Name John 7th | Role Viscount Garlies | |
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Died November 13, 1806, Wigtown, United Kingdom Parents Alexander Stewart, 6th Earl of Galloway Spouse Anne Dashwood (m. 1764), Lady Charlotte Greville (m. 1762–1763) Children George Stewart, 8th Earl of Galloway, William Stewart Grandchildren Grandparents James Stewart, 5th Earl of Galloway | ||
John Stewart, 7th Earl of Galloway KT (13 March 1736 – 13 November 1806) was a Scottish peer, styled Viscount Garlies from 1747 until 1773, who became the 7th Earl of Galloway in 1773 and who served as a Member of Parliament from 1761 to 1773.
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Early life
John Stewart was the eldest son and second child of Alexander Stewart, 6th Earl of Galloway (c. 1694–1773) and Lady Catherine Cochrane, the youngest daughter of the John Cochrane, 4th Earl of Dundonald. His older sister, Lady Susanna Stewart (d. 1805), married Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford. His other siblings included Admiral the Honourable Keith Stewart of Glasserton (1739–1795), Lady Margaret Stewart (d. 1762), Lady Charlotte Stewart (d. 1818) who married John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, Lady Catherine Stewart (b. ca. 1750), and Lady Harriet Stewart (d. 1788) who married Archibald Hamilton, 9th Duke of Hamilton.
Peerage
He succeeded his father Alexander in 1773.
Career
He was elected one of the representative peers, representing the Peerage of Scotland in the House of Lords, in 1774 and sat there until the 1790s. From 1783 until his death he was a Lord of the Bedchamber to King George III.
The Earl, a Tory, was the target of two hostile poems by Robert Burns, John Bushby's Lamentation and On the Earl of Galloway.
Galloway, a frequent opera-goer, was caricatured by James Gillray in An Old Encore at the Opera! of 1803. In 1762, James Boswell wrote of him that he had "a petulant forwardness that cannot fail to disgust people of sense and delicacy".
Besides being a Member of Parliament, Lord Galloway was a Lord of Police from 1768 to 1782, a Representative Peer for Scotland from 1774 to 1790, a Knight of the Thistle (1775), and a Lord of the Bedchamber from 1784 to 1806.
Personal life
On 14 August 1762, he married Lady Charlotte Greville (d. 1763), the daughter of Francis Greville, 1st Earl of Warwick (1719–1773). They had two sons, both of whom died in infancy.
After Charlotte's death, he married Anne Dashwood (1743–1830), daughter of Sir James Dashwood, 2nd Baronet (1715–1779), on 13 June 1764. They had sixteen children:
Descendants
His grandson, George Spencer-Churchill (1793–1857), was the 6th Duke of Marlborough, and his brother was Lord Charles Spencer-Churchill (1794–1840). Through his grandson, he was the 3x great grandfather of Winston Churchill.
His grandson, Randolph Stewart (1800–1873), was the 9th Earl of Galloway and served as Lord Lieutenant of Kirkcudbright from 1828 to 1845 and was MP for Cockermouth from 1826 to 1831. He married Lady Harriet Blanche Somerset, daughter of Henry Somerset, 6th Duke of Beaufort.
His grandson, George Rushout (1811–1887), was the 3rd Baron Northwick and served as MP for Evesham from 1837 to 1841 and MP for Worcestershire East from 1847 to 1859. He married the Hon. Elizabeth Augusta, daughter of William Bateman-Hanbury, 1st Baron Bateman and widow of George Drought Warburton, in 1869.
His granddaughter, Sophia Bligh, married to Henry William Parnell (1809-1896) in 1835, the son of Henry Parnell, 1st Baron Congleton, who was a great uncle of Charles Stewart Parnell. Henry W. Parnell's sister, Emma Jane Parnell, was married to Edward Bligh, 5th Earl of Darnley.
Art patronage
The Earl of Galloway was painted in a miniature by Nathaniel Hone the Elder, as well as a full portrait by Anton Raphael Mengs in 1758 when he was Viscount Garlies, which is currently located at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
His second wife, Anne Dashwood, had a portrait painter of her by Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1764, which is currently located at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Lady Galloway, along with their daughter Susan Stewart, later Duchess of Marlborough, was also painted by Angelica Kauffmann.