they all knew us well enough to know that it was Sherm and Bob Kirkham. However, they didn’t, and they seemed to become quite nervous. I whispered to Sherm, “I think we had better tell them who we are.” He agreed , and we took off the masks. The employees all began to laugh, one stating that they might have known it was the two of us. Bob Thomas, who was the bank manager (and my Home Teaching partner), observed us as we took off the masks and he came out of his office. He motioned for us to go into the office, which we did. We sat down as he began to explain, “Sherm, Bob, you just can’t come into a bank with ape masks on and say, ‘This is a stick-up.’” We both began to laugh, and he joined in, but concluded by making us promise we would not do it again. We agreed. I can assure you that this was not the last of our tricks of fun in the 60's and 70's. YOU CAN’T COLOR OLD FAITHFUL GEYSER! Another memorable experience with my brother Sherman occurred in the ‘60's, which I treasure and look back upon in wonderment, asking myself, “How could we do what we did?” After selling his café business in Shelley, Sherman went to Yellowstone Park and became the head chef at the Yellowstone Lodge at Old Faithful. He was living in his trailer home just south of the Lodge, and I would often go visit him to see how he was doing. One afternoon, as we were sitting on the steps of the trailer home feeding squirrels, we were joking about the origin, cause and performance of the Old Faithful geyser, wondering if mankind could in any way alter the attraction. I, jokingly, suggested piping in dye to color the water, which I thought would indeed make it more spectacular. We laughed and joked about it and came up with other novel suggestions. At the conclusion of our visit, I headed for Shelley. A week or so later, I got a call from Sherman asking me to come up to the Park and visit him. He said he had something to show me of real importance. Naturally I was intrigued by the prospect of some crazy plan he might have dreamed up which I was sure would be totally ridiculous. I was, indeed, in for a great surprise! As soon as convenient, I drove to Old Faithful and met him at his residence. He took me in and showed me 5 gallon cans of what was marked as the “Most Concentrated Red Dye” available anywhere. I asked what it was for. He said, “We’re going to toss these into Old Faithful Geyser, just before it erupts!” At first I thought he was kidding. Then he convinced me that we should give it a try. I told him we could go to prison for defacing the Geyser and the surrounding area. He said he had talked about it to a Park Ranger whom he had befriended. (He had not told the Ranger he had the dye at that time, however.) He said the Ranger just laughed and said there was no way a person could color that much water. He explained that the geyser sends up approximately 10,000 gallons of water at a temperature of 200 degrees about every 65 minutes, and, he repeated, that there was no way you could in anyway color that much water. This did not satisfy Sherm, so he ordered the 5 gallons of red dye to give it a test. Well, we picked a slow day in which spectator traffic would be the lowest, and I showed up about 4:30 a.m. on that morning. While it was still dark, we hauled the five cans to the north side of the geyser where we could toss them in. As best we could detect, there were only a few people gathering on the far (south) side to watch the next eruption, but I think it might have been too dark for them to notice us. The sun began to rise as we waited as long as we could before the next scheduled eruption, and then we threw them into the opening. With that, we took off north, then west, then south, then back east, and as a few more spectators arrived, we joined them to watch “the show!” The geyser erupted, the water shot upward with great power. And, to our surprise, there was no red, no pink – not a tint of coloring – seen in the giant gusher. It was difficult to believe! As we were watching, the Ranger friend of Sherman walked up with a big grin and asked what we two were up too. We told him we were just watching Old Faithful do her trick. He began to laugh and said he and his co-workers suspected Sherm and I would try what we had set out to do. They knew it would do no harm because of the tremendous amount of water erupted. Several weeks later, this same Ranger told Sherman that all they found was one lid from one of the cans near the Geyser edge. Over the next months, not a can or any other lids were found around the area. Well, we failed to color one of natures greatest wonders . . . but at least we tried. OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT USAF Project Blue Book: Nov. 2, 1967; Ririe, ID 9:30 p.m. MST. Two Indian youths in a car saw a disc with a transparent dome on top and multicolored lights along the rim (body lights). The object hovered in front of the car which stopped (EM effects). Two occupants were seen in the craft. One occupant got out and entered the driver's seat of the car. The car either followed the craft or was towed into a field where one witness got out and ran off for help, followed by the second occupant, while the other frightened youth stayed in the car with the first occupant, who tried to communicate with him. The second occupant returned, and the two re-entered the craft, which rose and departed, a yellow flame-like light coming from the bottom. (Hall, 2001, pp. 480-82; Keyhoe and Lore, 1969a, pp. 31-32; Keyhoe and. Lore, 1969b, pp. 23-27.) Bob's decription of this event: They launched a "UFO" near Ririe one night. It lost altitude quickly and landed in a field while they were watching. They were worried the burning candles might cause a fire so they hurried out across the dark field and stomped out the candles. They then noticed a car watching, so startled, they ran away from the "landing area". From there it appears the "two indian youths" encountered an alien being who apparently "got out of the UFO and entered the driver's seat of their car"??????? Bob emphatically denies having gotten into the car with the "two indian youths".

  
  

• Sources

  [S1] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (TM), (July 1996 (c), data as of 2 January 1996).