Sir John Stewart (died 22 July 1298), the brother of Sir James the 5th High Steward of Scotland, was a Scottish knight and military commander during the First Scottish War of Independence. Origins Sir John was the second son of Alexander Stewart, 4th High Steward of Scotland (d. 1283). The Scots Peerage states that Sir Alexander's wife was Jean, the daughter of James (d. 1210), lord of Bute. Sir John was an uncle of James Douglas, Lord of Douglas, also known as "The Black Douglas". Heraldry The strongest evidence for Sir John's coat of arms comes from the wax impression of his seal in the Ragman Rolls of 1296. In heraldic terms, the blazon shown on the wax impression (excluding colors) is "a fess chequy surmounted with a bend." The distinguishing feature of Sir John's arms from the arms of the High Stewards of Scotland (his brother, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather) is therefore the bend, or diagonal stripe: a plain bend with no charges on it. An anonymous shield in the Collin's Roll ca. 1295 almost certainly belongs to Sir John. The blazon is "or, a fess chequy argent and azure surmounted by a bend gules." In his 1722 "System of Heraldry," Sir Alexander Nesbit, a 17th-18th century Scottish antiquarian, incorrectly described the arms as "or, a fess cheque, azure and argent, surmounted of a bend sable, charged with three buckles or" and also incorrectly assumed that Sir John inherited the styling "of Bonkyll," an error that was subsequently repeated by Sir Robert Douglas in his 1764 "Peerage of Scotland." Styling While some later writers styled Sir John as "of Bonkyll," since he was the ancestor of the "Stewarts of Bonkyll," no contemporary evidence exists to suggest he was ever styled as such. On the contrary, Sir Alexander de Bonkyll died by the end of April 1300, and his daughter Margaret did not inherit the titles and lands of her father until after her reconciliation with Edward I in July 1304. Medieval documents most commonly refer to Sir John as "the brother of James the Steward of Scotland" or some variant. He is also referred to as "knight," and is listed among the nearly 50 "barons of the realm of Scotland." A charter from 1296 mentions a donation to be rendered from Sir John's lands, but no territorial designation for him can be found in any medieval texts. Therefore, referencing