STEWART, John (d.1769), of Castle Stewart, Wigtown.

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

Constituency

Dates

1747 - 1754

Family and Education

1st s. of William Stewart of Castle Stewart by Isabel, da. of Sir William Maxwell, 1st Bt., of Monreith, Wigtown. m. by Sept. 1733, Jean, da. of Adam Craik of Duchrae, Kirkcudbright, 3s. suc. fa. 1722.

Offices Held

An officer in the custom house till 1747; clerk of the pipe in the Exchequer [S] 1751-d.

Biography

The great-grandson of the 2nd Earl of Galloway,1 Stewart gave up his customs post in 1747 to stand for his county as a government supporter on the interest of his kinsman, the 6th Earl of Galloway, who put him in the hands of Argyll and Pelham.2 Receiving a place in 1751, he was unopposed at the ensuing by-election, mentioning to Claudius Amyand the ‘favours I have received’ from Newcastle and Pelham.3 He may have been the Mr Stuart who in 1754 was receiving a secret service pension of £200 a year, which was not continued.4 With Argyll’s support he expected to be returned again in 1754, but Galloway was hostile to the Duke and, combining with the Dalrymples, put up his brother, Colonel James Stewart,5 thus forcing John Stewart to withdraw. Four days before the election John Dalrymple (afterwards 5th Earl of Stair) wrote to Lord Loudoun: ‘Castle Stewart could never have been able to carry the shire without Colonel Stewart for the burghs; he has no interest earthly, independent of Galloway’.6 He did not stand again and died shortly before 6 July 1769.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: R. S. Lea

Notes

  • 1. P.H. M’Kerlie, Lands and their Owners in Galloway, i. 314-17; ii. 315; iii. 151, 387; v. 360.
  • 2. Argyll to Pelham, 6 Aug. 1747, Newcastle (Clumber) mss.
  • 3. 31 July 1751, Add. 32724, f. 502.
  • 4. Add. 33038, f. 415.
  • 5. Corresp. of Ld. Loudoun, Apr. 1754, with John Dalrymple and others, Loudoun mss.
  • 6. 28 Apr. 1754, ibid.