Edward Marjoribanks, 2nd Baron Tweedmouth

Edward Marjoribanks, 2nd Baron Tweedmouth, KT, PC (8 July 1849 – 15 September 1909), was a moderate[1] British Liberal Party statesman who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 until 1894 when he inherited his peerage and then sat in the House of Lords. He served in various capacities in the Liberal governments of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

For other people named Edward Marjoribanks, see Edward Marjoribanks (disambiguation).

The Right Honourable
The Lord Tweedmouth
KT PC
Lord President of the Council
In office
12 April 1908 – 13 October 1908
MonarchEdward VII
Prime MinisterH. H. Asquith
Preceded byThe Earl of Crewe
Succeeded byThe Viscount Wolverhampton
First Lord of the Admiralty
In office
10 December 1905 – 12 April 1908
MonarchEdward VII
Prime MinisterSir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Preceded byThe Earl Cawdor
Succeeded byReginald McKenna
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office
28 May 1894 – 21 June 1895
MonarchVictoria
Prime MinisterThe Earl of Rosebery
Preceded byJames Bryce
Succeeded byThe Lord James of Hereford
Lord Privy Seal
In office
10 March 1894 – 21 June 1895
MonarchVictoria
Prime MinisterThe Earl of Rosebery
Preceded byWilliam Ewart Gladstone
Succeeded byThe Viscount Cross
Personal details
Born(1849-07-08)8 July 1849
Died15 September 1909(1909-09-15) (aged 60)
NationalityBritish
Political partyLiberal Party
Spouse
Lady Fanny Spencer-Churchill (1853–1904)
​
​
(m. 1873; died 1904)​

Biography

Tweedmouth was the son of Dudley Marjoribanks, 1st Baron Tweedmouth, and Isabella, daughter of Sir James Hogg, 1st Baronet.[2] Ishbel Hamilton-Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair, was his sister. He was descended from Joseph Marjoribanks, a wine and fish merchant in Edinburgh who died in 1635 and is thought to have been the grandson of Thomas Marjoribanks of Ratho,[3] head of the lowland Clan Marjoribanks.[4] He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, but expelled in 1870 following a prank that led to the damage of college sculptures.[5]

Political career
Tweedmouth

Tweedmouth was returned to Parliament for Berwickshire in 1880, a seat he held until 1894.[6] The seat had been held earlier in the century by his great-uncle, Sir John Marjoribanks, 1st Baronet, and cousin, Charles Albany Marjoribanks.

He served under William Ewart Gladstone as Comptroller of the Household in between February and July 1886[7] and was sworn of the Privy Council the same year.[8] When the Liberals returned to power under Gladstone in 1892, he was made Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (chief whip).[9] He succeeded his father in the barony in March 1894, only a few days before Gladstone resigned and Lord Rosebery became Prime Minister. Rosebery appointed Tweedmouth Lord Privy Seal,[10] with a seat in the cabinet, and in May 1894 he also became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He retained these posts until the government fell in 1895.[9]

Amongst other property he inherited the Guisachan estate in Glen Affric from his father but he sold the estate in 1908 to the Earl of Portsmouth.[11]

After ten years in opposition, the Liberals again came to power in December 1905 under Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who appointed Tweedmouth First Lord of the Admiralty,[12] with a seat in the cabinet. In early 1908 he was criticised for corresponding with German emperor William II on the British naval programme. The matter was referred to the House of Commons. Chancellor of the Exchequer H. H. Asquith eventually stated that the correspondence was "a purely personal and private communication, conceived in an entirely friendly spirit" and no action was taken.[13] However, when Asquith succeeded Campbell-Bannerman as Prime Minister in April 1908 Tweedmouth was removed as head of the Admiralty and became Lord President of the Council.[9] He suffered a nervous breakdown in June 1908, a condition which was said to partly explain his indiscretion in communicating with the German Emperor on naval matters. Although his health later recovered, he resigned in October 1908.[14] He was made a Knight of the Thistle in 1908.[15]

An advocate of workers' rights[16] and social legislation,[17][18][19] Tweedmouth was supportive of the Liberal Party's alliance with the Labour Party in the lead-up to the 1906 general election, believing that the Liberals could not win without it, and regarded as "humbug" the view that such an alliance meant class legislation.[20]

He died on 15 September 1909.[13]

Family

Lord Tweedmouth married Lady Fanny Octavia Louise (1853–1904), daughter of John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough and aunt of Sir Winston Churchill, in 1873. She reportedly died from cancer in August 1904, aged 51 "at Lord Tweedmouth's Glen Affric shooting lodge". They had a son and heir; Dudley, 3rd Baron Tweedmouth (1874–1935).[21][22]

Lord Tweedmouth's parliamentary career saw him reported as being the Laird of Guisachan and Glenaffric who was, on occasions, "in a fighting mood".[23] Following Lady Tweedmouth's death, Lord Tweedmouth sold the Lairdship of Glen Affric, the property including the Guisachan Estate and deer park that his family had owned since the 1850s.[24][25] He was reported as being a "generous laird", who, like his father, "did much for the people" of his estate; the "ties which united the people of Glen Affric with the Laird and his lady were close".[26][27]

Lord Tweedmouth survived his wife by five years and died in September 1909, aged 60. He was succeeded in the barony by his son, Dudley.[2]

