Colonel Robert Rickart Hepburn of Keith (1720 – 24 May 1804) was

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 ...

for

Kincardineshire Kincardineshire, also known as the Mearns (from the Scottish Gaelic meaning "the Stewartry"), is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area on the coast of northeast Scotland. It is bounded by Aberdeenshire on the north and w ...

1768–1774.historyofparliamentonline.org, ''Hepburn, Robert Rickart (1720–1804), of Rickarton, Kincardine, and Keith, Haddington.''
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Biography

He was the son of James Hepburn of Keith and Katherine Rickart and was educated at

Edinburgh high school The Royal High School (RHS) of Edinburgh is a co-educational school administered by the City of Edinburgh Council. The school was founded in 1128 and is one of the oldest schools in Scotland. It serves 1,200 pupils drawn from four feeder primar ...

and the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

. He succeeded to his father's estate at Keith in Haddington and to his mother's estate at Rickarton in Kincardine. He joined the British Army in 1743 as a cornet in the

6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons The 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1689 as Sir Albert Cunningham's Regiment of Dragoons. One of the regiment's most notable battles was the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690. It became th ...

, was promoted captain in 1745, major in 1755, and lieutenant-colonel in 1763. He commanded the Inniskillings at the

Battle of Minden The Battle of Minden was a major engagement during the Seven Years' War, fought on 1 August 1759. An Anglo-German army under the overall command of Prussian Field Marshal Ferdinand of Brunswick defeated a French army commanded by Marshal of F ...

in 1759. He sold out of the Army in 1768 and became MP for Kincardineshire. He bought the barony of Congalton in the parish of Dirleton, Haddington (now East Lothian). He died in 1804 and was buried in the church at

Gullane Gullane ( or ) is a town on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth in East Lothian on the east coast of Scotland. There has been a church in the village since the ninth century. The ruins of the Old Church of St. Andrew built in the twelft ...

in Dirleton. He had married Magdalen, the daughter of Colonel William Murray and had 3 daughters and 2 sons.

References

Notes

1720 births 1804 deaths Alumni of the University of Edinburgh 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons officers British Army personnel of the Seven Years' War Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Scottish constituencies British MPs 1768–1774 {{Scotland-GreatBritain-MP-stub