Sir David Dundas, 2nd Baronet

Sir David Barnett Dundas, 2nd Baronet,QC,FRSE(28 August 1803 – 30 March 1877) was a Scottish advocate,Liberalpolitician and agricultural improver.

Life

Beechwood House, west Edinburgh, birthplace of David Dundas

He was the son ofRobert Dundas of Beechwood,1st Baronet Dundas (1761–1835) and Matilda Cockburn (daughter ofArchibald Cockburn). He was born at the family mansion of Beechwood House nearCorstorphine,westEdinburghon 28 August 1803.In 1824, he acquiredHenry Dundas's estate ofDunirainPerthshire.On his father's death in 1835, David became the 2nd Baronet.

Dundas was educated atWestminster Schooland atChrist Church, Oxford.He wascalled to the Barat theInner Templein 1824, and appointedQueen's Counselin February 1840.

He was elected to representSutherlandin Parliament as aLiberalin March 1840. In July 1846 he was appointedSolicitor General for England and Wales.At the time, it was the normal practice that accepting ministerial office caused aby-election;he was re-elected on 28 July.

In February 1846, he was knighted, a traditional perquisite of the office, but he resigned the position in March 1848 due to ill-health and returned to the backbenches. In May 1849, he was appointedJudge Advocate General,again re-elected in a by-election on 5 June, and made a member of thePrivy Councilon 29 June.

In 1851, he was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Edinburghhis proposer being John Cockburn, the wine merchant who founded Cockburns of Leith.

In 1852, he commissioned the architectWilliam Burnto completely remodel the mansion atDuniraand lived there until the late 1860s.

He retired from politics in the1852 general election,and was succeeded by theMarquess of Stafford,also a Liberal.

In retirement he lived and worked in his chambers at the Inner Temple; among other work, he served as a Trustee of theBritish Museum.His retirement from politics was not permanent; when Stafford was elevated to theHouse of Lordsin March 1861 on becoming the third Duke of Sutherland, Dundas returned to Parliament. He stood down again in May 1867, being succeeded byLord Ronald Sutherland-Leveson-Gower,the Duke's younger brother.

He died on 30 March 1877.

Family

He married twice: firstly on 29 November 1841 to Catherine Whyte-Melville (d. 23 April 1856), sister of writerGeorge John Whyte-Melville;secondly in 1858 to Lady Lucy Anne Pelham (1815–1901), daughter ofThomas Pelham, 2nd Earl of Chichester.Lucy was a gifted amateur artist.

He had seven children by his first marriage:

• Georgina Catherine Dundas (1843–1859)
• Robert Dundas (1844–1865), who died unmarried
• David Pelham Dundas (1845–1856), who died in childhood
• Sir Sydenham James Dundas, 3rd Baronet(1849–1904), who died unmarried
• Sir Charles Henry Dundas, 4th Baronet(1851–1908), who died unmarried
• Sir George Whyte Melville Dundas, 5th Baronet(1856–1934), who married Matilda Louisa Mary Wilson, and had children
• Lady Jane Dundas (died 1929), who married Reverend Francis Agnew Bickmore and had children

Dundas's second marriage produced a son. Sydenham Jaspar Dundas (1859–1909).

Publications

• On the Potato Disease – Crop 1845(1846)

References

• Oliver & Boyd's new Edinburgh almanac and national repository for the year 1850.Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh, 1850
• Gordon Goodwin, "Dundas, Sir David (1799–1877)", rev. H. C. G. Matthew,Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,Oxford University Press, 2004accessed 11 July 2006
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page^[usurped]
• "Dundas, David (1799-1877)".Dictionary of National Biography.London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

External links

• Hansard1803–2005:contributions in Parliament by David Dundas