MACLEAN CLEPHANE, William Douglas (1759-1803), of Kirkness, Kinross.

In 1788 Clephane was a liferenter in Kinross-shire in the right of his mother’s inheritance. On the death of the former Member George Graham in December 1801, he was on active service at Port Mahon, but his family put him forward by prearrangement as champion of the ‘independent interest of the county’ under the aegis of William Adam. Although an opposition was at first threatened by Graham’s heir, Clephane, who arrived home in time for the election, was chosen unanimously. He was listed a supporter of Addington’s ministry and independent of Henry Dundas. Some of his friends had wished for him to be George Graham’s successor as lord lieutenant, but he was prepared to cede it to William Adam.1See KINROSS-SHIRE; Add. 33049, f. 350; NLS mss 9370, f. 197; Blair Adam mss, Clephane to Adam, 17 Feb., Syme to same, 10 Mar. 1802.

Nevertheless, his success was reported to have gone to his head. On 4 Mar. 1803 he voted in the minority for the inquiry into the Prince of Wales’s debts, ‘paying his adorations to the rising sun’, as Andrew Clephane put it. The latter added, ‘Conceive our General refusing the station of Ceylon as comdr. in chief. What does he expect? To be made peer of the blood, I suppose.’ Andrew also professed to be astonished ‘after the speech he made at Kinross’, that Clephane should be ‘so long silent’ in the House: but no speech by him is reported.2Brougham and his Early Friends, ii. 41, 54-5.

On 27 Apr. 1803 Clephane informed Adam that he had accepted the place of commissioner at Trinidad, which vacated his seat. On 19 May, however, Lord Hobart recommended him to the King as lieutenant governor of Grenada, where he proceeded. As he hoped, his brother David succeeded as county Member.3Blair Adam mss, Clephane to Adam, Wed. [27 Apr.], 25 May 1803; Geo. III Corresp. iv. 2740.

He died at Grenada, 4 Nov. 1803, ‘a bad subject for a warm climate’. His funeral was ‘the most sumptuous one ever seen on that island’.4Gent. Mag. (1803), ii. 1256; Blair Adam mss, Clephane to Adam, 2 Jan., Ferguson to same, 8 Jan. 1804. Sir Walter Scott was his children’s guardian.