# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Scott, Henry (1746-1812)

​SCOTT, HENRY, third Duke of Buccleugh and fifth Duke of Queensberry (1746–1812), born on 13 Sept. 1746, was second but eldest surviving son of Francis, earl of Dalkeith, who died in the lifetime of his father, and Lady Caroline Campbell, eldest daughter of John, second duke of Argyll and Greenwich. While still a child he became Duke of Buccleuch in succession to his grandfather, Francis, second duke (grandson of James Scott, duke of Monmouth [q. v.]), who died on 22 April 1751. He was educated at Eton, and afterwards had as his tutor and companion on his travels abroad Dr. Adam Smith, author of the ‘Wealth of Nations,’ who for this purpose resigned his university chair, and accepted a life annuity of 300l. After spending about two years in France and Switzerland, both the duke and his younger brother, who travelled with him, were seized by fever at Paris, and, the latter dying, the duke returned home. He had contemplated a political life, but events altered his determination, and he settled in his ancestral home at Dalkeith. During the French war in 1778 he raised a regiment of fencibles, which, under his personal command, were of conspicuous service in the ‘no popery riots’ in Edinburgh in the following year. To gratify his literary tastes he became a member of the Poker Club, formed in Edinburgh in 1762, and was the first president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, which was instituted in 1783.
On 23 Dec. 1767 he was invested with the order of the Thistle, and in 1794 he was admitted knight of the Garter. In 1810, on the death of William Douglas, fourth duke of Queensberry [q. v.], the notorious ‘old Q.,’ he succeeded to the title, and also to the estates and other honours of the Douglases of Drumlanrig in virtue of an entail executed in 1706 by James Douglas, second duke of Queensberry [q. v.], whose second daughter Jane married Buccleuch's grandfather. The suavity and generosity of ‘Duke Henry’ rendered him highly popular, and his chosen friend, Sir Walter Scott, declared that ‘his name was never mentioned without praises by the rich and benedictions by the poor.’ He is said to have imitated James V of Scotland in paying visits in disguise to the cots of his humbler dependents, who always profited thereby. He died at Dalkeith on 11 Jan. 1812, and was buried there.
He married, on 2 May 1767, Lady Elizabeth Montagu (d. 1827), only daughter of George Brudenell Montagu, duke of Montagu [q. v.] By her he obtained large estates in England, together with personalty and jewels valued at 150,000l.; and he also succeeded on his mother's death to her property of Caroline Park, near Granton on the Firth of Forth. They had three sons and four daughters. The eldest son dying in infancy, Charles William Henry, the second, succeeded as fourth duke of Buccleuch and sixth duke of Queensberry, and, dying at Lisbon on 20 April 1819, was succeeded by his second but eldest surviving son by his wife, the Hon. Harriet Katherine Townshend, fourth daughter of Thomas, first viscount Sydney.
Walter Francis Scott, fifth Duke of Buccleugh and seventh Duke of Queensberry (1806–1884), born at Dalkeith on 25 Nov. 1806, became duke in his thirteenth year, and when only sixteen entertained George IV for a fortnight at Dalkeith House. He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, graduating M.A. in 1827, and, as captain-general of the royal bodyguard of archers, carried the gold stick at the coronations of William IV and Queen Victoria. He entertained the queen and prince consort at Dalkeith in 1842, when he was created a privy councillor. Being a staunch conservative, he was made lord privy seal in Peel's ministry, from February 1842 to June 1846, when he held for six months the office of lord president of council. Having made a special study of agriculture, the duke was in 1831 made president of the Highland Agricultural Society. Between 1835 and 1842, at his sole cost (over half a million) he built the pier and breakwater forming a harbour at Granton, and developing it as a port on the Firth of Forth. His interest in art, science, and literature was recognised in his election to the ​presidency of the Society of Antiquaries in 1862, and to that of the British Association in 1867. The university of Oxford honoured him with the degree of D.C.L. in 1834, and that of LL.D. was added by Cambridge in 1842 and Edinburgh in 1874, while Glasgow University elected him its chancellor in 1877. He also held the offices of high steward of Westminster and lord lieutenant and sheriff of the counties of Midlothian and Roxburgh. He died at Bowhill, Selkirkshire, on 16 April 1884, and was buried on the 23rd in St. Mary's Chapel, Dalkeith, being at the time of his death the senior knight of the Garter (cr. 23 Feb. 1835). His personalty amounted to above 910,000l. By his duchess, Lady Charlotte Anne Thynne, youngest daughter of Thomas, second marquis of Bath, he had, with other issue, the present Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry.
H. P.