Unprincipled Careerists or Enlightened Entrepreneurs? A study of the roles, identities and attitudes of the Scots MPs at Westminster, c.1754 - c.1784. Sheena Bedborough 2015 Abstract The Scots MPs of the eighteenth century have traditionally been portrayed in a negative light. In a century once noted for electoral corruption and the abuses of patronage, they were seen by contemporaries and later writers as among the worst examples of their kind: greedy, self- seeking, unprincipled ‘tools of administration’ whose votes could be bought with the offer of places and pensions. Lewis Namier’s seminal work exposing the cynical approach to politics of MPs generally, sparked a backlash which has produced a more balanced evaluation of English politics. Strangely, although Namier exonerated the Scots MPs from the worst of the charges against them, his less judgmental verdicts are found only sporadically in more recent writing, while the older viewpoint is still repeated by some historians. There is no modern study of the eighteenth-century Scots MPs, a situation which this research proposes to remedy, by examining the group of MPs who represented Scotland at Westminster between 1754 and 1784. It re-assesses the extent to which the original criticisms are merited, but also widens the scope by examining the contribution made by Scotland’s MPs, to British and Scottish political life in the later part of the eighteenth century. A study of the social make-up and the careers of this particular cohort provides the backdrop for the two main themes: the participation of Scots MPs in the legislative process, and their effectiveness as representatives of Scottish interests at Westminster. Existing biographical information has been supplemented by an examination of Parliamentary Papers, debates, and personal correspondence to enable further analysis of attitudes, in particular with regard to politics and political mores. The research explores issues of motivation, asking questions about allegiance, identity, perceptions of government, and how conflicts of interest were resolved, before presenting a conclusion which aims to offer a revised, broader, but more nuanced, assessment of this much-criticised group, based on more recent approaches to interpretation of the period. i Contents Abstract i Abbreviations iii List of Tables iv List of Appendices v Acknowledgements vi Permissions vii Introduction 1 Chapter 1 The Members 25 Chapter 2 A British Parliament? 68 Chapter 3 The View from Scotland 127 Chapter 4 Allegiances and Identities 177 Conclusions 227 Appendices 238 Bibliography 261 ii Abbreviations BL British Library CRB Convention of Royal Burghs ECA Edinburgh City Archive GCA Glasgow City Archive HCPP House of Commons Parliamentary Papers HCJ Journals of the House of Commons HLJ Journals of the House of Lords NRS National Records of Scotland NLS National Library of Scotland NRAS National Register of Archives for Scotland ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography iii List of Tables Table 1 Age of MPs at time of election 30 Table 2 Scottish Constituencies and their MPs 31 Table 3 Electoral contests 32 Table 4 The social status of fathers of Scots members of the Commons: 1754-84 35 Table 5 Occupations of Scots MPs in the House of Commons 43 Table 6 Attendance levels of Representative Peers: 1754 Parliament 71 Table 7 Attendance levels of Representative Peers: 1774 Parliament 72 Table 8 Scots attendance in known divisions: 1754-1784 84 Table 9 Scots MPs nominated to committees: 1754 Parliament 91 Table 10 Scots MPs nominated to committees: 1761 Parliament 93 Table 11 Scottish Legislation: categorisation of acts passed: Nov. 1754 to March 1784 117 Table 12 Scottish legislative attempts, by Parliament 121 Table 13 Argyll, Montgomery and Dundas 172 Table 14 Summary of voting in divisions on key issues 178 Table 15 Representative Peers who were Postholders in the 1774 Parliament 181 Table 16 Scots Opposition MPs on Wilkes and the Middlesex Election 197 iv List of Appendices Appendix 1 Scots MPs on Division Lists 238 Appendix 2 Committee work of MPs 254 Appendix 3 Highland Roads 256 Appendix 4 Glasgow Legislation 257 Appendix 5 Postholders 258 v Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been completed without the patience and encouragement of my principal supervisor, Dr Emma Macleod, for whose support I am deeply grateful. Comments and suggestions from both Dr Macleod and Dr Alastair Mann along the way have been invaluable in developing my thinking about the subject. The staff at the National Records of Scotland, the National Library of Scotland and the Millennium Library, University of Stirling, have been unfailingly helpful. Helen Beardsley at Stirling has always been ready to respond to my queries and I was invariably made welcome at the local archive centres which I visited, in Inverness, Angus, Perth, Stirling, Glasgow and Edinburgh. I would also like to thank Dr David Brown, head of Private Records at NRS for his advice on the use of Family and Estate Papers, and Dr Alison Rosie for arranging access to