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DELORAINE,
earl of, a title in the peerage of Scotland, now extinct, derived from
certain lands in Selkirkshire, parish of Ettrick, and probably so called
from the name of the original possessor, (De Lorraine, a province
in the north-east of France,) and conferred in 1706, on Lord Henry Scott,
grandson of Charles the Second, being the third but second surviving son
of the unfortunate duke of Monmouth and his wife Anne, duchess of
Buccleuch, and born in 1676. His lordship took the oath and his seat in
the last parliament of Scotland, in October 1706, and steadily supported
the treaty of union. In 1707 he had the command of a regiment of foot, and
in 1730 he rose to the rank of major-general in the army. At the general
election in 1715, he was elected one of the sixteen representative
Scottish peers, and rechosen in 1722 and 1727. He was so much
distinguished for his politeness, that Dr. Young, author of the “Night
Thoughts,” “The Revenge,” &c., depicting the character of a conceited
coxcomb, says,
“He only thinks himself, so far from vain,
Stanhope in wit, in breeding Deloraine.”
He died 25th
December 1730.
Francis, his
elder son, second earl, born 11th February 1712, was a captain
in the royal navy, and commander of the Seaford in the Mediterranean, at
the time of his brother’s death. Being obliged to return home, on account
of the bad state of his health, he died in his coach at Acton, on his way
to London, 31st January 1740, in his 28th year,
leaving two sons, Henry, fourth earl, and the Hon. John Scott, a
councillor at law, and commissioner of bankrupts, who died in Gray’s Inn,
London, 3d December 1788.
Henry, fourth
and last earl of Deloraine, born 8th February 1737, succeeded
to the title when only three years old. Having by extravagance in his
youth deeply involved his estate, he in middle age secured from the wreck
of his fortune an annuity of one thousand pounds, on which he afterwards
lived very privately. He died without issue in September 1807, when his
titles became extinct. |
