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- lived at Torloisk, Fife, Scotland
b. 20 Apr. 1759, 1st s. of George Clephane of Carslogie, Fife by 2nd w. Anne Jean, da. and h. of Rev. Robert Douglas, minister of Portmoak, Kinross; bro. of David Clephane*. m. 14 Sept. 1790, Marianne, da. and h. of Lauchlan MacLean, seventh of Torloisk, Isle of Mull, Argyll, 3da. Took additional name of MacLean 6 Nov. 1790; suc. fa. 1790.
Offices Held
Ensign, 3 Ft. 1777, lt. and capt. 1780, capt. and lt.-col. 1792, col. 1796, maj.-gen. 1801.
Lt.-gov. Grenada 1803.
Biography
In 1788 Clephane was a liferenter in Kinross-shire in the right of his mother's inheritance. On the death of the former Member George Graham in December 1801, he was on active service at Port Mahon, but his family put him forward by prearrangement as champion of the 'independent interest of the county' under the aegis of William Adam*. Although an opposition was at first threatened by Graham's heir, Clephane, who arrived home in time for the election, was chosen unanimously. He was listed a supporter of Addington's ministry and independent of Henry Dundas. Some of his friends had wished for him to be George Graham's successor as lord lieutenant, but he was prepared to cede it to William Adam.1
Nevertheless, his success was reported to have gone to his head. On 4 Mar. 1803 he voted in the minority for the inquiry into the Prince of Wales's debts, 'paying his adorations to the rising sun', as Andrew Clephane put it. The latter added, 'Conceive our General refusing the station of Ceylon as comdr. in chief. What does he expect? To be made peer of the blood, I suppose.' Andrew also professed to be astonished 'after the speech he made at Kinross', that Clephane should be 'so long silent' in the House: but no speech by him is reported.2
On 27 Apr. 1803 Clephane informed Adam that he had accepted the place of commissioner at Trinidad, which vacated his seat. On 19 May, however, Lord Hobart recommended him to the King as lieutenant governor of Grenada, where he proceeded. As he hoped, his brother David succeeded as county Member.3
He died at Grenada, 4 Nov. 1803, 'a bad subject for a warm climate'. His funeral was 'the most sumptuous one ever seen on that island'.4 Sir Walter Scott was his children's guardian.
probably of this generation. Not sure if by William or his brother.
Clephane, Douglas176? -1803.of Carslogie;
Clephane, William Douglas M'Lean, of Carslogie, was the twenty-first laird in the direct male line.
He entered the Army, and in May 1790 was a Captain and Lieutenant-Colonel, holding the same rank in the 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards in 1792.
He married Marianne, daughter of Lauchlan M'Lean of Torloisk, Mull, September 14, 1790, and in November of the same year, by royal licence, assumed the name of M'Lean.
He was promoted Colonel in 1796, and served in the expedition to Holland, especially distinguishing himself, October 6, 1799, when with about six hundred men he drove three battalions out of a village, taking a number of prisoners and two cannon.
The last of the eldest branch of the family, Major-general William Maclean Douglas Clephane, who died in 1804, was the twenty-first laird, in the direct male line, without the intervention of a female or the succession of a younger branch. He sold the remaining portion of the barony, and it is a singular coincidence that when the property went entirely from the family, the eldest male line became extinct. The general married the daughter of Mr. Maclean of Torloisk, Mull, and after his death Sir Walter Scott was chosen by his daughters to be their guardian. His eldest daughter married, in 1815, the second marquis of Northampton. Her ladyship died in 1830. The Clephanes are said to have been an exceeding tall, strong race of men, and General Clephane was far above the usual height. His brother, Andrew Clephane, Esq., Advocate, sheriff of the county of Fife, who died in 1838, though not so tall, exhibited in his person evident marks of the family characteristic in this respect. The old house of Carslogie, for centuries the residence of the Clephanes, became the property of the Rev. Mr. Laing, an English clergyman.
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1759 - 1803 (44 years)
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