George Baillie
George Baillie (16 March 1664 – 6 August 1738) was a Scottish politician who sat in the Parliament of Scotland from 1691 to 1707 and in the British House of Commons from 1708 to 1734.
George Baillie was the son of the Scottish Covenanter Robert Baillie of Jerviswood, who was implicated in the 1683 Rye House Plot against King Charles II. When his father was imprisoned for treason in 1684, George fled Scotland for Holland with Sir Patrick Hume.[1] In Holland he served in the horse guards of William of Orange, and returned to Britain with William in the Revolution of 1688.[2]
Baillie was elected as Shire Commissioner of the Parliament of Scotland, representing Berwick from 1693 to 1698 and 1700 to 1701, and then Lanark from 1703 to 1707. He was a leading member of the Squadrone Volante, a group of members who were influential in the debates which led to the union with England in 1707.[2]
After the Union, Baillie attended the Parliament of Great Britain as Member of Parliament for Berwickshire for 26 years. In 1711, he was appointed Commissioner for Trade and Plantations by Queen Anne and in 1714 King George I appointed him one of the Lords of Admiralty.[3] In 1717 he was elevated to Lord of Treasury as a junior Lord Commissioner of the Treasury until 1725. He stepped down as an MP at the 1734 British general election, and died at Oxford in 1738.[1] He was buried on his estate of Mellerstain in Berwickshire, where he had commenced the building of the mansion by commissioning William Adam to build the east and west wings.[2]
In 1691 he had married Sir Patrick Hume's daughter, the songwriter and poet Lady Grizell Hume, and they had three children; Grisell (1692), who married British army officer Sir Alexander Murray of Stanhope, Robert (1694), who died in infancy and Rachel (1696), who married Charles Hamilton, Lord Binning, son of the Earl of Haddington. Rachel's elder son Thomas inherited the earldom. [2] Mellerstain passed to Rachel's younger son George, who completed the house by erecting a central block between the wings constructed by his grandfather. Mellerstain remains to this day the principal seat of the Earl of Haddington.
References
- ^ a b "BAILLIE, George (1664-1738), of Jerviswood, Lanark". History of Parliament Online (1715-1754). Retrieved 22 April 2019.
- ^ a b c d Murison, Barbara C. (2004). "Baillie, George, of Jerviswood (1664–1738)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/64094. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
- ^ "BAILLIE, George (1664-1738), of Jerviswood, Lanark. and Mellerstain, Berwicks". History of Parliament Online (1690-1715). Retrieved 22 April 2019.
- Lords of the Admiralty
- Shire Commissioners to the Parliament of Scotland
- Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Scottish constituencies
- 1664 births
- 1738 deaths
- People from North Lanarkshire
- Members of the Parliament of Scotland 1689–1702
- Members of the Parliament of Scotland 1702–07
- British MPs 1707–1708
- British MPs 1708–1710
- British MPs 1710–1713
- British MPs 1713–1715
- British MPs 1715–1722
- British MPs 1722–1727
- British MPs 1727–1734
- Commissioners of the Treasury of Scotland