Scottish County

Although Dumfries was the 2nd Duke of Queensberry’s ‘own shire’ he did not sit securely there, even at the height of his power and influence on the national scene. A vast ‘estate and interest’, enhanced by possession of the hereditary sheriffdom, did indeed give him ‘great awe and influence’ over some of the freeholders, but there were rival magnates of sufficient stature to challenge the Douglas ascendancy, notably the 1st Marquess of Annandale, of whom it has been observed, by a modern historian, that ‘opposition to Queensberry was almost the only consistent feature in [his] politics’.

The county of Cromarty was contiguous with the barony, which had been purchased by the Mackenzies of Tarbat in 1682, and enlarged subsequently by the incorporation of the barony of Tarbat and of other lands belonging to Viscount Tarbat, scattered in eight separate parcels across the neighbouring shire of Ross. Despite these additions, Cromartyshire remained among the very smallest of Scottish counties: only five freeholders voted in the last elections to the Scottish parliament.

The 1708 election in Clackmannanshire was fought between stage armies of faggot voters, brought into being by the rivalry of the Duke of Argyll and the Earl of Mar. Between them, these magnates accounted for a great majority of the new charters issued prior to the election, and were therefore largely responsible for increasing the electorate to 23 freeholders. Indeed, Mar’s first thoughts, in this duel by proxy, had turned to the possibility of creating new voters, as he explained to his brother Lord Grange SCJ (Hon. James Erskine†) in January 1708:

The estates of the earldom of Caithness had passed in 1672 into the hands of the absentee Earl of Breadalbane, but ‘considerable parts’ had subsequently been alienated to the local gentry. The relative prosperity of these lesser barons (in a county where the fertility of the land, the profits from fisheries and the cheapness of provisions enabled many proprietors to save at least part of their rental income), and the corresponding feebleness of the Caithness and Breadalbane interests, effectively emancipated the electorate from any aristocratic direction.

The county of Buteshire, comprising Bute itself and some smaller islands nearby, was under the control of the hereditary sheriff, who at the beginning of this period was James Stewart of Ardmaliesh, created Earl of Bute in 1703. He and his brother Dougal, whom the Earl returned to the first Parliament of Great Britain, were men of cavalier sympathies but drawn to the Court, and in particular to the Duke of Queensberry, with whom they had long co-operated.

The 1702 election to the Scottish parliament was fiercely contested in Berwickshire, with eight candidates competing for the four available seats. One of these, George Baillie, wisely took the precaution of also obtaining his return for Lanarkshire, eventually opting to sit there, despite being comfortably returned in the first three commissions for Berwickshire, together with Sir John Hume, 2nd Bt., of Blackadder and Sir Robert Sinclair, 3rd Bt., of Longformacus.

The influence that James Ogilvy, Earl of Seafield, derived from membership of successive Scottish administrations was more than sufficient to enable him to fill the power vacuum in Banffshire created by the non-juring scruples, Jacobite indiscretions and financial misfortunes of the other barons. Not only did Seafield hold high office from 1696 to 1708 as either secretary of state or lord chancellor for Scotland, he was also granted the hereditary sheriffdom of Banffshire in 1692.

Although Ayrshire had a recent history of controverted elections to the Scottish parliament, the county remained relatively untroubled by political strife in the aftermath of the Union. The strong popular opposition to the treaty had been largely Presbyterian in origin, from an extreme covenanting element, but Presbyterians became reconciled to the Union in due course, on contemplation of the Jacobite alternative.

Despite the fact that Argyllshire possessed over a score of freeholders at the time of the Union, its representation was held in an iron grip by the Duke of Argyll. As chieftain of the Campbells of Argyll the Duke could claim the clan loyalty of about half the electorate, and as the principal landed magnate in the county he could expect to command his tenants and dependants. In the last resort, as hereditary sheriff, he was at liberty to make whatever return he saw fit. There was no temptation, however, to exercise his power corruptly.

Unlike the majority of Scottish counties, there was no hereditary sheriff in Aberdeenshire, the 1st Marquess of Huntly having resigned his grant under pressure from the crown in 1629. Thereafter appointment had been made either at pleasure or for life. In 1705 the Earl of Mar, a rising star of the Scottish Court party, obtained a grant of the sheriffdom during pleasure, but as reward for successfully managing the Union this was converted into tenure for life in April 1707.