Lord Mount Stuart in 1784.

John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute, PC, FRS (30 June 1744 – 16 November 1814) was a British nobleman.

He was the son of the 3rd Earl of Bute and the former Mary Wortley Montagu, a granddaughter of the 1st Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull and great-granddaughter of the 1st Earl of Sandwich. As his father's heir he was styled Lord Mount Stuart from birth until his father's death in 1792.

He married The Hon. Charlotte Hickman-Windsor (daughter of the 2nd Viscount Windsor) on 12 November 1766 and they had several children:

• John Stuart, Lord Mount Stuart (25 September 1767 – 22 January 1794), whose son succeeded as 2nd marquess,
• Lord Evelyn Stuart (1773--1842), a colonel in the army
• Lady Charlotte Stuart (c. 1775–5 September 1847)
• Lord Henry Stuart (7 June 1777–19 August 1809)
• Captain Lord William Stuart (18 November 1778–28 July 1814)
• Rear-Admiral Lord George Stuart (1 March 1780–19 February 1841)

Portrait of Lord Mount Stuart at age 19 by Jean-Étienne Liotard, 1763.

Lord Mount Stuart was Tory Member of Parliament for Bossiney from 1766 to 1776, and in the latter year was elevated to the Peerage as Baron Cardiff, of Cardiff Castle in the County of Glamorgan, but continued to be known by his courtesy title of Lord Mount Stuart. In 1779 he was sworn of the Privy Council and was sent as an envoy to the court of Turin. He held the sinecure of Auditor of the imprests from 1781 until the abolition of the office in 1785, upon which he was paid £7000 compensation.

He succeeded his father as 4th Earl of Bute in 1792, and was created Viscount Mountjoy, in the Isle of Wight, Earl of Windsor and Marquess of Bute in 1794. Lord Bute was inducted a Fellow of the Royal Society on 12 December 1799.[1]

His first wife died on 28 January 1800, and he married Frances Coutts (daughter of Thomas Coutts) on 17 September 1800 and had two children:

• Lady Frances Stuart (d. 29 March 1859)
• Lord Dudley Coutts Stuart (11 January 1803–17 November 1854)

His second wife outlived him, and died on 12 November 1832.

[edit] References

• Burkes' Peerage
• Roland Thorne, ‘Stuart, John, first marquess of Bute (1744–1814)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008) [2], accessed 5 May 2008.