In Lady Crewe’s Room, on the top floor, next to the Bird Lobby is a picture titled as Miss Stewart. Who was she?
The marriage between Caroline Harpur, daughter of the 5th. Baronet, to her second husband Archibald Stewart, (she had been married, previously, to Adam Hay but had had no children by him), formed an essential link between the Harpurs and the Jenneys.
The marriage date between Caroline and Major Archibald Baillie-Coutts Stewart does not appear in any of the pedigrees or documents to hand, so it is a matter of conjecture. Perhaps a little light may be thrown upon the matter if we look at the Major. For instance, was he of the rank of Major at the time of the wedding?
To quote from Burke’s Landed Gentry regarding this branch of the Stewarts, which went on to be the Seton-Steuarts:-
There has been much controversy about the origin and early history of this family: Sir Henry Stewart (the 1st Baronet) and Sir George Robertson maintained the descent from Sir Robert Steuart of Daldowic, said to be the 8th. son of Sir John Stewart of Bonkyle, the progenitor of the Stewarts of Lennox, Darnley and Castlemilk; while Mr. Andrew Stuart of Torrance and Mr. John Riddell held that there was no proof of the existence of Sir Robert or of his four ancestors. The views of Mr Robertson and Mr. Riddell appeared as early contributions to Blackwoods Magazine and have been published separately under the title of “The Saltfoot Controversy”. According to Mr Riddell, the first recorded ancestor was JAMES STEWART, styled by Robertson as of “Daldowic and Allenton”.
James’ younger son Allan inherited, and from him, the estate passed to his son, Gawine. Another James followed him and it was from his older son James that the estate came to:-
Sir James Stuart (Steuart), who was born in 1608. He was the youngest, and posthumous, son of said James Stewart, of Allanton, and was a merchant and banker in Edinburgh. He was knighted about 1639, and Lord Provost of Edinburgh in 1649 and 1659.
He purchased Kirkfield and Coltness, in Lanarkshire, in about 1653 and died in March 1681. By his second wife Margaret, (daughter of a Leith merchant, Alexander Air, he had two sons, the second of whom (and, in all, his seventh son) was Robert, later Sir Robert Stuart, of Allanbank (created a baronet of Scotland in 1687).
Sir Robert also married twice and, by his second wife, Helen, daughter of Sir Alexander Cockburn, of Langton he had a son (amongst other children), Archibald, born in 1697, who was Provost of Edinburgh in 1745. He married Grizel, daughter of John Gordon, an Edinburgh merchant. Their eldest son, John, was born in 1728 and died, unmarried, in 1788.
Their second son was Archibald Baillie-Coutts, born in 1741. He joined the Royal Horse Guards (The Blues), as a cornet (2nd. lieutenant) on the 12th. April, 1762 at the age of 21. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on the 15th. November 1764 and bought his Captaincy on the 30th. September 1772. He retired, with the rank of Major, on the 16th. January, 1787.
These are the bare bones of his army career. It would be nice to cite all manner of battles in which he was involved or the great number of heroic charges in which he took part, but the regimental history does not seem to lean this way. Rather, the opposite. After the battle of Hombourg and the end of the Seven Years’ War, the Regiment returned to England in 1763 and was scaled down. Whereas the strength of a ‘troop’ had been 52, it was now classed as 29.
The important impact of this, however, so far as we are concerned, is that the Regiment was now stationed at Derby and Nottingham. It was not required to carry out its Court duties, nor was the usual detachment retained near London to perform escort duties. This was at first, to give them a rest, but, in view of the easy style which surrounded military life in country quarters, there does not seem to have been a clamour to return to the Court duties! This quiet existence, with the Regiment quartered in various Midland towns (Derby, Nottingham, Leicester. Stamford. Northampton etc.) continued until 1793, i.e. all of Major Stewart’s time with them!
Could it therefore, have been in this time that he and Caroline met, perhaps at one of the Assemblies that must have been held in Derby? Romantically, it would be nice to think so. If, as the pedigrees show, he was a Major at the time of the wedding, then it must have been between, say, 1775 and 1787. Their one child, Caroline, was married to William Jenney, c.1806.
The incidence of his second given name is of some interest. His older half-brother had inherited the title and had married Margaret, daughter of John Kerr, of Morriston. His eldest daughter, Jane, married John Coutts, banker and provost of Edinburgh, and father of Thomas Coutts, who set up banking in London. This would have been before Archibald’s birth so, presumably, he was named for this family.
For continuance, see JENNEY
Footnote.
Archibald Stewart started his Military career in 1762 when the system of purchasing commissions was common. I have not the figures which applied in 1762, but, in 1753, the price of an Ensign’s rank was £400, that of a lieutenant, £550, a captain, £1500 while, if you aspired to be a lieutenant colonel the cost would have been £3,500, a very considerable sum of Money!
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