County

The hereditary sheriff of Elginshire was the 7th Earl of Moray, who had been implicated in the Fifteen and thereafter took little part in politics. The chief interest was that of the Grants of Grant. After Alexander Grant’s death in 1719, the head of the Grant family, Sir James Grant, who was sitting for Inverness-shire, supported another local family, the Brodies, for the seat. In 1735 he made over the Grant estates to his son Ludovick, who was put up as the government candidate for the county in 1741.

In 1715 John Baird, a government supporter and a ‘creature’ of Sir David Dalrymple, the lord advocate, was returned unopposed, George Lockhart of Carnwarth, the previous Tory Member, not standing as he knew that the sheriff appointed by the Crown would return a Whig in any case. In 1722 Lockhart assured Dundas, Dalrymple’s successor, that if he would preserve the estates of some Jacobites from being forfeited ‘I would take care so as to manage matters that he should be elected for this shire in opposition to Mr. Baird’.Lockhart Pprs. ii.

From the Union till George III’s accession the representation of Dunbartonshire was virtually monopolized by John Campbell, uncle of the 2nd and 3rd Dukes of Argyll, and from 1727 by his son and namesake, who became the 4th Duke in 1761.

The chief interests in Dumfriesshire were those of the dukes of Queensberry, its hereditary sheriffs,and of the marquesses of Annandale. In 1715 Sir William Johnstone, a government supporter and a member of a junior branch of the Annandale family, was returned. He was succeeded in 1722 by Charles Areskine, on the joint Queensberry-Annandale interests.More Culloden Pprs. iii.

Cromartyshire was controlled by the earls of Cromarty, who held the hereditary sheriffdom of the county. On 24 Jan. 1715 Lord Elibank wrote to the 2nd Earl of Cromarty:

The chief interest in Clackmannanshire was that of William Dalrymple, its hereditary sheriff. The interest of the Erskines, earls of Mar, was temporarily eclipsed by the attainder of Lord Mar after the Fifteen. Sir John Shaw, a government supporter, who held the estate of Sauchie in the county, was returned in 1722, but was defeated in 1734 by James Erskine, Mar’s brother, who had joined forces with the Squadrone and was supported by the Dalrymples.Stair Annals, ii.

The chief interest in Caithness-shire was in the Sinclairs of Ulbster, who purchased the hereditary sheriffdom of the county from the Earl of Breadalbane c.1715.CJ, xxi. 189. At the 1715 election, Sir James Sinclair of Dunbeath, who had represented Caithness-shire in the last Parliament of Scotland, stood, but John Sinclair of Ulbster, the sheriff, returned Sir Robert Gordon.

Bute was controlled by the earls of Bute, its hereditary sheriffs, whose nominees were invariably returned without a contest.

Berwickshire was dominated by the Hume Campbells, earls of Marchmont, sheriffs of the county during pleasure. From 1708 to 1734 they returned the 1st Earl’s son-in-law, George Baillie. In 1734 the 2nd Earl of Marchmont, now in opposition, returned his younger son, Alexander Hume Campbell, as the Squadrone candidate against a government supporter, who petitioned unsuccessfully.

The chief Banffshire parliamentary families were the Abercrombys, the Duffs, and the Ogilvies. From 1708 to 1727 the seat was held by Alexander Abercromby, the paid supporter of successive Governments, who wrote of himself in 1713 as having been ‘unanimously chosen, which I flatter myself I shall always be in this shire while I think it convenient or desirable’.HMC Portland, x. 305. In 1727 Abercromby was succeeded by William Duff of Braco, who in 1734 put up his brother-in-law, James Abercromby, the son of the previous Member.