FORDYCE, William Dingwall (1836-1875), of Brucklay Castle, Aberdeenshire

A young country gentleman and lawyer, Fordyce won a famous victory for the Liberals in Aberdeenshire, a county long dominated by the Conservatives, in 1866. In his first parliament, Fordyce focused on redressing the grievances of Scottish farmers, which had been the main theme of his campaign. However, an obituary noted that ‘as a legislator Mr Fordyce was of rather a reserved and cautious type, and if his constituents did not obtain from him all that they desired, it was not because he attempted too much’.1Aberdeen Journal, 1 Dec. 1875.

Fordyce’s father, Alexander Dingwall Fordyce (1800-64), was a naval officer who inherited the family estates of Culsh and Brucklay Castle from his brother in 1843. One of the leaders of Aberdeen’s Free Church party, Fordyce senior was Liberal MP for the city, 1847-52. Educated at Edinburgh university, William Dingwall Fordyce was admitted to the faculty of advocates in 1861, but did not practice.2Ibid. On his father’s death three years later, Fordyce inherited Brucklay, while Culsh passed to his twin James.3Burke’s landed gentry (1879), i. 582-3; Dundee Courier, 29 Nov. 1875. Like his father he was a ‘staunch Free Churchman’.4Aberdeen Journal, 1 Dec. 1875.

In May 1866 Fordyce successfully contested the Aberdeenshire by-election, and like his father twenty years previously was accused of having a secret Free Church agenda.5Aberdeen Journal, 16 May 1866. On the hustings, Fordyce opposed university religious tests and Roman Catholic endowments, including to Maynooth college, and backed the Liberal government’s reform bill. However, the central themes of his campaign were the grievances of local farmers. He advocated the abolition of the law of hypothec, which gave Scottish landowners a preferential right in their tenants’ property, including livestock, and the modification of the game laws.6Caledonian Mercury, 7 May 1866. Fordyce was elected in time to back the Liberal government’s reform bill and was among the loyal Liberal MPs who opposed Dunkellin’s amendment for a rateable franchise which brought down Russell’s government, 18 June 1866. He also supported the ballot, 17 July 1866. In the divisions on the 1867 representation of the people bill, Fordyce cast votes in favour of enfranchising compounders, reducing the representation of small boroughs and cumulative voting.

Fordyce was mainly concerned with agricultural questions, particularly those relating to Scotland. In his maiden speech, 20 July 1866, he welcomed a bill to exempt hares and rabbits from the game laws. Although the bill did not apply to deer, which Fordyce thought were equally as destructive as hares and rabbits, he declared that the measure would give ‘great satisfaction to farmers’.7Hansard, 20 July 1866, vol. 184, cc. 1262-3. The following year Fordyce co sponsored another bill that attempted to exempt hares and rabbits from the game laws north of the border.8PP 1867 (65), iii. 85-90. The bill also provided for compensation to tenants where game was ‘unduly encouraged or not duly prevented’ by the landowners; and to make sheriffs rather than magistrates the civil authority for dealing with game cases. Although he considered the measure a ‘satisfactory compromise’, he would have preferred a reform which annulled tenancy contracts that included preserving game.9Hansard, 5 Mar. 1867, vol. 185, c. 1396; 21 May 1867, vol. 187, cc. 910-11. Defending the amount of parliamentary time devoted to the issue, 5 Mar. 1867, he declared that although it might appear a ‘miserable question’ to some MPs, ‘in many counties in Scotland it was driving the tenants to desperation’.10Hansard, 5 Mar. 1867, vol. 185, c. 1396. Neither McLagan’s measure, nor a bill to abolish the law of hypothec, which Fordyce also sponsored, became law, although hypothec was restricted by the 1867 Hypothec Amendment (Scotland) Act (30 & 31 Vict., c. 42).11PP 1867 (54), iii. 167.

In the same session, Fordyce repeatedly pressed for government compensation for farmers affected by the cattle plague in Aberdeenshire.12Hansard, 21 Feb. 1867, vol. 185, cc. 724-5. It was unjust, he argued, that counties such as Aberdeenshire, which had raised £35,000 for compensation through voluntary subscriptions, were not eligible for government money. This amounted to a ‘tax on forethought and energy, and a premium upon apathy and indifference’.13Hansard, 5 Apr. 1867, vol. 186, c. 1230. However, he later withdrew his motion that Aberdeenshire should receive a proportional amount of the government compensation for cattle plague, 3 May 1867. He offered strong support to the 1868 metropolitan foreign cattle market bill, believing that it would help prevent the spread of future plagues from abroad, 16 July 1868.

During the debates on the 1868 representation of the people (Scotland) bill, Fordyce seconded Duncan McLaren’s abortive motion for a redistribution scheme that dealt with England, Scotland and Ireland together. On the basis of its population and contribution to the public revenue, Scotland merited at least 15 extra MPs, Fordyce argued, 18 May 1868. He backed the Conservative government’s proposal to split Aberdeenshire into two single-member divisions.14Hansard, 28 May 1868, vol. 192, cc. 1007-8. He supported Irish church disestablishment in 1868-9, ‘a proceeding which he also advocated for the sister establishments in England and Scotland’.15Dundee Courier, 29 Nov. 1875.

Fordyce was returned for Aberdeenshire East as a Liberal at the 1868 general election and re-elected in 1874. He died aged 39 in November 1875 after suffering a ‘bad bilious attack’ after getting wet during a shooting trip. A ‘keen sportsman’, Fordyce was an ‘excellent golf player’ and a marksman of some repute. He had regularly participated in the annual rifle competition between the Houses of Lords and Commons held at Wimbledon, ‘and more than once made the highest score of either side’.16Aberdeen Journal, 1 Dec. 1875. He was succeeded by his infant son Alexander Fordyce.17Burke’s landed gentry (1879), i. 582-3.