DUNDAS, Sir Robert Lawrence (1780-1844), of Loftus Hall, nr. Redcar, Yorks. and 19 Arlington Street, London, Mdx.

Dundas, ‘a Whig and a well known Reformer’, sat briefly and without distinction for the family borough of Richmond.1York Herald, 9 Mar. 1839. He had previously represented Malton, 1807-12, before resuming a ‘quite exemplary’ military career, during which he served with distinction in the Peninsula, including at the battles of Talavera, Salamanca, Vittoria, Nive, Nivelle, the Pyrenees and Toulouse, and was decorated with a cross and three clasps and appointed KCB.2York Herald, 30 Nov. 1844; The Times, 28 Nov. 1844. Following the peace in 1815, he ‘largely indulged his literary and scientific tastes’.3Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society (1847), xvi. 483. His uncle, Lord Fitzwilliam, had brought him in for East Retford in 1826, but he was unseated for treating in 1827, and came in for a vacancy at Richmond, the nomination borough of his brother, Lord Dundas, in 1828, being re-elected in 1830 and 1831.4HP Commons, 1820-32, iv. 994.

Dundas and his nephew John Charles Dundas sought re-election at Richmond in 1832, following a requisition from the borough’s newly-enfranchised voters who approvingly cited their support for the reform bill and their ‘liberal and constitutional opinions... advocacy of Civil and Religious Liberty... exertions to enforce a strict economy in public affairs... [and] votes for the suppression of grievances’.5York Herald, 4 Aug. 1832. Despite the enlarged electorate, the Dundas interest continued to hold sway at Richmond, and no opposition was forthcoming.

When present at Westminster6Dundas was given leave of absence for 3 weeks in February 1833 and a month in April 1834 due to deaths in the family: CJ, lxxxviii. 78; lxxxix. 202., Dundas generally divided with Whig ministers, opposing Hume’s motion for the abolition of military flogging, 2 Apr. 1833; Attwood’s motion for an inquiry into the currency, 24 Apr. 1833; shorter parliaments, 23 July 1833; an inquiry into the pension list, 18 Feb. 1834; and Hume’s motion for a low fixed duty on corn, 7 Mar. 1834, which his more reform-minded nephew John supported. He did, however, vote for the removal of Jewish disabilities, 23 July 1833. He served on the committees on the Longford election petition and the London scavage and package bill in 1833, and that December was appointed to a royal commission to inquire into the civil administration of the army.7CJ, lxxxviii. 184, 648; PP 1837-38 (346), xxxvi. 207. Although this met on seven occasions in December 1833 and March 1834, the fall of the ministry prevented its report from being presented.8PP 1837-38 (346), xxxvi. 207; The Times, 6 July 1837.

Dundas did not seek re-election in 1835 due to ‘circumstances of a private nature’ which would prevent him from attending to his parliamentary duties.9York Herald, 20 Dec. 1834. He devoted himself to the management of his estates at Lofthouse, near Guisborough, which included an alum works.10Newcastle Courant, 3 May 1878. Dundas was lord of the manor of Lofthouse: S. Lewis, Topographical Dictionary of England (1844), iii. 123. He was ‘considered quite a father to his tenantry’, and was a generous benefactor to the parish school and Sunday school. He served as chairman of the Guisborough board of guardians from its inception in 1837, and ‘as a friend to the poor he was rarely equalled’.11York Herald, 30 Nov. 1844. In 1837 he also donated £20 to a proposed memorial to the duke of Wellington.12Morning Post, 28 June 1838. The sudden death in 1839 of his brother, who had been created earl of Zetland the previous year, caused a vacancy at Richmond, for which Dundas offered in the place of his nephew, Thomas Dundas, the new earl. For the first time in more than a century, Richmond experienced a contested election, but Dundas easily saw off the challenge from a local Tory banker, polling twice as many votes.13York Herald, 9 Mar. 1839. In the same year he served as the British government’s referee at an inquiry into the claims of the officers of the British Auxiliary Legion against the Spanish government, in connection with which the earl of Clarendon described him as being ‘of the most unsullied honour, and the most unblemished reputation’.14Freeman’s Journal, 15 Mar. 1839; Hansard, 24 Feb. 1840, vol. 52, c. 519.

A poor attender in his final Parliament, when his only known committee service was on the Carlow election petition, Dundas again gave general support to the Liberals.15PP 1839 (414), vi. 3. On the factory bill, he backed a 69 rather than a 58 hour week for young persons, whom he voted to define as aged 13 to 18, rather than 13 to 21, 1 July 1839. He divided for the Irish municipal corporations bill, 14 Feb. 1840; for going into committee to consider the corn laws, 26 May 1840; and for the Maynooth grant, 23 June 1840. At a meeting of the Cleveland Agricultural Society that autumn he was toasted as ‘a general officer, a friend of the farmer, and a hospitable gentleman’, and expressed his hopes that Britain’s armed forces should always be ‘so efficient that no enemy dare wantonly to attack this nation’.16York Herald, 17 Oct. 1840. Poor health meant that he only voted in two divisions in the 1841 session, and at that year’s general election he retired, making way for his nephew John Charles Dundas.17Leeds Mercury, 10 July 1841; York Herald, 30 Nov. 1844.

Thereafter Dundas, suffering ‘much bodily affliction’, was unable to undertake any public duties, and ceased to attend meetings of the Guisborough guardians, although he remained chairman.18York Herald, 30 Nov. 1844. The York Herald, which praised his ‘amiable and benevolent disposition’, and the inhabitants of Lofthouse rallied to his defence in 1842 when the local curate published a pamphlet alleging that Dundas had interfered unduly with the management of the parish school.19York Herald, 7 May 1842. He died at Loftus Hall in November 1844 after ‘a lingering illness’, and was interred in the family burial place at Marske, Yorkshire.20Gent. Mag. (1845), i. 97; York Herald, 30 Nov. 1844; Glasgow Herald, 13 Dec. 1844. The bulk of his landed property, including Loftus Hall, passed to his nephew Thomas Dundas, 2nd earl of Zetland.21HP Commons, 1820-32, iv. 994-5; The Standard, 7 Dec. 1844. The Zetland/Dundas family archive at the North Yorkshire County Record Office holds his correspondence, diaries and other papers.