MARJORIBANKS, Sir Dudley Coutts (1820-1894), of 29 Upper Brook Street, London, Mdx.

Marjoribanks was born in London, the second son of Edward Marjoribanks, a senior partner in the banking house Messrs. Coutts and Co. Remembered as ‘an astute businessman and a collector of works of art’, but feared by his contemporaries as ‘a man given to ungovernable rages’, his chairmanship of the Meux brewery, London, brought him considerable wealth prior to entering parliament, and in 1853 he was elected a director of the East India Company, following in the footsteps of his uncle, Campbell Marjoribanks, who had served as chairman on three occasions.1J.R. Thursfield, ‘Marjoribanks, Edward, second Baron Tweedmouth (1849-1909)’, rev. H.C.G. Matthew, Oxf. DNB, www.oxforddnb.com; L.M. Woods, British gentlemen in the Wild West (2003), 111.

Connected to the region by his eldest uncle, Sir John Marjoribanks of the Lees, Berwickshire, Marjoribanks offered as a Liberal for Berwick-upon-Tweed at the 1853 by-election, necessitated by the previous contest being declared void on petition.2Sir John Marjoribanks, 1st bt., was MP for Buteshire 1812-18, and Berwickshire, 1818-26. HP Commons 1820-32, vi. 346-7. After a hostile canvass where he insisted that he would not ‘be a blind and subservient follower of Aberdeen or any other ministry’, he was returned at the top of the poll.3Berwick and Kelso Warder, 13 May 1853. A popular local figure, who was a generous donor to the town’s educational and religious movements, he was returned in second place at the 1857 general election, and a petition against his return on the grounds of a fictitious majority, 19 May 1857, was subsequently abandoned, 21 July 1857.4M.J. Wickham, ‘Electoral politics in Berwick-upon-Tweed, 1832-1885’, unpublished MPhil thesis, Univ. of Durham (2002), 62.

An occasional attender, Marjoribanks made little impact in his first parliament, speaking only to defend the directors of the East India Company, 30 June 1853, and to oppose the Aberdeen ministry’s government of India bill, which proposed the nomination of company directors by the government, 11 July 1853. Following the fall of Aberdeen’s coalition, he backed Palmerston on all major foreign policy issues, but was absent for the second reading of his conspiracy to murder bill, 19 Feb. 1858. He divided for the ballot, 22 May 1855, and the Maynooth grant, 19 Feb. 1857.

Beaten narrowly into third place by the Conservative Ralph Earle at the 1859 general election, Marjoribanks was swiftly returned to the Commons following his victory at the August 1859 by-election caused by Earle’s sudden retirement. His defeated opponent again petitioned against the return on the grounds of a fictitious majority, 6 Feb. 1860, but his election was confirmed by committee, 29 Mar. 1860. In his last known speech in debate, he gave an impassioned defence of his ‘own honour and that of his supporters of Berwick’, and gave his backing to a royal commission, as ‘neither himself nor his constituents had the slightest reason to shrink from the most searching inquiry’, 1 May 1860. The subsequent commission concluded that he had not been ‘privy to or cognizant of bribery’ at the 1859 general election.5PP 1861 (2766), xvii. 21.

Marjoribanks voted steadily with Palmerston’s second ministry on most major issues, although he was in minorities for Locke King’s county franchise bill, 13 Mar. 1861, and Baines’ borough franchise bill, 11 May 1864. Seeking re-election in 1865, he robustly defended Palmerston’s foreign policy, backing the government’s refusal to go to war with Poland and its neutrality in the American civil war.6The Caledonian Mercury, 12 July 1865. Returned at the head of the poll, his loyalty and wealth helped him to secure a baronetcy in July 1866. He followed Gladstone into the lobby on most of the representation of the people bill, (although he voted for Robert Lowe’s amendment to introduce cumulative voting, 5 July 1867), and he backed his resolutions on the Irish Church, 3 Apr. 1868.

Having succeeded his father in 1868, Marjoribanks, who expected to become a partner in Coutts and Co., resigned his seat at the 1868 general election as the banking firm had a government contract, only for his succession to the partnership to be denied by Angela Burdett Coutts, owner of half the bank, who feared that his tempestuous nature made him unsuitable for the position.7D.F. Shackleton, Ishbel and the empire: a biography of Lady Aberdeen (1988), 13. Having nevertheless inherited a substantial fortune, he purchased the highland deer forest and sporting estate of Guisachan (‘place of the firs’) in Inverness-shire, and the estates of Hutton and Eddington in Berwickshire. That year he was largely responsible for developing a new breed of dog, the golden retriever, after he had bred a golden-coated retriever with one of his Tweed water spaniels. Thereafter, he kept meticulous records of his dogs, and created a distinctive strain of retrievers, which became his main claim to fame.8D.D. Coile, The Golden Retriever Handbook (2000), 3.

Marjoribanks was returned to the Commons as Liberal member for Berwick-upon-Tweed at the 1874 and 1880 general elections, and in October 1881, was created Baron Tweedmouth of Edington. Elevated to the Lords, he spent the majority of his time at Guisachan and in 1883 he became the largest shareholder in the Rocking Chair Company, which invested in a substantial Texan ranch.9Woods, British gentlemen in the Wild West, 111. In March 1894, with his health deteriorating, he left his London residence of Brook House, Park Lane, to stay at a private residence in Bath, where he died following a sudden loss of consciousness.10Aberdeen Weekly Journal, 6 Mar. 1894. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Edward, who had replaced him as MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed and served as Liberal chief whip. His correspondence with Gladstone is located in the British Library, London.11BL Add Mss 44401-783 passim.