Francis Montgomerie (1645–c.1728) of Giffen, Ayr was a Scottish politician who sat in the

Parliament of Scotland The Parliament of Scotland ( sco, Pairlament o Scotland; gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba) was the legislature of the Kingdom of Scotland from the 13th century until 1707. The parliament evolved during the early 13th century from the king's council o ...

from 1689 to 1707 and in the British House of Commons from 1707 to 1710 . Giffencastle

Life

Montgomerie was the second son of

Hugh Montgomerie, 7th Earl of Eglinton Hugh Montgomerie, 7th Earl of Eglinton (1613–1669) was a Scottish landowner. Early life He was the son of Alexander Montgomerie, 6th Earl of Eglinton and Anne Livingstone. He spent much of his childhood at Seton Palace with his grandmother, Mar ...

and his second wife Lady Mary Leslie, daughter of

John Leslie, 6th Earl of Rothes John Leslie, 6th Earl of Rothes (1600 – 23 August 1641) was a Scottish nobleman, one of the main leaders of the Covenanters. Life Born in Leslie, Fife, he was the only son of James Leslie, Master of Rothes (died 1607) and Katherine Drummond, ...

. He was educated at

Glasgow University , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

in 1665. Montgomerie was returned as

Shire Commissioner A commissioner was a legislator appointed or elected to represent a royal burgh or shire in the pre-Union Scottish Parliament and the associated Convention of the Estates. Member of Parliament (MP) and Deputy are equivalent terms in other ...

for Ayrshire in 1689. He was a member of the Scottish Privy Council from 1692 to 1708. In 1695 he was one of the founders of the Company of Scotland and in 1696 was appointed one of the Directors. Also in 1695, he was appointed Commissioner for auditing Treasury accounts. In 1696 he was appointed Governor of Dumbarton Castle and freeman of Dumbarton. He was Commissioner for Admiralty accounts in 1698 and was a Commissioner Justiciary for Highlands in 1701 and 1702. From1703 to 1708, he was Commissioner for the Scottish Treasury and from 1706 to 1707, a Commissioner for union with England. As one of the main shareholders of the Company of Scotland (1695) he lost a small fortune in their ill-advised

Darien scheme The Darien scheme was an unsuccessful attempt, backed largely by investors of the Kingdom of Scotland, to gain wealth and influence by establishing ''New Caledonia'', a colony on the Isthmus of Panama, in the late 1690s. The plan was for the co ...

which planned to form a Scottish colony in Panama. His signature appears on the Act of Union 1707 which compensated the shareholders for their loss. This partially offest the issue that he was not compensated for the loss of his senior roles in the Scottish Parliament. In 1697 he was Commissioner in the witch investigations linked to Christian Shaw. In 1707, Montgomerie was one of the

Scottish representatives to the first Parliament of Great Britain The Scottish representatives to the first Parliament of Great Britain, serving from 1 May 1707 to 26 May 1708, were not elected like their colleagues from England and Wales, but rather hand-picked. The forty five men sent to London in 1707, to t ...

. He was returned as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for Ayrshire at the

1708 British general election The 1708 British general election was the first general election to be held after the Acts of Union had united the Parliaments of England and Scotland. The election saw the Whigs finally gain a majority in the House of Commons, and by November ...

. At the 1710 British general election, he withdrew from the election in favour of his son

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

who succeeded him as MP for Ayrshire. The date of Montgomerie’s death is unknown, but it preceded the sale of the Giffen estate in 1725. He had two sons, one of whom predeceased him, and two daughters.

Family

His uncle, John Leslie the 7th Earl, had a sickly ward, Margaret Leslie, his cousin, and daughter of Alexander Leslie, 2nd Earl of Leven, with whom he arranged a marriage for Montgomerie. Montgomerie married her under a financially advantageous contract dated 10 October 1673 which incurred a legal dispute when she died a year later in 1674. The initial contract allowed him £10,000 of his wife's estate (£2.4 million in 2022 terms) plus an annual annuity of £600. On 26 September 1679, he married as his second wife Elizabeth Sinclair, widow of Sir James Primrose who died in 1702, and daughter of

Sir Robert Sinclair, 1st Baronet ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

of Longformacus, Berwickshire. His children were: * Lt Col

John Montgomerie Colonel John Montgomerie (died 1731) was colonial governor of New York and New Jersey from 1728 to 1731. Life Montgomerie was born in the parish of Beith in Scotland. His father, Francis Montgomerie, was a member of the Privy Council under W ...

* Col Alexander Montgomerie who fought at the

Battle of Almansa The Battle of Almansa took place on 25 April 1707, during the War of the Spanish Succession. It was fought between an army loyal to Philip V of Spain, Bourbon claimant to the Spanish throne, and one supporting his Habsburg rival, Archduke Charl ...

* Elizabeth Montgomerie, who married Col Patrick Ogilvy of Lonmay

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Montgomerie, Francis 1720s deaths Shire Commissioners to the Parliament of Scotland Members of the Parliament of Scotland 1702–1707 Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Scottish constituencies British MPs 1708–1710