Walter Montagu Douglas Scott, 5th Duke of Buccleuch

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Marquess of Lansdowne
Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal
In office
2 February 1842 – 21 January 1846
Prime MinisterSir Robert Peel, Bt
Preceded byThe Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
Succeeded byThe Earl of Haddington
Personal details
Born
Lord Walter Francis Montagu-Scott

25 November 1806
Dalkeith Palace, Midlothian, Scotland
Died16 April 1884 (aged 77)
Bowhill House, Selkirkshire, Scotland
Political partyConservative
SpouseLady Charlotte Thynne
Children
Parents
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge
Garter encircled arms of Walter Montagu Douglas Scott, 5th Duke of Buccleuch, KG

Walter Francis Montagu Douglas Scott, 5th Duke of Buccleuch, 7th Duke of Queensberry,

FRSE (25 November 1806 – 16 April 1884), styled Lord Eskdail between 1808 and 1812 and Earl of Dalkeith between 1812 and 1819, was a prominent Scottish nobleman, landowner and politician. He was Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal from 1842 to 1846 and Lord President of the Council
.

Background and education

Buccleuch was born at the

Buccleuch set out his ideas of the duties of a great landowner in a speech given at Branxholme Fete in 1839:

What has been entrusted to me has not been given that it might be wasted in idle or frivolous amusements; nor would I be justified in wasting the hard earnings of the tillers of the soil by carrying them away and spending them in foreign countries, but I wish to see them employed as the means of producing good to them and to the country at large.[6]

Buccleuch, Lord of the Liberty and Manors of Furness, and owner of extensive iron-mines in the area was, in conjunction with William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire, a main sponsor of the Furness Railway. He bought up a great eal of land in the area, and rebuilt Lindal-in-Furness as a model village.[6]

Career

Statue of Walter Francis Montagu Douglas Scott, 5th Duke of Buccleuch, 7th Duke of Queensberry on the Parliament Square in Edinburgh

A great Scottish land magnate, Buccleuch was a

Privy Counsellor in 1842. He served as Lord Privy Seal from 1842 to 1846 and as Lord President of the Council from January to July 1846 in Peel's government, when he reluctantly supported Peel's decision to repeal the Corn Laws. After Peel's fall, the Duke's political career largely came to an end. In 1878 he became Chancellor of the University of Glasgow
, a post he held until his death in 1884.

On 6 January 1842 he was appointed Colonel of the Edinburgh Militia (a regiment that his grandfather the 3rd Duke had raised in 1798). He was appointed an Aide-de-Camp to Queen Victoria for the militia on 19 March 1857. On resigning from the command on 20 May 1879 he was appointed the first Honorary Colonel of the Queen's Edinburgh Light Infantry Militia, as the regiment had by then become.[7]

He joined the Canterbury Association on 20 May 1848. It was planned to build a town called Buccleuch in his honour near Alford Forest, but this did not eventuate.[8]

Family

Buccleuch married

Lady Charlotte Anne Thynne, daughter of Thomas Thynne, 2nd Marquess of Bath and Hon. Isabella Elizabeth Byng, daughter of the 4th Viscount Torrington, on 13 August 1829 at St George's church, Hanover Square
, London. The couple had four sons and three daughters:

Rightful British King

William IV and Victoria, with the Duke acting as Gold Stick
.

The story goes that in 1879 the Historical Manuscripts Commission discovered an old black box amongst the Duke of Buccleuch's papers at Dalkeith, which was found to contain a contract proving Charles II had married Lucy Walter. In fact, the document meant the Duke was the rightful King of the United Kingdom, being the eldest agnatic descendant of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth. When he was shown the deed, he threw it on the fire, remarking, "that might cause a lot of trouble".[citation needed]

Death

Buccleuch died at Bowhill House near Bowhill, Selkirkshire, in April 1884, aged 77, and was succeeded by his eldest son, William. He was buried in the family crypt of the Buccleuch Memorial Chapel in St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Dalkeith, Midlothian. The church is located on Dalkeith's High Street, at the entrance to Dalkeith Country Park.[9]

Ancestry

See also

References

  1. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
    , Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006, accessed 5 January 2009
  2. ^ The great landowners of Great Britain and Ireland
  3. ^ "Douglas, Montague Scott Walter Francis, 5th Duke of Buccleugh and Queensbury (DGLS806MS)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  4. ^ "Library and Archive Catalog". The Royal Society. Retrieved 12 October 2010.
  5. ^ "Lord Drumlanrig". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  6. ^ .
  7. , pp. 81, 89, 111, Table C.
  8. ^ Blain, Rev. Michael (2007). The Canterbury Association (1848–1852): A Study of Its Members' Connections (PDF). Christchurch: Project Canterbury. pp. 62–63. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
  9. ^ 1&1 WebsiteBuilder (30 October 2012). "Home – A WebsiteBuilder Website". Stmarysdalkeith.co.uk. Retrieved 16 November 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

External links

Political offices
Preceded by Lord Privy Seal
1842–1846
Succeeded by
Preceded by
The Lord Wharncliffe
Lord President of the Council
1846
Succeeded by
The Marquess of Lansdowne
Honorary titles
Preceded by Lord Lieutenant of Midlothian
1828–1884
Succeeded by
Preceded by Lord Lieutenant of Roxburghshire
1841–1884
Succeeded by
Academic offices
Preceded by
Sir William Stirling-Maxwell
Chancellor of the University of Glasgow
1878–1884
Succeeded by
Peerage of Scotland
Preceded by Duke of Buccleuch
2nd creation
1819–1884
Succeeded by
Duke of Queensberry
1819–1884
Professional and academic associations
Preceded by
Creation
President of the Surtees Society
1834–37
Succeeded by
Professional and academic associations
Preceded by President of the Surtees Society
1865–84
Succeeded by