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Index of first names

Richard Montagu Douglas Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

Richard Walter John Montagu Douglas Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch and 12th Duke of Queensberry KBE DL FSA FRSE (born 14 February 1954) is the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, as well as Chief of Clan Scott. He is the senior patrilinear descendant of Sir James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth (9 April 1649 – 15 July 1685), the eldest illegitimate son of King Charles II and his mistress, Lucy Walter.

He was born in 1954, the son of John Scott, Earl of Dalkeith (later 9th Duke of Buccleuch) and his wife, Jane (née McNeill), and was baptised with Princess Margaret as one of his godparents.

He attended Eton, was Page of Honour to the Queen Mother from 1967 to 1969. In 1973 his father inherited the Dukedoms of Buccleuch and Queensberry, and Scott took the courtesy title of Earl of Dalkeith. He graduated from Christ Church, Oxford in 1976 with a Bachelor of Arts.

In 1981 he married Lady Elizabeth Marian Frances Kerr, a daughter of the 12th Marquess of Lothian (and a sister of the 13th Marquess of Lothian, better known as the Conservative politician Michael Ancram), and they had four children:
Lady Louisa Jane Therese Montagu Douglas Scott (b. London, 1 October 1982), married 2011 Rupert James Trotter (b. 1977)
Walter John Francis Montagu Douglas Scott, Earl of Dalkeith (b. London, 2 August 1984)
Lord Charles David Peter Montagu Douglas Scott (b. London, 20 April 1987)
Lady Amabel Clare Alice Montagu Douglas Scott (b. Lindo Wing, St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London, 23 June 1992)

The Duchess of Buccleuch and Queensbury is a Patroness of the Royal Caledonian Ball.

Lord Dalkeith had a brief spell on the board of Border Television from 1989 to 1990, and in 1994 he joined the Millennium Commission as the representative for Northern England. Appointed a KBE in 2000 for his services to the Millennium Celebrations, Dalkeith left the commission in 2003. He is President of the National Trust for Scotland and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Dalkeith also served as Deputy Chairman of the (since abolished) Independent Television Commission, as a member of Scottish Heritage, on the board of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and was President of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society from 1999 to 2005.

The Duke currently lives in Drumlanrig Castle.

On 4 September 2007 he inherited the titles Duke of Buccleuch and Duke of Queensberry upon his father's death.

The art collection of the Dukes of Buccleuch is of great significance; thus the recovery of the stolen Leonardo da Vinci painting Madonna of the Yarnwinder from the collection, valued at 30 million GBP, in a raid on the offices of a prestigious law firm captured public attention in 2007. A discovery in June 2008 of a painting in the family collection at Boughton House, a rare portrait of the young Elizabeth I Queen of England, was welcomed by art historians.

Houses owned by the Duke include Boughton House, Drumlanrig Castle, Dalkeith Palace, and Bowhill House.

The Duke is a trustee of the Royal Collection Trust and an Honorary Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (HonRICS).

Chieftainship of the House of Douglas
A contender for the chieftainship of 'Clan Douglas' is the Marquess of Queensberry. Note as the Marquess but not the Duke. That title and most of the lands went to the Scotts through the female line. The Marquess of Queensberry’s direct ancestors include the boxing Marquess and his son Lord Alfred Douglas, famous from the Oscar Wilde trial. He is genuinely a Douglas in the male line, albeit like most of the others, descended from a bastard, (the illegitimate son of the 2nd Earl of Douglas - the hero of Otterburn). Sadly, none of the descendants of the powerful Black Douglas family survive, with the possible exception of this branch. (The split into Red or Black Douglasas occurred after the 2nd Earl died, victorious at Otterburn). The House of Angus, (Red Douglases) who sided with the Crown in the struggle for power after the Douglas murders by King James II, were awarded the Chieftenship of the House after the Crown was victorious and the Black Douglases were wiped out. Descendants of the Red Douglas eventually became Marquesses and then Duke of Douglas and finally Dukes of Hamilton. The Marquess does have a single surname – Douglas, but not the lands, seats or wealth of the other contenders. As a direct descendant of the 2nd Earl of Douglas who was the great nephew of the founder of the real power of the family – the Good Sir James, the Chieftenship could possibly be awarded to him, even although he represents a junior branch of the family.
Extracted from The Chieftainship of the House of Douglas, a paper written by Norman Douglas at the time of the Douglas Clan Gathering, July 2014

It is sad that the finest of the “lived in” Douglas Castles – Drumlanrig, went with the Dukedom to the Scott’s and not to the Marquess who is a Douglas.

 

 

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