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Sir Robert Dundas, 1st Baronet of Beechwood FRSE (30 June 1761 – 4 January 1835) was a Scottish landowner and lawyer.
Contents
Life
He was born on 30 June 1761 the son of Rev Robert Dundas of Humbie in East Lothian and his wife Elizabeth. He was trained as a lawyer, probably at Edinburgh University, and with a legal apprenticeship under James Balfour, and became a Writer to the Signet in 1785. He was Principal Clerk of Session to the Edinburgh High Courts 1817 to 1830. In 1820 he was Deputy to the Lord Privy Seal of Scotland, his in-law Robert Saunders Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville.
In 1820 on the death of his uncle, General Sir David Dundas, he inherited the estate of Beechwood near Corstorphine in western Edinburgh. In 1824 he acquired the huge Dunira estate in Perthshire, but appears to have passed it immediately to his son, David Dundas. The estate had belonged to the late Henry Dundas who had died in 1811. The acquisition implies a blood relationship to Henry Dundas, but that relationship is unclear, due to complex marriages between various branches of the Dundas family.
Dundas was created a Baronet of Beechwood in the County of Midlothian on 24 August 1821.
In 1823 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, his proposer being Sir William Arbuthnot, 1st Baronet during his second term as Lord Provost of Edinburgh.
He died at his Edinburgh townhouse, 32 Heriot Row on 4 January 1835.
Family
He married Matilda Cockburn daughter of Archibald Cockburn (1738–1820) and his wife Janet Rennie.
They had seven daughters and one son, David Barnett Dundas. His daughter Robina Mary Dundas (d.1905) married Vice Admiral Henry Dundas, son of Robert Dundas of Arniston.
Artistic Recognition
He was painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence, one of Britain’s foremost portrait painters of his day.