Francis Scott, 2nd Duke of Buccleuch

Francis Scott, 2nd Duke of Buccleuch KT FRS (11 January 1695 – 22 April 1751) was a Scottish nobleman.

Biography

He was the son of Sir James Scott, Earl of Dalkeith (son of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth and Anne Scott, 1st Duchess of Buccleuch) and Lady Henrietta Hyde, daughter of Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester. He was baptised on 20 January 1695 in St. James's Church, Westminster.

Following the death of his father in 1705, he was was styled the Earl of Dalkeith, until he succeeded to the dukedom of Buccleuch, 6 February 1732, on the death of his grandmother, who was Duchess of Buccleuch in her own right. At the same time, other titles in the Scottish peerage came his way: Earl of Dalkeith and Baron Scott of Whitchester and Eskdale.

His grandfather, the Duke of Monmouth, was the illegitimate son of Charles II who raised a rebellion upon James II's accession to the English throne, and was beheaded for it. Monmouth's noble titles were consequently forfeit; but in March 1743 two of those titles were restored to his progeny when the House of Lords passed a bill making Buccleuch the 2nd Earl of Doncaster, as well as 2nd Baron Scott of Tindall, both in the English peerage (conferred 22 March 1743).

In his youth he attended Eton College. Throughout his adult life Buccleuch associated himself with institutions that promoted learning. He was a freemason, member of the Grand Lodge at a period when scientific interests figured prominently in its pursuits; from 24 June 1723 to 24 June 1724 he held the office of Grand Master of Freemasons. He was invested as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) on 12 March 1724. He was closely associated with the Spalding Gentlemen's Society, a learned society of antiquaries, and he was the first to hold its office of Patron, inaugurated in 1734. On 18 April 1745 he was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of the Civil Law by Oxford University.

He was invested as a Knight of the Thistle on 2 February 1725. In 1734 he was elected a Scottish representative peer, but adhering to John Campbell, 2nd duke of Argyll, who went into opposition in 1740, Buccleuch lost the support of the administration and consequently failed to be reelected in 1741. He would, however, return to the House of Lords in 1743 as Earl of Doncaster.

Buccleuch married, firstly, Lady Jane Douglas, daughter of James Douglas, 2nd Duke of Queensberry and Mary Boyle, on 5 April 1720 in Earl of Rochester's House, Privy Gardens, Whitehall. They had two sons and three daughters. Lady Jane died in 1729 and is buried at Dalkeith Castle. He married, secondly, Alice Powell, daughter of Joseph Powell, on 4 September 1744 in St. George's Chapel, Mayfair, London, England. Both of his sons predeceased him, so he was succeeded by his grandson Henry Scott, 3rd Duke of Buccleuch. According to his will, he had six other children by a Mrs. Sarah Atkinson. He also appears to have had a son and three daughters by an Elizabeth Jenkins.

He possessed several estates, some in Scotland and other in England. These included, in Scotland, Dalkieth Palace and Bowhill House, and in England he had estates at Spalding in Lincolnshire, and in Berkshire at Langley and Hall Place at Hurley.

Lady Louisa Stuart called him "a man of mean understanding and meaner habits", and added that after his first wife's death "he plunged into such low amours, and lived so entirely with the lowest company, that his person was scarcely known to his equals, and his character fell into utter contempt." It is a judgment that must be treated with caution, since Stuart was not yet born at the time of Buccleuch's death. He was buried on 26 April 1751 in Eton College Chapel.

Ancestry

Family of Francis Scott, 2nd Duke of Buccleuch

16. Charles I of England 8. Charles II of England 17. Henrietta Maria of France 4. James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth 18. William Walter, of Haverfordwest 9. Lucy Walter 19. Elizabeth Protheroe 2. James Scott, Earl of Dalkeith 20. Walter Scott, 1st Earl of Buccleuch 10. Francis Scott, 2nd Earl of Buccleuch 21. Lady Mary Hay 5. Anne Scott, 1st Duchess of Buccleuch 22. John Leslie, 6th Earl of Rothes 11. Lady Margaret Leslie 23. Lady Anne Erskine 1. Francis Scott, 2nd Duke of Buccleuch 24. Henry Hyde 12. Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon 25. Mary Langford 6. Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester 26. Sir Thomas Aylesbury, 1st Baronet 13. Frances Aylesbury 27. Anne Denman 3. Lady Henrietta Hyde 28. Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork 14. Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Burlington 29. Catherine Fenton 7. Lady Henrietta Boyle 30. Henry Clifford, 5th Earl of Cumberland 15. Lady Elizabeth Clifford 31. Lady Frances Cecil

References

• thepeerage.com Accessed 16 March 2008
• Doyle, James William Edmund. The Official Baronage of England, Showing the Succession, Dignities, and Offices of Every Peer from 1066 to 1885, with Sixteen Hundred Illustrations. (p. 602) London: Longmans, Green, 1886. googlebooks Retrieved 16 March 2008