NRAS records. I am grateful to Keith Adam for giving me permission to consult the Adam Muniments at Blair Adam, and to the honorary archivist, John Getley, for his assistance during my visit. I am indebted to Dr Colin Nicolson at Stirling University for his help in setting up the Scottish MPs database, and to Professor Julian Hoppit of University College, London, for his generosity in allowing me access to his own work on the legislation of the period, from which I was able to develop the Scottish legislation database. Professor P.D.G. Thomas, formerly of Aberystwyth University, very kindly responded in some detail to my request for assistance in identifying speakers in the Commons, and pointed me towards additional publications which would provide further help. Finally, I must pay tribute to the various members of my family, who have allowed me the space to carry out this research: to my daughter, Helen, for her readiness to listen and to discuss areas where our interests overlapped, and to my husband, Bill, for his forbearance and understanding when I was immersed in another century. vi Permissions and further acknowledgements Keith Adam of Blairadam kindly allowed me to quote from the Adam Muniments. North Yorkshire County Record Office gave permission to quote from the Zetland Archive. The University of Glasgow kindly gave permission for the use of the image of William Mure of Caldwell. (University of Glasgow Archive Services, GB0248 UP2/107/2) The following images are printed courtesy of a Creative Commons licence from the National Portrait Gallery: James Duff, 2nd Earl of Fife Lord Frederick Campbell William Adam House of Commons, 1793-4 The image of Simon Fraser was accessed from J.P. Maclean, An Historical Account of the Settlements of Scotch Highlanders in America (Glasgow,1900), Project Gutenberg, < www.gutenberg.org>. [Accessed 30 March 2015]. The engraving of Robert Dundas is from G.W.T. Omond, The Arniston Memoirs (Edinburgh, 1887), p. 163, <www.archive.org>. [Accessed 30 March 2015]. Appendix 3 showing expenditure on Highland Roads is reproduced from the House of Commons Journals, as digitised in the HCPP database (copyright University of Southampton a nd ProQuest ). vii Introduction The eighteenth century in British history is one which defies pigeon-holing. Once thought of as an era of stability, dull, devoid of issues which aroused much passion, it also witnessed a new royal dynasty, widespread social and economic change, and the acquisition of a vast overseas empire. A society which interested itself in the Enlightenment and in polite discourse, which produced elegant architecture and landscaped gardens, was also noted for drunkenness and riotous behaviour. A hierarchical and supposedly deferential society was also one where key political figures were lampooned on stage and in print. Like the century itself, eighteenth- century politics defies neat classification. Was this the politics of civilised compromise and accommodation where politicians defended the constitution and the traditional liberties of free Britons against both despotism and republicanism? Or was it the politics of an oligarchy who manipulated and managed a corrupt electoral system in their own interest? These paradoxes provide the backdrop for a re-examination of one group who have consistently been portrayed in a very negative light – the eighteenth-century Scots MPs at Westminster. This research will argue that there is another side to this particular coin. It might have been expected that Sir Lewis Namier’s ground-breaking research into the nature of eighteenth-century politics would result in some re-assessment of the situation in Scotland, but compared to the scope and volume of work done on English politics and on developments in central and local government, the output has been quite meagre.1 Namier’s cynical view of politics and politicians reinforced those of earlier historians, such as the Porritts and Laprade, who had previously exposed the widespread use of ‘corrupt practices’ in the 1 For the historiography of the period, Herbert Butterfield, George III and the Historians (London 1957), is still worth reading. Linda Colley argues persuasively for the resumption of eighteenth-century political studies in a 1986 Journal article: L. Colley, ‘Politics of Eighteenth-Century British History’ in Journal of British Studies, 25 (1986), pp.359-379. Namier’s views are to be found in: L.B. Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (London, 1928, 2nd edition, 1957), L.B. Namier, England in the Age of the American Revolution (London, 1930), and later, L B. Namier and J. Brooke (eds.), The House of Commons, 1754-1790, 3 volumes (London, 1964). 1 electoral system. 2 His belief in the predominance of self-interest led him to view eighteenth- century politics in terms of the patronage system. It was this, he concluded, which was responsible for the subservience of so many MPs to Administration (which controlled much of the patronage) and which prevented the development of political parties based on ideals and principles.