- John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute
Infobox Prime Minister
honorific-prefix =The Right Honourable
name=The Earl of Bute
honorific-suffix = KG, PC
order=Prime Minister of Great Britain
term_start =26 May 1762
term_end =8 April 1763
monarch =George III
predecessor =The Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
successor =George Grenville
birth_date =birth date|1713|5|25|df=y
birth_place =Parliament Square ,Edinburgh
death_date =death date|1792|3|10|df=y (age 78)
death_place =Grosvenor Square ,London
alma_mater =Leiden University
party=Tory
religion=Episcopalian [cite web|url=http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/notes/snpc-01493.pdf|title=Parliament and religious disabilities|last=Pond|first=Chris|date=12 June 2002|work=Standard Note: SN/PC/1493|publisher=Parliament of the United Kingdom |accessdate=2008-09-14]John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, KG, PC (25 May 1713 – 10 March 1792), styled Lord Mount Stuart before 1723, was a Scottish nobleman who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain (1762–1763) under George III, and was arguably the last important
favourite in British politics. He was the first Prime Minister from Scotland following the Acts of Union in 1707.Private life
A close relative of the
Campbell clan (his mother was a daughter of the 1st Duke of Argyll), Bute succeeded to the Earldom of Bute (named after theIsle of Bute ) upon the death of his father,James Stuart, 2nd Earl of Bute , in 1723. He was brought up thereafter by his maternal uncles, the 2nd Duke of Argyll and the 3rd Earl of Ilay. Bute studied atEton College (1720-1728) and theUniversity of Leiden ,Netherlands (1728-1732), where he graduated with a degree in civil and public law. On 24 August 1736, he married Mary Wortley Montagu (daughter of Edward andLady Mary Wortley Montagu ), bringing the large Wortley estates to his family. In 1737, due to the influence of his uncles, he was elected aScottish representative peer , but he was not very active in the Lords and was not reelected in 1741. For the next several years he retired to his estates in Scotland to manage his affairs and indulge his interest inbotany .During the
Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, Bute moved to London, and two years later met Prince Frederick, the Prince of Wales there, soon becoming a close associate of the Prince. Upon the Prince's death in 1751, the education of his son, Prince George, the new Prince of Wales, became a priority and in 1755 Bute was appointed as his tutor. Bute arranged for the Prince and his brother Prince Edward to follow a course of lectures onnatural philosophy by the itinerant lecturerStephen Demainbray . This led to an increased interest in natural philosophy on the part of the young prince and was one in a series of events that led to the establishment of the George III Collection of natural philosophical instruments. Furthermore, following the death of the Prince Frederick, Bute became close to his widow,Augusta of Saxe-Gotha , the DowagerPrincess of Wales . It was rumoured that the couple were having an affair, and indeed soon after John Horne (an associate of the Prince of Wales) published a scandalous pamphlet alluding to a liaison between Bute and the Princess. Rumours of this affair were almost certainly untrue, as Bute was by all indications happily married, and he held sincere religious beliefs against adultery.Because of the influence he had over his pupil, Bute expected to rise quickly to political power following George's accession to the throne in 1760, but his plans were premature. Re-elected as a Scottish representative peer in 1760, he was indeed appointed the "de facto" Prime Minister, and was successful in ending the Whig dominance and the
Seven Years' War , but King George began to see through him, and turned against him after being criticised for an official speech which the press recognised as Bute's own work. The journalistJohn Wilkes published a newspaper called "The North Briton ", in which both Bute and the Dowager Princess of Wales were savagely satirised. Bute resigned as prime minister shortly afterwards, though he remained in the House of Lords a Scottish representative peer until 1780. He remained friendly with the Dowager Princess of Wales, but her attempts to reconcile him with George III proved futile.For the remainder of his life, Bute remained at his estate in
Hampshire , from where he continued his pursuit ofbotany and became a major literary and artistic patron. Among his beneficiaries wereSamuel Johnson ,Tobias Smollett ,Robert Adam , and William Robertson. He also gave considerably to the Scottish universities. His botanical work culminated in the publication of "Botanical Tables Containing the Families of British Plants" in 1785.He died at his home in South Audley Street,
Grosvenor Square , London, and was buried atRothesay on theIsle of Bute .The
flowering plant genus "Stuartia" is named after him.Luton Hoo
The Earl held the Manor of
Luton and hadLuton Hoo designed and built by the neoclassicalarchitect Robert Adam . Work commenced in 1767. The original plan had been for a grand and magnificent new house. However, this plan was never fully executed and much of the work was a remodelling of the older house. Building work was interrupted by a fire in 1771, but by 1774 the house, though incomplete, was inhabited. Dr.Samuel Johnson visiting the house in 1781 is quoted as saying, "This is one of the places I do not regret coming to see....in the house magnificence is not sacrificed to convenience, nor convenience to magnificence".Issue
# Lady Mary Stuart (c. 1741-5 April 1824), who married James Lowther, later the 1st
Earl of Lonsdale , on 7 September 1761.
#John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute (30 June 1744 – 16 November 1814)
#Lady Anne Stuart (born c. 1745), who married Lord Warkworth, later the 2ndDuke of Northumberland , on 2 July 1764.
#The Hon. James Archibald Stuart (19 September 1747 – 1 March 1818)
#Lady Jane Stuart (c. 1748 – 28 February 1828), who married George Macartney, later the 1st Earl Macartney, on 1 February 1768.
#The Hon. Sir Charles Stuart (January 1753 – 25 May 1801)
#The Most Rev. and Hon. William Stuart, Archbishop of Armagh (Church of Ireland) (March 1755 – 6 March 1822)
#Lady Caroline Stuart (before 1763–20 January 1813), who married The Hon. John Dawson, later the 1stEarl of Portarlington , on 1 January 1778.
#Lady Louisa Stuart (12 August 1757 – 4 August 1851)Miller, Karl, "Stuart, Lady Louisa (1757–1851), writer" in "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ",Oxford University Press , September 2004 & [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/42015 online edition] , January 2006 (subscription required) accessed 2 March 2008]tyles from birth to death
*Lord Mount Stuart (1713-1723)
*The Rt. Hon. The Earl of Bute (1723-1738)
*The Rt. Hon. The Earl of Bute, KT (1738-1760)
*The Rt. Hon. The Earl of Bute, KT, PC (1760-1762)
*The Rt. Hon. The Earl of Bute, KG, PC (1762-1792)Trivia
According to historian John Naish, the 18th-century expression "Jack Boot" meaning a stupid person originated as disparagement of Stuart's performance as Prime Minister.cite book|author=Naish, John|title=The Interwoven Lives of George Vancouver, Archibald Menzies, Joseph Whidbey and Peter Puget: The Vancouver Voyage of 1791-1795 |publisher=The Edward Mellen Press, Ltd.|year=1996|id=ISBN 0-7734-8857-X]
References
* [http://pm.gov.uk/output/Page169.asp More about John Stuart, Earl of Bute] on the Downing Street website.
* [http://www.historyhome.co.uk/c-eight/ministry/butemin.htm The Age of George III: The ministry of John Stuart, third Earl of Bute]
* [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Bute%2C_John_Stuart%2C_3rd_Earl_of 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bute, John Stuart, 3rd Earl of]-
Persondata
NAME= Stuart, John, 3rd Earl of Bute
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Lord Mount Stuart
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Prime Minister of Great Britain (1762 - 1763)
DATE OF BIRTH=25 May 1713
PLACE OF BIRTH=Parliament Square ,Edinburgh
DATE OF DEATH=10 March 1792
PLACE OF DEATH=Grosvenor Square ,London
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