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George Hay, 8th Earl of Kinnoull

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Preceded by
  
Peregrine Bertie

Political party
  
Conservative

Succeeded by
  
Sir Roger Mostyn, Bt

Name
  
George 8th

George Hay, 8th Earl of Kinnoull
Born
  
23 June 1689 (
1689-06-23
)

Died
  
28 July 1758(1758-07-28) (aged 69) Ashford, Surrey

Spouse(s)
  
Abigail Harley (m. 1709)

George Henry Hay, 8th Earl of Kinnoull (23 June 1689 – 28 July 1758), styled as Viscount Dupplin from 1709 to 1719, was a British peer and diplomat.

He was the eldest son of Thomas Hay, 7th Earl of Kinnoull and Elizabeth, daughter of William Drummond, 1st Viscount Strathallan.

In 1708, he came under the wing of Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, whose position was equal to that of prime minister. He married Oxford's daughter in 1709, and his position as his son-in-law proved advantageous. He was a member of the so-called Tory "October Club."

In 1710, George Hay became the Member of Parliament for Fowey until 1711. He was created Baron Hay of Pedwardine, Herefordshire on 1711. He then became the Teller of the Exchequer between 1711 and 1714. William Bromley wrote, on the occasion of Viscount Dupplin accepting the role in 1711, that he was "so pretty a gentleman, so generally well beloved."

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in March 1712. In 1713, he bought Brodsworth Hall, Yorkshire from the Wentworth family and rebuilt the house.

During the Jacobite rising of 1715, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London for suspected Jacobite sympathies from 21 September of that year to 24 June 1716. He was accused of conspiracy in the Atterbury Plot of 1722 but a motion for an inquiry failed in the House of Lords, 64 to 29, even though the earl himself voted in favor of the inquiry. He succeeded to the title of 8th Viscount of Dupplin on 5 January 1718/19. On 5 January 1718 he succeeded to the title of 8th Lord Hay of Kinfauns. In 1720, he lost heavily in the South Sea Bubble. The earl was appointed British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire on May 16 1729. He arrived at Constantinople on April 15 1730. Recalled on 19 August 1735, he left Turkey in the autumn of 1736.

He died in Ashford, Surrey, on 28 July 1758.

Marriage and issue

He married Harley's eldest daughter Abigail around 1 September 1709. They had four sons and six daughters:

  1. Thomas Hay, 9th Earl of Kinnoull
  2. Robert Hay Drummond, who took on the name and arms of Drummond, as heir of entail of his great-grandfather William Drummond, 1st Viscount Strathallan and became Archbishop of York
  3. John Hay (1719–1751), rector of Epworth
  4. Edward, British diplomat and Governor of Barbados
  5. Lady Margaret, died unmarried
  6. Lady Elizabeth, died unmarried in Edinburgh, 15 September 1791
  7. Lady Anne, died unmarried
  8. Lady Abigail, died unmarried in London, 7 July 1785, aged 69
  9. Lady Henrietta, married, 30 July 1754, to Robert Roper, Chancellor of the diocese of York, and died without issue, at Oxford, 9 October 1798, aged 81
  10. Lady Mary, married, 5 August 1758, to bishop John Hume, Bishop of Oxford and Salisbury. Died 26 August 1805, aged 82

References

George Hay, 8th Earl of Kinnoull Wikipedia