Colonel John Stewart (died 1726) was a Scottish professional soldier, first in the

Scottish Army The Scots Army ( Scots: ''Scots Airmy'') was the army of the Kingdom of Scotland between the Restoration in 1660 and the Acts of Union of 1707. A small standing army was established at the Restoration, which was mainly engaged in opposing Co ...

and then (after the Union with England) in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

. He served with the army in Scotland, France and Flanders, and held a seat in the

House of Commons of Great Britain The House of Commons of Great Britain was the lower house of the Parliament of Great Britain between 1707 and 1801. In 1707, as a result of the Acts of Union of that year, it replaced the House of Commons of England and the third estate of th ...

from 1708 to 1715. He lived at

Hartrigge House Hartrigge House or Stewartfield House was a country house in Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders. Its first owner was in 1614 and it was rebuilt in 1854. It was the home to the Lord Chancellor, John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell. It was demolished i ...

in Jedburgh and he was killed in 1726 in a drunken fight with a

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 of ...

(MP).

Life

Stewart's early life is unclear. He appears to be the son of William Stewart of Livingstone, but the evidence is uncertain. left, This was the Black Bull Inn He joined the army some time after the

Glorious Revolution The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...

, but his early military career is also obscure. He probably served with the

Scots Greys The Royal Scots Greys was a Cavalry regiments of the British Army, cavalry regiment of the British Army from 1707 until 1971, when they amalgamated with the 3rd Carabiniers (Prince of Wales's Dragoon Guards) to form the Royal Scots Dragoon Guard ...

, and may have been the Captain John Stewart ‘of Galloway’ who joined Brigadier-General William Stewart's regiment in 1695. The first confirmed fact of his military career is that in 1707 he became a Lieutenant-Colonel in the regiment newly raised by Alexander Grant. From 1708 he served in Flanders with the

Duke of Marlborough General (United Kingdom), General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1st Prince of Mindelheim, 1st Count of Nellenburg, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, (26 May 1650 – 16 June 1722 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) was an Engl ...

, returning periodically to Scotland, where he had been elected in 1708 at the first general election to the new

Parliament of Great Britain The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in May 1707 following the ratification of the Acts of Union by both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. The Acts ratified the treaty of Union which created a new unified Kingdo ...

. In a contest assisted by his opponent being jailed as a suspected Jacobite, Stewart was returned as the MP for Kirkcudbright Stewartry. Returning to Scotland two years later for the 1710 election, he was captured from his ship by a French

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

. Released on parole, he was re-elected in the Stewartry, but negotiations with the French proved slow and he was not fully cleared until late 1711. Re-elected in 1713, Stewart was classified as a Whig. He was not a very active member of the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

, and stood down at the 1715 election. He had gone to half-pay in the army in 1713.

Death

Stewart was a

burgess __NOTOC__ Burgess may refer to: People and fictional characters * Burgess (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Burgess (given name), a list of people Places * Burgess, Michigan, an unincorporated community * Burgess, Missouri, U ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

in 1708, and of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

in 1716. He was a commissioner of supply for Kirkcudbright Stewartry in 1706. He held land both in Livingstone in Kirkcudbright and at Stewartfield in Jedburgh, the first inherited from his father, and the latter through his marriage in 1704 to Elizabeth Scott, the daughter and heir of Sir Francis Scott of Mangerton in Roxburghshire. Those landholding qualified him as a freeholder, with a vote in each county's elections. After the by-election in

Roxburghshire Roxburghshire or the County of Roxburgh ( gd, Siorrachd Rosbroig) is a historic county and registration county in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. It borders Dumfriesshire to the west, Selkirkshire and Midlothian to the north-west, and Berw ...

in 1726, a meeting of the county's freeholders was followed by a dinner. One of those present was the by-election winner

Sir Gilbert Eliott, 3rd Baronet, of Stobs Sir Gilbert Eliott, 3rd Baronet, of Stobs ( – 27 May 1764) was a Scottish Whig politician who sat in the British House of Commons between 1708 and 1727. He was outlawed after killing his opponent in an after-dinner argument and fight, but w ...

, who complained to Stewart for not voting for him. An argument followed, and Stewart threw a glass of wine in Eliott's face, who responded by running his sword through the seated Stewart. Stewart managed to stand and return two blows before the two men were separated, but the wound was fatal. Stewart's dying words were that he had been murdered sitting in his chair, and that his assailant was Sir Gilbert Eliott. Eliott was declared an

outlaw An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...

, and escaped into exile before being given a

royal pardon In the English and British tradition, the royal prerogative of mercy is one of the historic royal prerogatives of the British monarch, by which they can grant pardons (informally known as a royal pardon) to convicted persons. The royal preroga ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stewart, John Year of birth unknown 1726 deaths Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Scottish constituencies British MPs 1708–1710 British MPs 1710–1713 British MPs 1713–1715 Deaths by stabbing in Scotland People murdered in Scotland Royal Scots Greys officers Whig (British political party) MPs for Scottish constituencies