SUTTIE (afterwards GRANT SUTTIE), Sir James, 4th Bt. (1759-1836), of Balgone, Haddington.

Suttie figured thus in the electoral survey of his county in 1788: ‘A good fortune. Connected with the Countess of Hyndford, and Mr Dundas, and will go with him.’1Pol. State of Scotland 1788, p. 168. In 1816 he was returned unopposed for the county on a vacancy, still connected with Lord Melville and assisted by interests friendly to government. He went on to support them silently, voting with the majorities on the civil list, 6 May 1816; on the composition of the finance committee, 7 Feb., and the Admiralty salaries, 17 and 25 Feb.; against Catholic relief, 9 May, and for the suspension of habeas corpus, 23 June 1817. In the next Parliament he voted against Tierney’s censure motion on 18 May 1819 and for the foreign enlistment bill on 10 June. He promised his constituents to attend in support of measures against sedition in November 1819.2Edinburgh Advertiser, 20 Oct. 1819.

In the following year he retained his seat by a single vote against Lord John Hay, a Whig who had threatened an opposition to Suttie in 1818. In July 1818 he had complained of local patronage being awarded to his opponents, ‘an insult to me and all my friends in the county’, which made him wonder whether it was true that ‘the best way to obtain favours from the present government was to act in opposition to them’. Melville rebuked him, indicating that the complaint was both petty and, as burgh patronage was in question, irrelevant.3SRO GD51/5/364/25, Suttie to Melville, 11 July, reply 14 July 1818. He died 20 May 1836.