page_title: Sir Gilbert Elliot, 3rd Baronet, of Minto
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Sir Gilbert Elliot, 3rd Baronet, of Minto / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: Satire on Sir Gilbert Elliot, a supporter and beneficiary of Lord Bute: Eliot is shown entering a room with his wife, alarmed to find their son (also Gilbert Elliot, the future Earl of Minto) falling from a rocking-horse; with letterpress title and verses in two columns, and with one vertical segment of type ornament. ([London], Sumpter: [1763])
context_page_description: Sir Gilbert Elliot, 3rd Baronet, was born at Minto, Roxburghshire, and was a Scottish statesman, philosopher and poet.
context_section_description: Elliot was the author of Amynta, which  Sir Walter Scott described as "the beautiful pastoral song", and which began:
  My sheep I neglected; I broke my sheep-hook
  
  And all the gay haunts of my youth I forsook;
  Other works by Elliot include Twas at the hour of dark midnight, describing the death of Colonel James Gardiner (1686–1745) during the Battle of Prestonpans, published in the third volume of 'The Scots Musical Museum' and Thoughts occasioned by the funeral of the earl and countess of Sutherland in Holyrood House which appeared anonymously in the Scots Magazine for October 1766.
  In March 1748 Elliot was appointed as the first sheriff-depute of Roxburghshire, one of the judges introduced in Scotland by legislation passed in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745, a post he held until 1753. Elliot then served in the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Selkirkshire (1753–1765), and then Roxburghshire (1765–1777), and was a supporter of the policies of King George III in the American colonies. His Papers concerning the Boston Tea Party are in Harvard University Library. At one time he was a candidate for the Speaker's Chair in the House of Commons. He was made a Lord of the Admiralty in 1756, a position he held until his resignation in support of William Pitt in April 1757, and to which he was reinstated in June with Pitt's return to office
  In 1752, supported by Edinburgh's Lord Provost George Drummond, he authored a pamphlet entitled Proposals for carrying on certain Public Works in the City of Edinburgh. The advocated improvements were fully implemented by the Town Council and shaped the physical character of the city, as still seen to this day.
  Elliot was Treasurer of the Chamber in the Royal Household from 1762 to 1770. He was appointed Treasurer of the Navy in 1770 in Lord North's government, and after was appointed Keeper of the Signet in Scotland in 1767. Elliot was a friend and follower of the Earl of Bute. Horace Walpole said Elliot was "one of the ablest members of the House of Commons". As a politician Elliot was best remembered for performances such as that during the militia debate in 1760 which, again according to Walpole, placed him in an élite group of mid- to late-century parliamentarians who displayed "the various powers of eloquence, art, reasoning, satire, learning, persuasion, wit, business, spirit and plain common sense".
caption: Satire on Sir Gilbert (Jockey Elliot), a supporter and beneficiary of Lord Bute: Eliot is shown entering a room with his wife, alarmed to find their son (also Gilbert Elliot, the future Earl of Minto) falling from a rocking-horse
exif: {}