STEWART, Hon. John (c.1709-96), of Pittendriech, Edinburgh.

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

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. c.1709, 2nd s. of Francis Stewart, 7th Earl of Moray [S], by his 2nd w. Jean, da. of John Elphinstone, 4th Lord Balmerino [S]. m. (1) d. 15 Jan. 1764, s.p.;1 (2) Jean Home, s.p.2

Offices Held

Capt. Earl of Loudoun’s Highlanders 1745-7; ent. service of States-General 1747;3 lt.-col. Earl of Drumlanrig’s regt. 1747; col. Lt.-Gen. Charles Halkett’s regt. 1754; col.-commdt. Maj. Gen. Charles William Stewart’s regt. 1758; col. of the same 1760-95; maj. gen. 1772.

Biography

John Stewart, who had long family connections with Fife and Elgin, stood against Ilay’s candidates for Elginshire and Anstruther Easter Burghs in 1741. Successful for the latter, presumably because of the unpopularity in Scotland of the sitting Member, Philip Anstruther, a government supporter, he voted against Walpole’s nominee for the chairman of the elections committee in December 1741. One of the group of Scotch Members known as the Duke of Argyll’s gang,4 he voted against the Hanoverians in 1742 and 1744. Receiving a commission in a newly raised Highland regiment in 1745, he was taken prisoner at Prestonpans, 21 Sept., but was forcibly released in January 1746, when he rejoined his regiment.5 He was absent from the division on the Hanoverians in the following April, when he was claimed by the Administration as a ‘New Ally’. Removed in May 1747 ‘from Lord Loudoun’s regiment for his behaviour this winter, which indeed has been very imprudent’, he was appointed two months afterwards lieutenant-colonel of a new regiment which Lord Drumlanrig was raising in Scotland for the Dutch.6 He did not stand again for Parliament but remained for many years in the service of the States-General, before returning to Scotland where he died 13 Aug. 1796.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: R. S. Lea

Notes

  • 1. Scots Peerage, ix. 140.
  • 2. Restalrig Burial Reg. (Sc. Rec. Soc. xxxii), 31, 59.
  • 3. Scots Brigade in Holland (Sc. Hist. Soc. xxxv), ii. 413.
  • 4. John Drummond to Ld. Morton, 2 and 11 Dec. 1742, Morton mss, SRO.
  • 5. Origins of the Forty-five (Sc. Hist. Soc. ser. 2. ii), 363-4; More Culloden Pprs. v. 30.
  • 6. HMC Polwarth, v. 245.