Montagu-Douglas-Scott family, Dukes of Buccleuch

The Scott family, already settled at Murdieston (Lanarkshire) by the 13th century, was an established border family in the later middle ages, with property at Buccleuch (Selkirkshire), Kirkurd (Peeblesshire) and Branxholm (Roxburghshire). Sir Walter Scott (d. c.1469) exchanged Murdieston for further Branxholm property, was granted Eckford (Roxburghshire) and owned Langholm (Dumfriesshire). He acquired Abington (Lanarkshire) and other property of James, Earl of Douglas, who was attainted in 1455. His descendant Sir Walter Scott (d. 1611, created Baron Scott in 1606) received Liddesdale (Roxburghshire) and other forfeited estates of the 5th Earl of Bothwell in 1594. The 1st Baron's son was created Earl of Buccleuch in 1619 and his grandson the 2nd Earl (d. 1651) bought Dalkeith (Midlothian) from the Earl of Morton in 1642. The 2nd Earl was succeeded in turn by his sisters Marie (d. 1661) and Anna (d. 1732), who in 1663 married Charles II’s son James, Duke of Monmouth (executed 1685), and was created Duchess of Buccleuch and Countess of Dalkeith. She rebuilt Dalkeith Palace, bought Hawick (Roxburghshire) from the 1st Duke of Queensberry in 1674 and Melrose Abbey (Roxburghshire) from the 6th Earl of Haddington, and extended her estates by further purchases in Selkirkshire and elsewhere. Bowhill (Selkirkshire) was bought by her grandson the second Duke in 1746.

Francis, Earl of Dalkeith, son of the second Duke, married in 1742 Lady Caroline Campbell, eldest daughter and co-heir of the 2nd Duke of Argyll (see Campbell, Dukes of Argyll). She was created Baroness Greenwich in 1767. From her, her son the 3rd Duke (d. 1812) obtained Caroline Park (Granton, Midlothian), Adderbury (Oxfordshire) and Sudbrook (Surrey), Adderbury being settled on him in 1770 and the other two properties passing to him on her death in 1794. The 3rd Duke sold Adderbury, and Sudbrook was disposed of in 1819.

In 1810 the third Duke further inherited Drumlanrig (Dumfriesshire) and the dukedom of Queensberry from William Douglas, 4th Duke of Queensberry (1725-1810), who had succeeded his cousin the 3rd Duke (d. 1778) in the extensive Queensberry estates. The Douglas family was settled in Dumfriesshire by 1388, and obtained Hawick (sold 1674, see above) in 1407. It acquired Tibbers (Dumfriesshire) c.1508-9 and other Dumfriesshire lands, together with Lincluden (Kirkcudbrightshire), during the 16th century. William Douglas (d. 1640), created Baron Douglas and Viscount of Drumlanrig in 1628 and Earl of Queensberry in 1633, bought the Dumfriesshire estates of Torthorwald in 1622 and Sanquhar (from the 1st Earl of Dumfries) in 1637. The 2nd Earl extended these estates and the 3rd Earl (d. 1695), created Marquess in 1682 and Duke of Queensberry in 1684, built Drumlanrig Castle.

The 3rd Duke of Queensberry inherited Amesbury (Wiltshire) and Middleton Stoney (Oxfordshire, sold 1737-48 to the 3rd Earl of Jersey), with property at Petersham (Surrey), from Henry Boyle, Baron Carleton (d. 1725). Neidpath (Pebblesshire), purchased by the first Duke of Queensberry, was settled by him on his younger son William, Earl of March (so created 1697), and descended in 1731 to the 1st Earl’s grandson the 3rd Earl, who afterwards succeeded as 4th Duke of Queensberry in 1788 (see above). Neither Amesbury nor Neidpath, however, devolved upon the Duke of Buccleuch in 1810, as the former passed by entail to the 1st Baron Douglas (d. 1827, see Douglas-Home, Earls of Home), who sold it to the Antrobus family, and the latter descended to Francis Charteris-Wemyss-Douglas, 6th Earl of Wemyss. A portion of the Queensberry estates in Dumfriesshire, moreover, appears to have been inherited with the marquessate of Queensberry by Sir Charles Douglas, 5th Bt, of Kelhead (Dumfriesshire), as heir male of the 1st Earl of Queensberry.

