Go To Section
MONTGOMERIE, John (1680-1731), of Giffen, Ayr.
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Biography Detail
Related Resources
Constituency
Dates
Family and Education
bap. 11 Sept. 1680,1 1st s. of Hon. Francis Montgomerie, M.P., P.C. [S], of Giffen (2nd s. of Hugh, 7th Earl of Eglintoun [S]) by his 2nd w. Elizabeth, da. of Sir Robert Sinclair, 1st Bt., M.P. [S], of Longformacus, Berwick, and wid. of Sir James Primrose of Barnbougle, Linlithgow. educ. Glasgow 1694. m. (contract 28 Sept. 1704) Lady Mary Carmichael, da. of John, 1st Earl of Hyndford [S], 1da. suc. fa. bef. Jan. 1729.
Offices Held
Master of the mint [S] 1710-d.; groom of the bedchamber to the Prince of Wales 1714-27; gov. New York and New Jersey 1727-d.
Capt.-lt. 3 Ft. Gds. 1715-17, capt. and lt.-col. 1723; left army by 1727.
Biography
Returned as a Whig on the interest of a first cousin, the 9th Earl of Eglintoun, Montgomerie entered the service of the Prince of Wales at George I’s accession. In 1715 he obtained a company in the guards, which he lost in 1717 for voting against the Government in the debate on the charges of corruption against Lord Cadogan.2 He voted for the repeal of the Occasional Conformity and Schism Acts but against the peerage bill in 1719, when he was put down as to be spoken to by the Duke of Argyll. He figures in the list of Members found by the secret committee on the South Sea bubble in 1721 to have accepted stock from the Company while the South Sea bill was before Parliament but he was able to show that the transaction was a bona fide one, for which he had given security.3 He owed his promotion in 1723 to the Prince of Wales, who ‘sent for Cadogan and spoke for John Montgomery, whereupon he altered a whole scheme of promotions he had before settled’.4 About 1725 financial difficulties forced him to sell his estate to Sir John Anstruther. In 1727 he gave up his seat to become governor of New York, where he died 1 July 1731.
