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DALRYMPLE, JOHN, second
earl of Stair, was the second son of the first earl, and the grandson of
the subject of the preceding memoir. He was born at Edinburgh, July 20,
1673, and, while yet a mere boy, had the misfortune to kill his elder
brother by the accidental discharge of a pistol. Although a royal
remission was procured for this offence, his parents found it necessary
for their own comfort to banish him from their sight, as his presence
awakened the most painful associations. He was therefore placed for some
years under the charge of a clergyman in Ayrshire, a humane and sensible
man, who soon perceived the excellent qualities of his pupil’s
character. Under the charge of this person, he became a proficient
scholar, and in the course of time, through a series of favourable reports
to his parents, he had the satisfaction of seeing the young exile restored
to the bosom of his family, of which he was destined to be the principal
ornament. The more advanced parts of his education, he received at Leyden,
where he was reputed one of the best scholars in the university, and
subsequently at the college of his native city. His first appearance in
life was as a volunteer under the earl of Angus, commander of the
Cameronian regiment, at the battle of Steinkirk, in August, 1692, being
then nineteen years of age. For some years afterwards, he devoted himself
at Leyden to the study of that profession in which two preceding
generations of his family had already gained so much distinction. But, on
returning in 1701, from his continued travels, he accepted a commission as
lieutenant-colonel of the Scottish regiment of foot guards. In the
succeeding year, he served as aid-de-camp to the duke of Marlborough at
the taking of Venlo and Liege, and the attack on Peer. In the course of
1706, he successively obtained the command of the Cameronian regiment and
the Scots Greys. His father dying suddenly, January 8, 1707, he succeeded
to the family titles, and was next month chosen one of the Scottish
representative peers in the first British parliament. In the subsequent
victories of Marlborough—Oudenarde, Malplaquet, and Ramilies—the earl
of Stair held high command, and gained great distinction. But the
accession of the tory ministry, in 1711, while it stopped the glorious
career of Marlborough, also put a check upon his services. He found it
necessary to sell his command of the Scots Greys, and retire from the
army.
As one who had thus
suffered in the behalf of the protestant succession, the earl was entitled
to some consideration, when that was secured by the accession of George I.
He was, on that occasion, appointed to be a lord of the bed-chamber, and a
privy councillor, and constituted commander-in-chief of the forces in
Scotland, in the absence of the duke of Argyle. Next year he was sent as
ambassador to France, with the difficult task of conciliating the
government of the duke of Orleans to the new dynasty of Britain. It is
allowed on all hands that his lordship conducted this business with
unexampled address and dignity, his diplomatic skill being only equalled
by the external splendours of his cortege. Unfortunately, his usefulness
was destroyed in 1719, by the Mississippi enthusiasm. His lordship could
not stoop to flatter his countryman, Mr Law, then comptroller-general of
the French finances, but whom he probably recollected as a somewhat
disreputable adventurer on the streets of Edinburgh. The British
government, finding that the hostility of this powerful person injured
their interests, found it necessary—if a mean action can ever be
necessary—to recall the earl of Stair, notwithstanding their high sense
of his meritorious services. He returned to his native country in 1720,
and for the next twenty-two years lived in retirement, at his beautiful
seat of Newliston, near Edinburgh, where he is said to have planted
several groups of trees in a manner designed to represent the arrangement
of the British troops at one of Marlborough’s victories. He also turned
his mind to agriculture, a science then just beginning to be a little
understood in Scotland, and it is a well attested fact, that he was the
first in this country to plant turnips and cabbages in the open fields. On
the dissolution of the Walpole administration in 1742, his lordship was
called by the king from his retirement, appointed field-marshal, and sent
as ambassador and plenipotentiary to Holland. He was almost at the same
time nominated to the government of Minorca. In the same year, he was sent
to take the supreme command of the army in Flanders, which he held till
the king himself arrived to put himself at the head of the troops. His
lordship served under the king at the battle of Dettingen, June 16, 1743;
but, to use the indignant language of lord Westmoreland, in alluding to
the case in parliament, he was reduced to the condition of a statue with a
truncheon in its hand, in consequence of the preference shown by his
majesty for the Hanoverian officers. Finding himself at once in a highly
responsible situation, and yet disabled to act as a free agent, he
resigned his command. France, taking advantage of the distraction of the
British councils respecting the partiality of his majesty for Hanoverian
councils, next year threatened an invasion; and the earl of Stair came
spontaneously forward, and, on mere grounds of patriotism, offered to
serve in any station. He was now appointed commander-in-chief of the
forces in Great Britain. In the succeeding year, his brother-in-law, Sir
James Campbell, being killed at the battle of Fontenoy, the earl was
appointed his successor in the colonelcy of the Scots Greys, a command he
had been deprived of thirty-one years before by queen Anne. His last
appointment was to the command of the marine forces, in May 1746. His
lordship died at Queensberry-house, Edinburgh, on the 9th of May 1747, and
was buried with public honours in the church at Kirkliston. It is matter
of just surprise, that no monument has ever been erected to this most
accomplished and patriotic nobleman—neither by the public, which was so
much indebted to him, nor by his own family, which derives such lustre
from his common name. His lordship left a widow without children; namely,
lady Eleanor Campbell, grand-daughter of the lord chancellor Loudoun, and
who had previously been married to the viscount Primrose. |
