STUART MACKENZIE, Hon. James (?1719-1800), of Rosehaugh, Ross and Belmont, Angus.

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

Constituency

Dates

3 Feb. 1742 - 1747
1747 - 1754
1754 - 1761
1761 - 1780

Family and Education

b. ?1719, 2nd s. of James Stuart, 2nd Earl of Bute [S], by Lady Anne Campbell, da. of Archibald, 1st Duke of Argyll [S] and sis. of John and Archibald, 2nd and 3rd Dukes. educ. Eton 1728-32; Grand Tour; Leyden 1737. m. 16 Feb. 1749, his cos. Lady Elizabeth Campbell, da. of John, 2nd Duke of Argyll [S], 2ch. d. young. suc. fa. in the estate of Rosehaugh 1723, under the entail of his gt.-gd.-fa. Sir George Mackenzie, and took add. name of Mackenzie.

Offices Held

Envoy extraordinary, Turin 1758-61; P.C. 4 Sept. 1761; ld. privy seal [S] Apr. 1763-May 1765, Aug. 1766-d.

Biography

Stuart Mackenzie was brought up under the guardianship of his uncles, the 2nd Duke of Argyll and Lord Ilay, later 3rd Duke of Argyll. He was returned for Argyllshire in February 1742 on the interest of the 2nd Duke, with whose followers in the House of Commons he voted against the Government in the following session. He did not vote in the session of 1743-4, when he was abroad with the Barberina, a celebrated opera dancer, with whom he had fallen in love when she came to London for the season of 1742-3. They planned to marry at Venice, but were foiled by Lord Ilay, now Duke of Argyll, who arranged through his friend, Lord Hyndford, the British ambassador at Berlin, for her to be arrested at Venice and sent under escort to Berlin to fulfil a contract which she had made to dance there during the forthcoming season, and for Mackenzie to be deported from Prussia as soon as he arrived in pursuit of her.1 On his return to England he is described as ‘ill with love, spitting blood,’ and very angry with Argyll, who wrote: ‘I have no hope for him, for I am told he continues to talk like a madman’.2 He was absent from the division on the Hanoverians in April 1746, classed by the Government as ‘doubtful’. Returned for Buteshire on his family’s interest in 1747, he married his first cousin, the daughter of the 2nd Duke of Argyll, in 1749. In the next reign he succeeded the 3rd Duke as the manager of affairs in Scotland.

He died 8 Apr. 1800.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Romney R. Sedgwick

Notes

  • 1. John Drummond to Ld. Morton, 4 Dec. 1742, Morton mss. SRO; Letters and Jnls. of Lady Coke, i. pp. lii-iv.
  • 2. Walpole to Hanbury Williams, 17 July 1744; Argyll to Andrew Fletcher, Ld. Milton, 27 Oct. 1744, Milton mss.