two kingdoms with Spain. In the following year he was admitted as an extraordinary lord of session by the title of Lord Murdocairnie, the name of his seat in Fife. The same year he accompanied King James to the north against Huntly, and remained there for some time with Lennox to restore order. On the appointment in 1586 of the Octavians, who undertook to manage the national finance, Melville ceased to be treasurer depute, but before the expiry of a year the Octavians petitioned for assistance, and Melville, with some others, was directed to help them. When he quitted the office of treasurer Melville was so much out of pocket that he could not meet his own creditors, and had to be protected from them by a special act of parliament, while the court of session was forbidden to entertain any action at law against him.
But old age was now telling upon Melville, and in 1600 he resigned both his offices of privy councillor and lord of session in favour of his son; from time to time he still attended the council meetings, notwithstanding a special dispensation from the king in February 1604, because of ‘his age, sickness, and infirmities.’ He accompanied James to London in 1603, and when steps were being taken in 1605 for uniting the kingdoms, the Scottish parliament appointed him one of their commissioners. A draft treaty of union was prepared, which Melville signed, but it was not then carried into effect.
Melville's long services were recognised by his creation, on 1 April 1616, as a baron of parliament, with the title of Lord Melville of Monimail, a title derived from his estate of Monimail (now Melville) in Fife, an old residence of Cardinal Beaton. He died in December 1621, aged 94. He was thrice married, first to Katherine, daughter of William Adamson of Craigcrook, a burgess of Edinburgh; secondly, before 1593, to Lady Mary Leslie, daughter of Andrew, earl of Rothes, who died in 1605; and thirdly to Lady Jean Stewart, daughter of Robert, earl of Orkney (who was a natural son of King James V), and widow of Patrick Leslie, first lord Lindores, who survived him. But he had issue only by his first wife, a son Robert, who succeeded him as second baron Melville.
[Sir W. Fraser's Melvilles of Melville and Leslies of Leven, i. 82–124; Memoirs of Sir James Melville of Hallhill, passim; and State Papers, For. and Dom. Ser. 1547–1623, passim.]
MELVILLE, ROBERT (1723–1809), general and antiquary, son of Andrew Melville, minister of Monimail, Fifeshire, was born on 12 Oct. 1723, passed some time at the grammar school at Leven, and afterwards studied at the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. In 1744 he was appointed ensign in the 25th foot (now the king's own Scottish borderers), at that time generally known as the Edinburgh regiment, with which he served in Flanders. When shut up in Ath, after the battle of Fontenoy, he narrowly escaped death by the bursting of a shell. At Val, in 1747, the Edinburgh regiment captured a pair of French colours, which Melville was ordered to carry to the Duke of Cumberland. These colours were in Westminster Hall in 1819 (Higgins, p. 80). Melville was shipwrecked on the French coast on his return from Flanders. He obtained his company in the regiment in 1751, and after having been employed in Scotland recruiting, and as aide-de-camp to his colonel, Lord Panmure, then in command of the forces in North Britain, he was promoted to a majority in the 38th foot on 8 June 1756, and served with that corps at Antigua. As major he commanded the regiment at the reduction of Guadeloupe in 1759, and became lieutenant-governor of the island. He was appointed lieutenant-colonel 38th foot on 14 May 1759, and on the death of Brigadier Crump in 1760 governor of Guadeloupe. On 3 Aug. 1763 he was made governor of the ceded islands (Grenada, the Grenadines, Dominica, St. Vincent, and Tobago) (Home Office Mil. Entry Book, xxviii. 41), a post he filled for seven years with great judgment and humanity, and much advantage to the islands (Calendar Home Office Papers, 1766–1769, p. 345). Twelve years later, when Tobago was ceded to the French, who had captured it during the American war, Melville, with William (afterwards Sir William) Young, was sent to France on a special mission to solicit certain indulgences from the French government for British settlers in the island, for whom their own government had neglected to make the usual stipulations. On the conclusion of his mission, which was entirely successful, Melville travelled through Switzerland, Italy, and other parts of the continent, examining the sites of great military events, and, guided by Polybius, suggested a new and more obvious route for Hannibal's march across the Alps. He also made a special study of some of the Roman camps in Britain (Topographica Britannica, p. 36), while botanical researches deeply interested him. He founded the Botanic Garden at St. Vincent, which was afterwards taken over by the government. He was an honorary LL.D. Edinburgh, F.R.S. London and Edinburgh, F.S.A., author of a paper on ‘an ancient sword’ in ‘Archæologia,’ vol. vii.,
