In 1750 Stuart, a retired army officer, who had served under Marlborough, was returned for Lanarkshire at a by-election after a contest. Reporting the result of the election to the young Duke of Hamilton, then abroad, William Mure explained that the Duke’s friends had fixed on
our old friend the Captain as the only person who, by his connexions, and other considerations, could unite the jarring interests of the shire and preserve your Grace’s interest in your absence. He received with horror the first proposition of drawing him from his retirement into public life; but at length they ... prevailed, and he sent his circular letters round the county, acquainting us that he stood upon Duke Hamilton’s interest, and assuring us that it would be safe in his hands.1Caldwell Pprs. (Maitland Club lxxi), ii (1), pp. 88-91.
He is shown in Newcastle’s lists of March 1754 as drawing a secret service pension of £200 p.a.,2Add. 33038, ff. 352, 415. which was stopped after the general election that year, when he did not stand.
He died in 1760.