John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute

File:1stMarquessOfBute1783.jpg

Lord Mount Stuart in 1784, by Gainsborough Dupont.

File:1stMarquessOfBute.jpg

Portrait of Lord Mount Stuart at age 19 by Jean-Étienne Liotard, 1763.

John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute PC, FRS (30 June 1744 – 16 November 1814), styled Lord Mount Stuart until 1792 and known as The Earl of Bute between 1792 and 1794, was a British nobleman.

Background and education

Stuart was the son of John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute and the former Mary Wortley Montagu, a granddaughter of the 1st Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull and great-granddaughter of the 1st Earl of Sandwich. He was educated at Winchester and Oxford University, and around 1757 he began to be tutored by the later famous Scottish philosopher Adam Ferguson.

Political career

Lord Mount Stuart was Tory Member of Parliament for Bossiney from 1766 to 1776. On 2 November 1775 he announced in the House of Commons his intention to introduce a bill to establish a militia in Scotland, and during the next few months James Boswell assisted in seeking support for the bill in Scotland. In March 1776 the bill was debated, but ultimately failed to pass.

In 1776 Mount Stuart was elevated to the Peerage of Great Britain in his own right as Baron Cardiff, of Cardiff Castle in the County of Glamorgan. Though this title was also used, he continued to be known by his courtesy title of Lord Mount Stuart. (He ranked higher in the order of precedence as the heir to an earldom than he did as a substantive baron.) In 1779 he was sworn of the Privy Council and was sent as an envoy to the court of Turin. He was ambassador to Spain in 1783. He held the sinecure of Auditor of the imprests from 1781 until the abolition of the office in 1785, upon which he was paid £7000 compensation.

He succeeded his father in the earldom in 1792. In 1794 he was created Viscount Mountjoy, in the Isle of Wight, Earl of Windsor and Marquess of Bute. (The Mountjoy and Windsor titles recognised the Barony of Mountjoy and Viscountcy of Windsor previously held by his father-in-law, the 2nd Viscount Windsor, which had both become extinct on Lord Windsor's death in 1758.) Lord Bute was inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society on 12 December 1799.[1]

Family

Lord Bute married the Honourable Charlotte Hickman-Windsor, daughter of Herbert Hickman-Windsor, 2nd Viscount Windsor, on 12 November 1766. They had several children:

• John Stuart, Lord Mount Stuart (25 September 1767 – 22 January 1794), whose son succeeded as 2nd Marquess
• Lord Evelyn Stuart (1773–1842), a colonel in the army
• Lady Charlotte Stuart (c. 1775 – 5 September 1847), married Sir William Homan, 1st Baronet
• Lord Henry Stuart (7 June 1777 – 19 August 1809), father of Henry Villiers-Stuart, 1st Baron Stuart de Decies
• Captain Lord William Stuart (18 November 1778 – 28 July 1814)
• Rear-Admiral Lord George Stuart (1 March 1780 – 19 February 1841)

His first wife died on 28 January 1800. He married Frances Coutts, daughter of Thomas Coutts, on 17 September 1800. They had two children:

• Lady Frances Stuart (d. 29 March 1859)
• Lord Dudley Coutts Stuart (11 January 1803 – 17 November 1854)

His second wife outlived him, and died on 12 November 1832.

References

• Burkes' Peerage
• Roland Thorne, ‘Stuart, John, first marquess of Bute (1744–1814)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008) [2], accessed 5 May 2008.
• Paola Bianchi, Nella specola dell'ambasciatore. Torino agli occhi di John Stuart, lord Mountstuart e marchese di Bute (1779-1783), in Architettura e città negli Stati sabaudi, a cura di E. Piccoli e F. De Pieri, Macerata, Quodlibet, 2012, pp. 135–160

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Marquess of Bute

Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by Edward Wortley-Montagu John Richmond Webb	Member of Parliament for Bossiney 1766–1776 With: Edward Wortley-Montagu 1766–1768 Henry Luttrell 1768–1769, 1774–1776 Sir George Osborn, Bt 1769–1774	Succeeded by Henry Luttrell Charles Stuart
Honorary titles
Preceded by The Earl of Plymouth	Lord Lieutenant of Glamorgan 1772–1793	Succeeded by Lord Mount Stuart
Vacant Title last held by Lord Mount Stuart	Lord Lieutenant of Glamorgan 1794–1814	Succeeded by The Marquess of Bute
New title Office created	Lord Lieutenant of Buteshire 1794–1814
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by William Lynch	British Minister to Sardinia 1779–1783	Succeeded by Hon. John Hampden-Trevor
Political offices
Preceded by William Aislabie The Lord Sondes	Auditor of the Imprests 1781–1785 With: The Lord Sondes	Office abolished
Peerage of Scotland
Preceded by John Stuart	Earl of Bute 1792–1814	Succeeded by John Crichton-Stuart
Peerage of Great Britain
New creation	Marquess of Bute 1796–1814	Succeeded by John Crichton-Stuart
Preceded by Mary Wortley-Montagu	Baron Mount Stuart 1794–1814
New creation	Baron Cardiff 1776–1814