The Rocking Chair Ranche

From 1883 until 1896, he was an owner of and investor in Rocking Chair Ranche located in Collingsworth County, Texas, along with his father, The 1st Baron Tweedmouth, and his brother-in-law, The 7th Earl of Aberdeen.[28]

Notes
  1. Williams, Rhodri (1 January 1991). Defending the Empire: The Conservative Party and British Defence Policy, 1899-1915. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300050488. Retrieved 29 January 2017 – via Google Books.
  2. "Person Page". Retrieved 29 January 2017.
  3. Marjoribanks, Roger. "Marjoribanks of Lees", The Marjoribanks Journal Number 3, page 14, June 1995. Accessed on 22 May 2010
  4. Clan Marjoribanks web site accessed 29 April 2010.
  5. Curthoys, Judith. "Practical joke, or wanton vandalism? The Library Statues Row – May 1870". www.chch.ox.ac.uk. Christ Church, Oxford University. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  6. "House of Commons: Bedford to Berwick upon Tweed". leighrayment.com. Archived from the original on 24 February 2012. Retrieved 3 March 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  7. "No. 25558". The London Gazette. 12 February 1886. p. 682.
  8. "Privy Counsellors: 1836–1914". leighrayment.com. Archived from the original on 7 June 2008. Retrieved 3 March 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  9. "Peerage: Tiberris to Tyrrell". leighrayment.com. Archived from the original on 8 June 2008. Retrieved 3 March 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  10. "No. 26496". The London Gazette. 20 March 1894. p. 1661.
  11. Scotland's Lost Houses by Ian Gow
  12. "No. 27866". The London Gazette. 22 December 1905. p. 9172.
  13. "Lord Tweedmouth Dead". The New York Times. 16 September 1909.
  14. "LORD TWEEDMOUTH RESIGNS.; Quits Presidency of the Council, but His Mental Condition Is Improved". The New York Times. 29 September 1908. Retrieved 29 January 2017 – via NYTimes.com.
  15. "Knights of the Thistle". leighrayment.com. Archived from the original on 7 June 2008. Retrieved 3 March 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  16. Brown, Tony; Corns, Thomas N. (21 August 2013). Edward Carpenter and Late Victorian Radicalism. Routledge. ISBN 9781134728213. Retrieved 29 January 2017 – via Google Books.
  17. "WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION BILL [H.L.] (Hansard, 9 May 1905)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 9 May 1905. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
  18. "THE HOUSING PROBLEM — GOVERNMENT POLICY. (Hansard, 8 March 1901)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 8 March 1901. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
  19. "FACTORY AND WORKSHOP ACT (1901) AMENDMENT BILL [H.L.] (Hansard, 13 March 1902)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 13 March 1902. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
  20. Strong-Boag, Veronica (1 January 2015). Liberal Hearts and Coronets: The Lives and Times of Ishbel Marjoribanks Gordon and John Campbell Gordon, the Aberdeens. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9781442626027. Retrieved 29 January 2017 – via Google Books.
  21. "DEATH OF LADY TWEED MOUTH Lady Tweedmouth died last night at Lord Tweedmouth's shooting lodge, Glen Affric, in Strathglass, Inverness-shire". Edinburgh Evening News Midlothian, Scotland. 6 August 1904. Retrieved 13 January 2014. DEATH OF LADY TWEED MOUTH Lady Tweed mouth died last night at Lord Tweedmouth's shooting lodge in Strathglass, Inverness-shire. Lady Fanny Occavia Louisa Spencer-Churchill was married to Lord Tweedmouth in 1873. She was the third daughter of the seventh Duke of.....
  22. McCall, Alison (6 April 2016). "Fanny Octavia Louisa Spencer-Churchill". Retrieved 29 January 2017. She died of cancer in 1904
  23. "THE ABERDEEN JOURNAL, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1898". Aberdeen Press and Journal Aberdeenshire, Scotland. 22 November 1898. Retrieved 13 January 2015. The laird of Guisachan and Glenaffric was in a fighting mood last night, and he devoted the main part of his address to an attack on Mr Chamberlain's Manchester speeches. Lord Tweedmouth does not affect the most...
  24. "ISHBEL LADY ABERDEEN AT INVERNESS". The Scotsman Midlothian, Scotland. 14 December 1934. Retrieved 29 January 2013. ....presided, spoke of Lady Aberdeen's connection with the Highlands and to the many happy days she spent in Glen Affric, which was then the property of her father. (i.e. Dudley Marjoribanks, 1st Baron Tweedmouth, died 1894)
  25. Pepper, Jeffrey G. (2012). Golden Retriever. i5 Publishing. p. 27. ISBN 9781621870340.
  26. "The late Dowager Lady Tweedmouth". The Berwickshire News. 14 April 1908. p. 6. Retrieved 15 April 2007. Close were the ties which united the people of Glen Affric with the Laird and his lady. Secluded from the world...(subscription required)
  27. "ISHBEL, LADY ABERDEEN — The Home of Her Youth Revisited - A HIGHLAND WELCOME". The Scotsman Midlothian, Scotland. 15 December 1934. Retrieved 13 January 2014. Many present remembered Lady Aberdeen as the lovely daughter of Lord Tweedmouth, who, like his son who succeeded him, was a generous laird and did much for the estate.....and especially for the people of Guisachan
  28. Allen, Anderson H. (15 June 2010). "ROCKING CHAIR RANCH". Retrieved 29 January 2017.

References
Secondary sources
  • Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage and Baronetage. London: The Boydell Press.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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