The 3rd Duke of Buccleuch also acquired the extensive English estates of the Montagu family, including Boughton House (Northamptonshire), Montagu House (Whitehall) and a mansion at Richmond (Surrey), by marriage with Elizabeth, daughter and heir of the 4th Earl of Cardigan (also created Duke of Montagu 1766, see Brudenell, Earls of Cardiagan). Cardigan’s wife Mary, younger daughter of John Montagu, second Duke of Montagu (d. 1749), had inherited the principal Montagu estates and on Cardigan’s death in 1790 these descended to the Duchess of Buccleuch. A portion however, of the Montagu estates (Beaulieu, Hampshire, and Ditton, Buckinghamshire), had passed to the 2nd Duke of Montagu’s elder daughter Isabella, wife of Sir Edward Hussey, created Baron Beaulieu 1762 and Earl of Beaulieu 1784. He retained this portion until his death in 1802, when it too devolved upon the wife of the 3rd Duke of Buccleuch.

The Montagu family was established by Sir Edward Montagu (d. 1556), Chief Justice of King’s Bench, who bought numerous Northamptonshire properties, including Boughton (1528), Hemington and Barnwell (1540), Luddington (1544), Armston (1547) and Polebrook (1548). This estate was subsequently extended, for example by the purchase in 1613 of the hundreds of Polebrook, Navisford and Huxloe and in 1748 of the estate of Grafton Underwood, and it included property in Huntingdonshire (Coppingford, etc). Edward Montagu (d. 1644) was created Baron Montagu of Boughton in 1621. His son the 2nd Baron (d. 1684) married Anna, daughter of Sir Ralph Winwood (d. 1617), whose Ditton (Buckinghamshire) estate passed to the Montagu family in 1691. The 3rd Baron (d. 1709), created Duke of Montagu in 1705, built Boughton House. His marriage to Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton (d. 1667), brought estates at Beaulieu (Hampshire), which had been bought by the 1st Earl of Southampton in 1538, and Dunchurch (Warwickshire), which had belonged to the 4th Earl’s wife, the daughter of Francis Leigh, Baron Dunsmore and Earl of Chichester (d. 1653). (For the Southampton estates see Leigh, Barons Leigh; Noel, Earls of Gainsborough; and Russell, Dukes of Bedford.)

In 1692 the 1st Duke married as his second wife Elizabeth Monck (1653-1734), widow of the 2nd Duke of Albemarle, on whose death in 1734 the former Albemarle estates of Clitheroe and Furness (Lancashire) entered the Montagu family. Other Albemarle property, however, was divided among the co-heirs of the 1st Duke of Albemarle, with much of it passing to the Granville Earls of Bath and some of it from that family to the first Earl Gower (see Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Dukes of Sutherland).

When the 3rd Duchess of Buccleuch died in 1827 the Clitheroe estate was divided. One moiety, including Clitheroe castle and honour, was settled on her younger son Henry James Montagu-Scott, Baron Montagu of Boughton (d. 1845), on whom Beaulieu (Hampshire) and Ditton (Buckinghamshire) were also settled. The other moiety, including the manor of Slaidburn (Yorkshire, West Riding) and the Forest of Bowland, passed to the 5th Duke, who sold it to the Towneley family. On the death of Baron Montagu in 1845, his Montagu estates reverted to the 5th Duke (d. 1884), who later settled Clitheroe and Beaulieu on his second son Henry John Douglas-Scott-Montagu, created Baron Montagu of Beaulieu in 1885, to whom Ditton also passed on his mother’s death in 1895. After the 5th Duke's death, some of the Montagu family papers from Montagu House (Whitehall) were transferred to Palace House, Beaulieu (see HMC Report on the Manuscripts of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, 1900), but the bulk of the Montagu House papers, including those reported on by the Commission between 1899 and 1926 (HMC Report on the Manuscripts of the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry Preserved at Montagu House, Whitehall, I-III), were removed to Boughton House at the time of the demolition of Montagu House c.1925.

Estates in 1883: Dumfriesshire 254,179 acres, Roxburghshire 104,461 acres, Selkirkshire 60,428 acres, Lanarkshire 9,091 acres, Midlothian 3,436 acres, Kirkcudbrightshire 1,000 acres, Peeblesshire 272 acres, Fife 60 acres, Northants 17,965 acres, Warwicks 6,881 acres, Hunts 1,065 acres, Bucks 894 acres, Lancs 369 acres, Surrey 7 acres, total 460,108 acres worth £217,163 a year, exclusive of minerals worth £4,091 a year and Granton Harbour worth £10,601 a year.