The MacClare Family.
- Robert: "Was it always this bad?"
- Hugh: "Not in the beginning. We weren't madly in love, but there was a job to be done, and we both believed in it. Then, the children came along and for years we hardly had time to think."
- Robert: "What went wrong?"
- Hugh: "First James left, and then Annabelle got married. We started to learn just how little we had in common."
- Robert: "Why is Susan so hard on Rose?"
- — Lord Grantham and Lord Flintshire discussing the latter's family.
The MacClares are British noble family who formerly resided at Duneagle Castle in Scotland until it they had to give it up due to a loss of money.
Background and History
The family's title, Marquess of Flintshire, is Welsh. However, their courtesy title, Earl of Newtonmore, is Scottish, having been gained by the grandmother of Hugh MacClare (the present Marquess), who was Countess of Newtonmore in her own right.
Present Family
Hugh is the head of the family and works at the Foreign Office. He is unhappily married to Susan MacClare, first cousin to the present Earl of Grantham, Robert Crawley; their union was not a love match, but one of duty.
Hugh has two elder sisters, Lady Agatha, who is alive and came to Duneagle in 1920 to look after her niece, and Lady Louisa, whose whereabouts and status are unknown.
When they were children, they played a nursery game where they were sea creatures: Louisa a lobster, Agatha a shark, and Hugh a shrimp. Hugh henceforth went by the nickname Shrimpie.
Hugh and Susan have three children: James - the present Earl of Newtonmore who does not live at Duneagle - Annabelle - who is married - and the youngest, Rose - who resides at Downton Abbey with Robert and his family after September 1921. Hugh and Susan move to India where he has been posted, then planned to settle in London after their time abroad ended.
As of 1924, Hugh and Susan are divorcing, Susan has written to her eldest daughter, Annabelle, that she is furious that the Crawleys have "taken [Hugh] in" and Rose has married Atticus Aldridge.