\"8th Earl of Lauderdale\" James Maitland Signed Free Frank Dated 1817 For Sale

Up for sale a RARE! "8th Earl of Lauderdale" James Maitland Signed Free Frank Dated 1817.  

January 1759 – 10 September 1839) was Keeper of

the Great Seal of Scotland and a representative peer for Scotland in the House of Lords. Born at Haltoun House near Ratho,

the eldest son and heir of James

Maitland, 7th Earl of Lauderdale, whom he succeeded in 1789, he

became a controversial Scottish politician and writer. His tutor had been the

learned Dr. Andrew Dalzell and

James Maitland then attended the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, completing

his education in Paris where, it is said, he became radicalised. Upon his

return home in 1780, he was admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates and

successfully stood for election to parliament the same year. From 1780 until

1784 he was a member of parliament representing Newport and

from 1784 to 1789, Malmesbury.

In the House of Commons he

supported the prominent Whig Charles Fox and took an active part in debate and was one

of the managers of the Impeachment of Warren

Hastings. From 1789, in the House of Lords, where he was a representative peer for

Scotland, he was prominent as an opponent of the policy of William Pitt the Younger and

the English government with regard to France. He was a frequent speaker and

also distinguished himself by his active opposition to the Habeas

Corpus Suspension Act, the Sedition Bill, and other measures. Upon the

outbreak of the French Revolution, of which he was thought to be in sympathy,

he ostentatiously appeared in the house in the rough costume of Jacobinism. In

July 1792, he fought a bloodless duel with Benedict Arnold after impugning Arnold's honour in the

House of Lords. In 1792, in the company of John Moore,

Lord Lauderdale travelled again to France. The attack on the Tuileries and the imprisonment of King Louis XVI took place three days after the earl's arrival

in the French capital. After the massacres of 2 September, the British

ambassador having left Paris, the earl left Paris on the 4th for Calais. However, he returned to Paris the following month and

did not leave for London until 5 December. Upon his return from France, he

published a Journal during the residence in France from the beginning

of August to the middle of December 1792. According to the antiquarian Andrew Thomson, "James Maitland 8th Earl

of Lauderdale was known as 'Citizen Maitland'. An extremist, he was in Paris

during the French Revolution and

was a personal friend of Jean-Paul Marat. He rarely visited Scotland". The earl

had helped to found the British Society of the Friends of

the People in 1792. Upon the formation of the Grenville

administration in February 1806, Lauderdale was made a peer of the United Kingdom as Baron

Lauderdale of Thirlestane and sworn a member of the Privy Council. For a short time from July 1806 he was keeper

of the Great Seal of Scotland. On

2 August 1806 the earl, fully fluent in French, departed for France, invested

with full powers to conclude peace, the negotiations for which had been for

several weeks carried on by the Earl of Yarmouth. Arriving on the 5th he and Yarmouth set

about the arduous task of treating with Napoleon and Tallyrand. Yarmouth was recalled on the 14th and Lauderdale

was left alone. Following the renewal of hostilities he left Paris for London

on 9 October. A full account of the progress and termination of the

negotiations appeared in the London Gazette of 21 October 1806. After acting as

the leader of the Whigs in Scotland,

Lauderdale became a Tory and voted against the Reform Bill of 1832. Lord Lauderdale was made a Privy

Counsellor in 1806 and a Knight of the Thistle in

1821. In 1672 on the death of the Earl of Dundee, the Duke of Lauderdale was

appointed Hereditary Bearer for the Sovereign of the Standard of Scotland, and

this right was retained by his heirs until 1910.In 1790, James Maitland, 8th

Earl of Lauderdale matriculated arms in the character of Hereditary Bearer for

the Sovereign of the Standard of Scotland and Hereditary Bearer for the

Sovereign of the National Flag of Scotland. In 1952 after a meeting with the

Earls of Lauderdale and Dundee the Lord Lyon advised the Queen to confirm the Earl of

Lauderdale's right to bear the saltire as the Bearer

of the National Flag of Scotland, and to confirm that the Earl of Dundee as the Bearer of the Royal

Banner bears the Royal

Standard of the lion rampant.