In 1715, James Ogilvy, son of the 3rd Earl, took part in a Jacobite uprising against the Crown and was therefore punished by being attainted; consequently, after his father's death two years later, he was unable to inherit the title.

Parliament later passed an Act completely reversing the attainders; therefore, David Ogilvy was allowed to assume the title.

[citation needed]; [2] The family was probably descended from Gillebride, Earl of Angus, who received lands from William the Lion.

Sir Walter Ogilvy (died 1440) of Lintrathen, Lord High Treasurer of Scotland from 1425 to 1431, was the Son of Sir Walter Ogilvy of Wester Powrie and Auchterhouse, a man, says Andrew of Wyntoun, "stout and manfull, bauld and wycht", who was killed in 1392.

1504), who was made a Lord of Parliament in 1491; and the younger, Sir Walter Ogilvy, was the ancestor of the Earls of Findlater.

[3] In June 1562, the 5th Lord Ogilvy was badly injured in a duel with John Gordon of Findlater in Edinburgh.

Earl's grandson, James Ogilvy (d. 1731), took part in the Jacobite rising of 1715 and was attainted; consequently, on his father's death in 1717, he was not allowed to succeed to the Earldom, although he was pardoned in 1725.

He died on 20 August 1849 and was succeeded by his son, David Graham Drummond Ogilvy (1826–1881), who was a Scottish representative peer for over thirty years.

The latter's son, David Stanley William Drummond Ogilvy, the 8th Earl (1856–1900), served in Egypt in 1882 and 1885 and was killed on 11 June 1900, during the Boer War while at the head of his regiment, the 12th Lancers.

Sir George Ogilvy of Barras (d. c. 1679) defended Dunnottar Castle against Cromwell in 1651 and 1652 and was instrumental in preventing the regalia of Scotland from falling into his hands.