William Kerr, 2nd Marquess of Lothian

Coat of arms of the Marquess of Lothian

William Kerr, 2nd Marquess of Lothian KT (also William Kerr, 5th Lord Jedburgh ) (* before March 27, 1661 , † February 28, 1722 in London ) was a British nobleman, officer and politician.

Origin and character

William Kerr was the eldest son of Robert Kerr, 2nd Earl of Lothian and his wife Jean Campbell . He was baptized on March 27, 1661 in Newbattle . Nothing is known about his youth and education. John Macky described Kerr, about 45 years old, as very handsome, lively, and a devout Presbyterian . Daniel Defoe, on the other hand, found him loathsome a few years later because of his vices, immorality, and lusts.

Start of political activity and military career

William's father was forced out of office under King James VII as a supporter of the Campbells . William Kerr, therefore, eagerly supported the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and became a loyal supporter of the new King Wilhelm II. According to an agreement concluded in 1669 by his grandfather William Kerr, 1st Earl of Lothian with Robert Kerr, 2nd Lord Jedburgh , he inherited in 1692 the death of his distant cousin Robert Kerr, 4th Lord Jedburgh as Lord Jedburgh the title of Lord of Parliament . In the Parliament of Scotland , he continued to support his brother Archibald Campbell, the 10th Earl of Argyll , the Court party . For this he served as a military. He was made colonel on October 1, 1696 and became regiment owner of the 7th Dragoons . In 1702 he was promoted to brigadier general and on January 1, 1704 to major general. His father had been promoted to Marquess of Lothian in 1701 . After the death of his father in February 1703, Kerr inherited his possessions and titles.

Role in the union of Scotland with England

Lothian, as he was now called, now supported his nephew John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll , who headed the Scottish Parliament as Lord High Commissioner in 1705 . On July 31, 1705, Lothian proposed a reading of the law on union with England in Parliament, and he was subsequently a member of the commission that negotiated union with England. After the end of the parliamentary period, he was accepted into the thistle order on October 30, 1705 . However, when Argyll was politically out- maneuvered by the Duke of Queensberry , Lothian also lost his place on the negotiating committee with England. His attempt to succeed General George Ramsay as commanding general in Scotland also failed. But when Argyll regained the favor of Queen Anne before October 1706 , Lothian again had political influence. On November 4, 1706, he voted in Parliament for the adoption of the first article of the Act of Union , which provided for the amalgamation of England and Scotland, and on January 16, 1707, he voted for the adoption of the Union Treaty. On January 1, 1707, he had been promoted to Lieutenant General, and on April 25, 1707, he was made Colonel of the 3rd Foot Guards . On this command, he had already applied a year earlier. For the command he gave up his command of the regiment of the 7th Dragoons. With the support of Argyll, he was elected one of the 16 Scottish Representative Peers who were members of the British House of Lords for 1707 and 1708 .

Further political activity

After Argyll joined the Tories in 1710 , Lothian also seems to have supported the Tories in the 1710 general election. In June 1711 he applied unsuccessfully to Lord High Treasurer Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford for a British peerage . In 1713 he asked Oxford for instructions on how he should influence the general election. In 1713 he resigned his command as Colonel of the 3rd Foot Guards. After the Hanoverians ascended to the throne in 1714, Lothian and Argyll belonged to the opposition. In November 1714 he signed a futile petition opposed to the primacy of English over Scottish nobility titles in the House of Lords. In 1715 he was re-elected as the Scottish Representative Peer and held this post until his death.

Marriage and offspring

On June 30, 1685, Kerr's father had signed a marriage contract with Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll , so that William Kerr Campbell's daughter, his cousin Jean Campbell (around 1661-1712) married. With her he had a son and four daughters:

• William Kerr, 3rd Marquess of Lothian
• Lady Anne Kerr († 1727)

1. ∞ Alexander Home, 7th Earl of Home
2. ∞ Henry Ogle

• Lady Jean Kerr († 1768) ∞ William Cranstoun, 5th Lord Cranstoun
• Lady Elizabeth Kerr († 1758) ∞ George Ross, 13th Lord Ross
• Lady Mary Kerr († 1768) ∞ Alexander Hamilton

Lothian was buried in Westminster Abbey on March 6, 1722 . His son William became his heir.

Web links

• Lt.-Gen. William Kerr, 2nd Marquess of Lothian on thepeerage.com , accessed January 14, 2018.
• Stuart Handley: Kerr, William, second marquess of Lothian (bap. 1661, d. 1722). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cracroft's Peerage: Lothian, Marquess of (S, 1701). Retrieved February 6, 2018 . 
2. ^ William Kerr, Marquis of Lothian. Archived from the original on October 17, 2013 ; accessed on February 6, 2018 . 

predecessor	Office	successor
Robert Kerr	Marquess of Lothian 1703-1722	William Kerr
Robert Kerr	Lord Jedburgh 1692-1722	William Kerr