THE DALRYMPLES OF STAIR (CONCLUDED).
MHZ Master of Stair, author of the Glencoe massacre, married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Sir John Dundas, of New- liston, in the county of Linlithgow, and was succeeded by his son, John, second Earl of Stair, who was born at Edinburgh, July 20, 1673. He was educated at Leyden, where he became extremely proficient, especially in languages, and was considered one of the best scholars in the University. He next pursued his studies at the College of Edinburgh, and in 1692 accompanied his father and King William to Holland. He served as a volunteer in the Cameronian Regiment at the battle of Steinkirk, August 2, 1692, where his colonel, the Earl of Angus, was killed. In the winter he returned to Leyden and studied his family profession, the law. He next accompanied Lord Lexington in his embassy to Vienna in 1700, made the tour of Germany and Italy, and returned home in 1701. Just before the death of William he was nominated Lieutenant-Colonel of the Scotch Foot Guards, and served as an aide-de-camp to the Duke of Marlborough in 1702. In April, 1703, he had a colonel's commission in the Dutch service, had the command of the Cameronian Regiment, January 1, 1706, and that of ,the Scots Greys on the 24th of August. He was a brigadier- general at the battle of Ramillies ou the 12th of May in that year. In February, 1707, he was chosen a Scotch representative peer, and again in 1715, 1722, 1727, and 1744. He had the command of a brigade at the battle of Oudenarde, July 11, 1708, and carried home the despatches of the victory. He was major-general at the battle of Malplaquet, September 4, 1709, and became a lieutenant-general, January 1, 1710. In the winter of 1709 he was sent as Envoy Extraordinary to the King Poland, returned in 1710 to the siege of Douay, and had the same year the Order of the Thistle conferredon him. On the dismissal of Godolphin in 1711, Stair was sent by Marlborough with a conciliatory message to the Earl of Oxford. On the accession of George L he was appointed one of the Lords of the Bedchamber, a Privy Councillor, and Commander-in-Chief in Scotland during the absence of the Duke of Argyll, November 14, 1714. In 1715 he was • sent to France iu a diplomatic capacity, and on the death of Louis XIV. was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary to that Court. On the embassy, which lasted till 1720, the reputation of the Earl of Stair must rest. He succeeded in completely severing France from the Jacobite affiance, and in establishing for the first time since the days of Cromwell an entente cordiale between the two countries based on a common Liberal policy. He also obtained and maintained for some time a complete as- cendency over the mind of the Regent Orleans. Lord Hard- wicke characterizes this embassy as " most important in its objects, most brilliant and spirited in its execution." But in 1719 Mr. Law, of Mississippi-Scheme notoriety, came to France, and from that time the influence of Stair with the Regent began to wane. He warned Orleans against Law's character and plans. Law soon retaliated by the most insolent conduct towards Stair. " At length he so far galled the pride or roused the jealousy of Stair as to draw him into personal wrangling, and consequently interrupt the friendly correspondence between the French and British Governments. It was one main object of a journey which Stanhope made in January, 1720, to re-establish harmony, but finding the two Scotchmen irre- concileable, and one of them supreme in France, he, in concert with Dubois, recalled Lord Stair to England." "This last great error of Stair," observes Lord Stanhope, " kept him in disgrace, or at least out of employment, for twenty years. In 1733 we find Horace Walpole write of him as one whose haughty, intriguing character has drawn upon him the displeasure of the King." But Stair had opposed his father. After his return Stair re- tired to Newliston, and lived with the utmost frugality, having put his estate into the hands of trustees, to pay off the debts incurred by his lavish expenditure as ambassador. He also de- voted himself to agriculture, and was the first, it is said, to introduce the cultivation of turnips and cabbages in the open fields. He laid out fine woods about Newliston, arranged with military formality. In 1729 he had the office of Vice-Admiral of Scotland, but joining the Opposition against Walpole, was deprived of it in April, 1733, as well as of the command of the Inniskillings. He was also passed over in the election of representative peers in that year. On the fall of the Walpole Administration in 1742 Stair was made a field-marshal and sent Ambassador to the States of Hol- land, and on the 24th of April was made Governor of Minorca. In August he was appointed commander-in-chief of the allied army in Flanders, and in April, 1743, had his inniakilling Regiment re- stored to him. He commanded (under the King) at the battle of Dettingen, June 16, but, disgusted at the Hanoverian preferences
of George, and finding himself a mere cipher, he sent to the King an angry memorial, reflecting on past transactions, hinting at Hanoverian partialities, and asking for permission to retire, as he expressed it, to his plough. " His resignation was immediately accepted, not without some marks of the Royal displeasure at the language in which it was tendered." Stair retired to the Hague, but on the prospect of a French invasion in the Jacobite interest in 1744," forgetting his wrongs, he offered his services in any situation, and in return was graciously appointed Commander-in-Chief," and in 1745 restored to the command of the Scots Greys. His last ap- pointment was that of General of the Marine Forces, May 14, 1746. He died at Edinburgh May 9, 1747. He was a man of the highest diplomatic ability, only alloyed by too great haughtiness and self- appreciation. His moral standard, however, as a statesman was far above that of his father and grandfather.
