Dudley Marjoribanks, 1st Baron Tweedmouth

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Scottish businessman and a Liberal politician

Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, 1st Baron Tweedmouth, also known as the Laird of Guisachan and Glenaffric,[1][2] (29 December 1820 – 4 March 1894), was a Scottish businessman and a Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1853 until 1880, when he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Tweedmouth. He was the breeder of the first golden retriever.

Marjoribanks was the son of Edward Marjoribanks of Greenlands who was a senior partner in Coutts Bank.[3] He was unable to acquire the partnership in the Bank (it passed to his elder brother Edward) but he inherited a substantial fortune from his father, a partner in Coutts & Co Bank from 1796 until his death on 17 September 1868, aged 92. As to his parentage there was some controversy. Although the Lyon Office of Scotland registered his family pedigree, he was accused of being a charlatan. The disproofs were offered as a statement of contradiction concerning his descent.[4] Burnett of the Lyon’s Herald wrote an article in The Genealogist upholding the Lyon Office’s original assertion of genuine authenticity.[5]

Dudley Coutts, as his banking second name implies, acquired considerable family wealth of his own after the purchase of Meux Brewery. He grew rich as a partner of Meux & Co’s brewery, and later a director of the East India Company. With some of this wealth he built the mansion of Brook House in London’s fashionable Park Lane.

In 1854 he began leasing the highland deer forest of Guisachan in Glen Affric, Inverness-shire,[6] buying Guisachan outright in 1856.[7] He also leased substantial estates of Hutton and Eddington near his family roots in Berwickshire. Marjoribanks had large kennels at Guisachan and was directly responsible for developing a new breed of dog, the Golden Retriever.[8][9]

In 1868, Majoribanks bred Nous, a Wavy-coated Retriever, with Belle, a Tweed Water Spaniel. This created the foundation litter of Golden Retriever.[10]puppies, three yellow wavy-coated puppies named Crocus, Cowslip and Primrose. These (three) offspring of Nous and Belle became the foundation of the breed subsequently known as, and now universally loved as, the Golden Retriever.[11]

He married Isabella Hogg, daughter of Sir James Hogg, Bt, in 1848. Their children were:[12]

Marjoribanks was descended from James Marjoribanks, a younger son of Thomas Marjoribanks of Ratho, head of the lowland Clan Marjoribanks, both of whom lived in the 16th century in Edinburgh.[3][13]

References[edit]

  1. ^ “Golden Retriever”. dog-names.org.uk. Retrieved 19 September 2017. Golden Retriever History: Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, 1st Baron Tweedmouth (29 December 1820 – 4 March 1894), also known as the Laird of Guisachan and Glenaffric, is credited with developing the Golden Retriever at his Guisachan estate in the Scottish Highlands.
  2. ^ “Lairds of Glen Affric”. scotland.forestry.gov.uk. Forestry Commission. Retrieved 24 May 2016. The lairds (of Guisachan and Glenaffric, including the original Clan Chisholm and, later, Lord Tweedmouth) who controlled how land was managed in Affric have had a major influence on the look and life of the place…
  3. ^ a b Marjoribanks, Roger. “Marjoribanks of Lees”, The Marjoribanks Journal Number 3, p. 14, June 1995. Accessed on 22 May 2010
  4. ^ Foster, R. F, “Collectanea Generalis”, part 8, pp. 61-72
  5. ^ The Genealogist magazine, vol. 6, pp. 294-303
  6. ^ “Glen Affric”. 2019 Forestry and Land Scotland. Retrieved 30 August 2019. Sir Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, the first Lord Tweedmouth, was a rich Liberal MP who took a long lease on shooting rights over much of Glen Affric in 1846, paying £3,000 per year for the privilege: about £130,000 in today’s money
  7. ^ Scotland’s Lost Houses by Ian Gow
  8. ^ Golden Retrievers: History
  9. ^ Lord Tweedmouth Memorial
  10. ^ Golden Retrievers: History
  11. ^ Lord Tweedmouth’s Golden Retrievers
  12. ^ Pine, Leslie Gilbert, The New Extinct Peerage 1884-1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages With Genealogies and Arms. London: Heraldry Today, 1972, ISBN 9780900455230
  13. ^ Marjoribanks, Roger, Marjoribanks – A Rural Family in the Capital, The Scottish Genealogist, December 2010, Accessed 4 April 2012

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