Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stewart, Alexander (d.1704)

638166Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 54 — Stewart, Alexander (d.1704)1898Thomas Finlayson Henderson

STEWART, ALEXANDER, fifth Lord Blantyre (d. 1704), was the son of Alexander, fourth lord Blantyre (grandson of Walter Stewart or Stuart, first lord Blantyre [q. v.]), by Margaret, daughter of John Shaw of Greenock. At the Revolution he raised a regiment for the service of King William, which was at Stirling when Mackay was encamped at Killiecrankie (Melville Papers, p. 206). For his loyalty he received from King William a pension. He was one of those who protested against the meeting of the convention of 9 June 1702, and seceded from the meeting. By the seceding members he was sent as a deputy to Queen Anne, who declined to accept their protest, but permitted Blantyre to wait upon her. Blantyre took the oath and his seat in the Scottish parliament on 9 July 1703. On 11 Aug. a complaint was made against him by the lord advocate for having, before witnesses, called the lord high commissioner ‘a base and impudent liar’ (Hume of Crossrig, Diary, p. 125). He entered the house while the debate was in progress, and having put himself in the lord constable's hands, was placed under arrest in his own chamber. On the 13th a petition from him was read, asking the commissioner and the estates to accept his humble apology. It was agreed that before his liberation he should on his knees crave pardon of the commissioner and the estates, and submit to a fine of 5,000l. Scots; but on his being called in the commissioner dispensed with his making acknowledgments on his knees, and, having promised obedience to the remainder of the sentence, he was dismissed from the bar and reinstated (ib. p. 147). He died on 20 June 1704. He is described by Macky as ‘a little active man, very low in stature, short-sighted, fair-complexioned, towards fifty years old’ (Memoirs, p. 232). By his first wife, Margaret, eldest daughter of Sir John Henderson of Fordel, Fifeshire, bart., he had no issue. By his second wife, Anne, daughter of Sir Robert Hamilton, lord Pressmennan, sister of John, second lord Belhaven, he had five sons and four daughters: Walter (d. 1713), sixth lord; Robert (d. 1743), seventh lord; John, James, Hugh; Marion, married to James Stirling of Keir; Frances to Sir James Hamilton of Rosehall, bart.; Helen to John, eleventh lord Gray; and Anne to Alexander Hay of Drummelzie.

[Hume of Crossrig's Diary, and Melville Papers in the Bannatyne Club; Macky's Memoirs; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), i. 214.]

T. F. H.