John, second Earl of Stair, left no children. As his next brother had married a peeress in her own right, the Earl had made a formal resignation of his honours to Queen Anne, and obtained a new patent, by which, failing issue of his own body, he had the power of nominating such descendant of the first Viscount Stair as he might choose, which failing, the honours were limiter' to William Dalrymple, his next younger brother, and his second son by the Countess of Dumfries, and the heirs male of his body, which failing, to the third, fourth, and any younger sons of that marriage, and their heirs male, with remainders over providing whenever there were two sons for the severance of the earldoms of Dumfries and Stair. In pursuance of the powers thus granted him, the Earl of Stair nominated Captain John Dalrymple, eldest son of his brother, George Dalrymple. This settlement was con- tested, so far as the titles were concerned, by James Dalrymple, second son of William Dalrymple, who maintained that the Crown could not transfer the right to nominate to titles to any subject. Both claimants voted as Earl of Stair at the election of Peers, August 13, 1747, but on petition and reference James Dalrymple was declared legally entitled to the dignities of Earl of Stair, &c. James, third Earl of Stair, died without issue, November 13, 1760, and in pursuance of the remainders in the patent was succeeded as fourth Earl of Stair by his elder brother William, Earl of Dumfries, who also died without issue, July 27, 1768, when the earldom of Stair devolved on the former nominee of the second Earl, John Dalrymple, son of the Hon. George Dalrymple (a Baron of the Exchequer of Scotland), fifth son of the first Earl of Stair, who had acquired by purchase the estate of Dalmahoy, in the county of Edinburgh. The Dalrymple titles and estates were thus again united. The fifth Earl, however, had sold the estate of Newliston. He became a representative peer in 1771, and opposed strongly hostile measures towards the American colonists, for which he received the thanks of the province of Massachusetts. He was not returned as a peer in 1774, but published some pamphlets giving a gloomy picture of the national credit and resources. In 1784 he published an attack on the Coalition Ministry on the East India question, and promised his support to Pitt's Government as long as it should deserve it. He died October 13, 1789, and was succeeded by his only son, John, sixth Earl of Stair, who had served in the war in America, in 1782 went as Minister to Poland, and in August, 1785, was appointed Ambassador to Berlin. He was a representative peer in 1790, 1796, 1802, and 1806. He died without issue June 1, 1821, and was sue.. ceeded as seventh Earl by his cousin, John William Henry,
son of William, younger brother of John, fifth Earl. The seventh Earl died at Paris, March 22, 1840, without issue, and was succeeded as eighth Earl by his kinsman, Sir John Hamilton Dalrymple, Bart., the descendant of Sir James Dalrymple, second son of James, the first Viscount Stair. Sir John Dalrymple, the father of the eighth Earl, had married the daughter and heiress of the representative of the Viscounts Oxenfoord. The new Earl was a general officer in the army, and on the 11th August, 1841, was created a peer of the United Kingdom as Baron Oxenfoord, of Cousland, county Edinburgh, with remainder to his brother. He died without issue January 10, 1863, when his honours devolved on
his brother, North Hamilton Dalrymple, who succeeded as ninth Earl of Stair, and dying November 9, 1864, was succeeded by his son John Dah-ymple, tenth and present Earl of Stair. He was for some time M.P. for Wigtownshire in the Liberal interest, to which this branch of the family are firmly attached. The rapid succession and repeated changes in the lineal succession have prevented the family during the present century from attaining the eminence in public affairs which they formerly enjoyed, but there is no family in the United Kingdom which has produced a greater number of able men during its existence than the House of Dalrymple of Stair.
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