CAMPBELL, Daniel (1672-1753), of Shawfield, Lanark, and Ardentenie and Islay, Argyll.

Campbell, who came of an old Argyllshire family, was a wealthy Glasgow merchant, closely connected with the Duke of Argyll. In 1708, when he stood unsuccessfully for Glasgow Burghs, the commissioners of customs in Scotland complained to the Treasury in London that as collector of customs for Port Glasgow he was using his influence with the Duke of Argyll and the Duke’s uncle, John Campbell, to bring pressure on them to reinstate two Campbells whom they had dismissed.Cal. Treas. Pprs. 1708-14, p. 26. Returned unopposed for Glasgow Burghs in 1716, he voted with the Government in every recorded division, except that on the opposition motion censuring Argyll’s rival, Lord Cadogan, on which he voted against them, Argyll being then in opposition. On 18 June 1717 he seconded an opposition motion for limiting the number of placemen in the House. Soon after his return he helped the Glasgow town council to secure a renewal of the grant of the proceeds of the duty on beer, also obtaining for them £738 compensation from the Government for the quartering of the Jacobite prisoners in Glasgow, for which services the council paid him £348.G. Eyre-Todd, Hist. Glasgow, iii. 134-5.

Re-elected unopposed in 1722, Campbell lost his popularity in Glasgow on a rumour that he had been responsible for a tightening up of the local customs service, to stop alleged extensive frauds on the revenue by the Glasgow tobacco merchants, which were said to enable them to undersell their English rivals. During the riots at Glasgow against the malt tax in 1725, the fine house which he had built at Shawfield on the outskirts of the town was demolished by the mob, on account of his supposed part in promoting the tax. By a vote of the House of Commons he was awarded £6,080 compensation, which the Government recovered from Glasgow. Immediately after the riots, at which the magistrates were supposed to have connived, he called in a loan of £4,500 which he had made to the town council. In 1727 he sold Shawfield, using his compensation money to buy the islands of Islay and Jura from John Campbell of Calder for £12,000, later re-selling Jura.Ibid. 100-2, 135, 137, 140, 141; J. O. Mitchell, Glasgow Essays, 20. At the general election that year he was defeated, but was awarded the seat by the Commons on a technicality, a subsequent petition against his return by all four burghs being rejected. He did not stand again, though in 1734 he and his friends in Edinburgh

raised a mutiny in the town by setting up for themselves and boasting that they had the superior favour with Sir Robert Walpole.Argyll to Pelham, 26 July 1747, Newcastle (Clumber) mss.

During the Forty-five he raised a militia company, fitting them out lavishly at his own expense. General John Campbell reported of him:

He has been of the utmost service to me in regulating the extravagant demands of others ... I wish the Duke of Argyll would drop him a line of thanks. He deserves it, and wants nothing for himself or family.J. Fergusson, Argyll in the Forty-five, 59-60.

He died 8 June 1753.