John Stewart, Earl of Carrick

John Stewart, Earl of Carrick, Lord Kinclaven (died c. 1645) was a Scottish nobleman, the third son of Robert, Earl of Orkney, a bastard son of King James V.

His father had been born in 1533 as the illegitimate child of the King and his mistress Euphemia Elphinstone. Robert acquired the temporalities of the See of Orkney in 1569, and in 1581 was made Earl of Orkney and Lord of Zetland by his half-nephew King James VI. He married Lady Jean Kennedy, eldest daughter of the Earl of Cassilis, and by her had five sons and four daughters, in addition to the ten bastards he fathered. His eldest son Henry had died before 1590, meaning on his death in 1592 he was succeeded as Earl of Orkney by his second son Patrick, a man infamous for his godless and tyrannical nature. In 1593 the younger brothers of Earl Patrick - John, James and William - were accused of conspiring with the "sorceress" Margaret Balfour to poison him. Margaret was executed along with John's servitor Thomas Papla, but both left depositions renouncing their testimonies on the account that they had been extracted by torture, meaning the prosecution of the brothers failed and they were acquitted. Earl Patrick was later forfeited and executed for treason in 1615, and his lands in Orkney passed to John.

King James VI ennobled John as Lord Kinclaven in 1607, and in 1628 James's successor Charles granted him the ancient and prestigious title Earl of Carrick. The validity of the latter title was questioned, as it conflicted with the earldom of Carrick held by the heir to the throne. This difficulty was resolved when it was pointed out that the titles referred to different places: the royal earldom to Carrick in Ayrshire, and Kinclaven's earldom to the lands of Carrick on Eday in Orkney.

The Earl of Carrick was a great entrepreneur, establishing businesses such as salt works and breweries on Eday. In 1619 he had received a licence to make and sell new kinds of earthenware vessels, and in 1630 he was appointed a Commissioner of Fisheries. He was present at the funeral of James VI in London, from whom he had received a pension of three thousand pounds Scots 'for services done'. The Earl died sometime between 1639, when he is recorded as having subscribed to the Covenant, and 1649, when a charter issued by his brother refers to him as deceased. He had married at Chelsea in 1604 Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of Charles Earl of Nottingham and widow of Sir Robert Southwell. They had one child, Lady Margaret Stewart, who married Sir John Mennes and became the ancestress of the Lords Willoughby de Broke. Carrick also had two natural children: a son, Henry Stewart, who received a grant from his father of certain lands on Eday, and a daughter (name unknown), who married William Craigie of Gairsay. As he had no legitimate son, the earldom of Carrick and lordship of Kinclaven became extinct on his death, though they could conceivably have been claimed by one of his brothers or nephews.