JOHN DALRTUPLR, second Earl of Stair. He was born at Edinburgh on the 20th of July 1673, and in early youth had the misfortune to kill his elder brother by the accidental discharge of a pistol For some years afterwards he was under the tuition of a clergyman in the shire of Ayr, whence he was at length restored to his father's home. In 1692 he entered as a volunteer under the Earl of Angus, commander of the Cameronian regiment at the battle of Steinkirk. His parents however appear to have been desirous of his adopting the profession of the law, and for that purpose sent him to Leydeu; but on his return in 1701 from his travels he accepted a commission as lieutenant-colouel of the Soota regiment of Foot-gums:is. The year following he served as aide-de-camp to the Duke of Marlborough at the taking of Vonlo and Liege, and the attack on Peer ; and in the course of the year 1706 he successively obtained the commend of the Cimeronian regiment and the Scots Greys. On his father's death in the beginning of 1707 he succeeded to the earldom of Stair, and was soou afterwards chosen one of the representative peers of Scotland in the united parliament. In the subsequent victories of Oudenerde, Malplaquet, and Ramifies, he held high command and obtained great distinotion ; but on the accession of the new ministry in 1711, when the career of Marlborough MU stopped, he sold out of the Scots Greys, and retired from the army. When George L succeeded to the throne the Earl of Stair was appointed a lord of the bedchamber and a privy councillor, and in tho absence of the Duke of Argyll was coustitutod commaudersin-chief of the forces in Scotland. The next year ho was sent on a diplomntio mission to France; and it would seem that the embassy was distin guished by much skill and address, and at the same time by remarkable splendour and magnificence. He was recalled in 1720, and for tho next twenty-two years lived in retirement at his seat at Nevslistoo, where it is said he planted various groups of trees in a manner designed to represent the arrangement of the British troops at one of the victories he had been engaged In. Ho also turned his attention to agriculture, and was the first in Scotland to plant turnips and cabbages in the opou fields. On the dissolution of the Walpole administration in 1742 he
was recalled to public life, and !erred in a military capacity on different important occasions till his death, which happened et Queensberry House, Edinburgh, ou the 9th of May 1747. He loft a widow, but no children.
His next brother, ll'iliiass Dalrymple of Gleamure, who was a colonel In the army, married Penelope, countess of Dumfrioa, and their issue succeeded to the earldom. ilia youngest brother, George Dalrymple of Dalmnhoy, passed advocate, and on Baron Smith'. advancement to the chair was made a puisuo baron of Exchequer, in which situation ho continued till his death in July 1745. More lately there was ou the bench of the same court a member of another branch of the same family, Sir John Dalrymple of Cranstoun, Bart., who was appointed In 1778 one of the barons of the Exchequer, and so con tinued till the year 1807, when ho resigned. Ho was the author of 'Memoirs of Great Britain," Tracts on Feudal Law,' and other publications. Ho was descended from lama, second son of the first Viscount Stair, who was author of Collections concerning Scottish History preceding the Death of David I.,' and who was created a baronet on the 28th of April 1698, the day previous to his younger brother, Hew Dalrymple of North Berwick, being raised to the like dignity.
Sin Haw DALRYMPLE, born in 1652, was some time one of the commis.ariea of Edinburgh, having been appointed to that place on the resignation of his brother James, when the latter was made one of the principal clerks of session. He had also been some time dean of the Faculty of Advocates; and was, on the occasion of his being created a baronet, promoted at once from the outer bar (like the predecessor of his father, Sir George Lockhart, and in more recent times Mr. Blair, the only instances in the history of the court) to the presidency of the Court of Session, which had remained vacant since his father's death in 1695. President Sir Hew Dalrymple colleoted the deci-ions of the court from his appointment till the 21st of June 1720, and continued in the chair till his death, which took place on the lst of February 1737, in the eighty-fifth year of his age.