County

Of the five Ayr burghs, Inverary and Campbeltown were controlled by the dukes of Argyll, and Rothesay by the earls of Bute, allied by the 2nd Earl’s marriage to the 2nd Duke’s sister in 1711. The predominant partners in this alliance were the dukes of Argyll, especially after the death of the 2nd Earl of Bute in 1723, when the 2nd Duke of Argyll and his brother, Lord Ilay, became the guardians of their nephew, the 3rd Earl of Bute, then aged 10. Throughout the period Argyll-Bute nominees were returned without opposition.

The predominant interest in these five small decaying coastal burghs lay in the Anstruther family, headed by Sir John Anstruther, whose nephew, Philip Anstruther, was returned unopposed in 1715.

The chief interest in Wigtownshire was that of the Agnews of Lochnaw, till 1748 its hereditary sheriffs, in alliance with the Stewarts, earls of Galloway, and the Dalrymples, earls of Stair. In 1715, John Stewart, an Argyll Whig, and brother to the 5th Earl of Galloway, Sir James Agnew’s brother-in-law, was returned. He was succeeded in 1727 by William Dalrymple, Agnew’s first cousin by marriage.

The chief interest in Sutherland was that of the earls of Sutherland, its hereditary sheriffs, Whigs and government pensioners. In 1715 Sir William Gordon, a leading member of the Squadrone, related to the Earl of Sutherland, was unopposed. In 1722 he defeated a candidate, whose petition, supported by the Duke of Argyll’s party, claimed that the sheriff had admitted a number of voters holding not of the Crown but of the Earl, whose vassals had no vote.

The chief interest in Stirlingshire was that of the 1st Duke of Montrose, one of the leaders of the Squadrone, who was hereditary sheriff of the county. The interest of the Erskines of Alloa was temporarily in abeyance owing to the attainder of Lord Mar after the 1715 rebellion.

The chief interest in Selkirkshire was that of its hereditary sheriff, John Murray of Philiphaugh, who returned his brother-in-law, John Pringle, from 1715, and in 1730 another kinsman, James Rutherford, both government supporters. In 1734 and 1741 Murray himself was returned unopposed as an opposition Whig, having resigned his hereditary sheriffdom to one of his sons. In 1747 he was opposed by a government candidate, Lord Charles Scott, who died before the election, whereupon an unknown candidate stood unsuccessfully against him.Argyll to Pelham, 30 July and 1 Aug.

The chief interest in Roxburghshire was that of its hereditary sheriff, Archibald Douglas of Cavers, whose son, William, represented it in the 1715 and 1727 Parliaments. In 1722, when William Douglas moved to Dumfries Burghs, he was succeeded by Sir Gilbert Elliot of Minto, who was replaced in 1726 by his kinsman Sir Gilbert Eliott of Stobs. In 1734 and 1741, the Douglases having gone into opposition, John Rutherfurd, a member of the Squadrone, married to an Elliot of Minto, was returned.

At George I’s accession the chief interests in Ross-shire, where the sheriff was appointed by the Government during pleasure, were those of William, 12th Lord Ross, and his brother, General Charles Ross, the sitting Tory Member, who was re-elected unopposed. In 1722 Ross, according to his election petition, obtained 18 votes out of a poll of 31 electors, but the seat was awarded by the sheriff, Sir William Gordon, to Alexander Urquhart, a government man.

The hereditary sheriff of the county, the Earl of Eglintoun, does not appear to have intervened in Renfrewshire elections, in which the Earls of Dundonald and Glencairn sponsored candidates.

Though Perthshire was a centre of Jacobitism, the predominating interest belonged to the dukes of Atholl, its hereditary sheriffs, who supported the Whig Government. In 1715 the 1st Duke’s son, Lord James Murray, was returned against Sir Henry Stirling, later a Jacobite agent in Russia.See HMC Stuart, passim. Re-elected unopposed in 1722, he succeeded to the dukedom in 1724, thereby vacating the seat, which was filled for the rest of that Parliament successively by two local Whig landowners, David Graeme and Mungo Haldane of Gleneagles.