LINDSAY, Patrick (1686-1753).

An Edinburgh upholsterer, who had served in Spain during the war of the Spanish succession, Lindsay was brought into Parliament by Lord Ilay, with whom he appears to have been associated in procuring the election of the Duke of Atholl as a representative peer of Scotland in 1733, and of the court list in 1734.HMC Polwarth, v. 110. He made his first reported speech in support of the army estimates, 14 Feb. 1735. On the outbreak of the Porteous riots next year he was sent by the Edinburgh magistrates to the commander of the troops stationed in the vicinity, General Moyle, who, not being anxious to incur the fate of Captain Porteous, refused to act without written instructions from the competent authorities, which were not forthcoming. In a letter to Walpole about this affair, Ilay wrote:

I have had great difficulty to prevent mischief between General Moyle and Mr. Lindsay. Moyle says that Lindsay was drunk and never asked his assistance, Lindsay says that he told him he came from the magistrates to ask his assistance.Coxe, Walpole, i. 491-4; iii. 367.

He was subsequently examined by both Houses on the matter. On 16 May 1737 he spoke against the bill inflicting penalties on the provost and city of Edinburgh, but his condemnation of the local clergy, who openly condoned the lynching, exposed him to charges of doing more damage to Edinburgh than all the evidence for the bill.Parl. Hist. x. 263-6. He spokeCoxe, iii. 517. and voted with the Government on the Spanish convention in 1739, also voting with them against the place bill in 1740, but was not put up in 1741. Appointed governor of the Isle of Man by the Duke of Atholl in 1747, he died 20 Feb. 1753.