BRODIE, Alexander (d.1770), of Lethen, Nairnshire.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

17 Mar. 1735 - 1741

Family and Education

b. 1st s. of Alexander Brodie of Lethen by Sophia, da. of Sir Hugh Campbell of Calder (Cawdor), Nairnshire. m. 1754, Henrietta, da. of Col. William Grant of Ballindalloch, 2s. 3da. suc. fa. 1745.

Offices Held

Biography

Descended from the Brodies of Brodie, Alexander Brodie’s family had been settled at Lethen since 1630. In 1734 his chief, Alexander Brodie of Brodie, offered to bring him into Parliament for Nairnshire. But when his cousin, John Campbell of Cawdor, stood for Nairnshire, he joined John and Duncan Forbes in supporting Campbell:

Lethen’s behaviour to me [Brodie of Brodie wrote] has been the most provoking and insulting that ever was heard of, abstracting from the ingratitude of it, nay I could give it worse names but shall only state a few of the facts. First, he undeniably owes the estate of Lethen to my grandfather. Next, the chief occasion of my breach with the laird of Culloden [John Forbes] was my inclination of bringing him [Brodie of Lethen] in for Nairn and he trusted to it till he was frightened by the grand appearance of the clans at Michaelmas head court. Then he and his cousin, Cawdor, changed sides and from the most inveterate foes to John and Duncan [Forbes], became their most intimate bosom friends. ... Was this the behaviour of an honest man? To leave a man in the lurch that was fighting for him, because he suspected from the appearance of my lord advocate’s Jacobite, popish friends that it would not be in my power to succeed for him.1

Returned for Nairnshire in 1735 at a by-election caused by Campbell’s choosing to sit for Pembrokeshire, he voted with the Administration on the Spanish convention in 1739 and the place bill in 1740. During the Forty-five rebellion he supported the Government, raising troops to join General Cope’s army.2 He died 28 April 1770.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Paula Watson

Notes

  • 1. More Culloden Pprs. iii. 93.
  • 2. Sir W. Fraser, Chiefs of Grant, ii. 150.