Family and Education

b. 1732, 1st s. of Robert Barclay of Urie by Une, da. of Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel. m. (1) June 1756, his cos. Lucy (d. Mar. 1757), da. of David Barclay, linen draper, of Cheapside, London, 1da; (2) Dec. 1776, Sarah Anne, da. and h. of James Allardice of Allardice, Kincardine (div. Sept. 1793), 3s. 5da.1 suc. fa. 1760.

Offices Held

Biography

This Member was the great-grandson of Robert Barclay, the Quaker ‘Apologist’ and colonizer of East New Jersey, and was connected by kinship and marriage with a number of wealthy London merchant families including Barclays the brewers. By his second marriage he acquired large estates and additional interest in Kincardineshire and Aberdeen Burghs,2 and thereafter was known as Barclay Allardice of Urie and Allardice. ‘Possessed of an enterprising spirit and extensive knowledge in agriculture, which he acquired by reading ... and by his own observations in the different tours which he made on foot in his younger years through Scotland and a great part of England’,3 he was a pioneer of the new farming methods in the county. A popular and philanthropic landlord, he laid out a new village adjoining Stonehaven,4 and during the famine of 1783 organized ‘a benevolent society for purchasing meal and grain to be retailed at an underprice’.5 In 1785 his wife’s claim for recognition as heir of line to her ancestor the Earl of Airth and Menteith, was successful and thereafter Barclay’s ‘great object’ was to secure the peerage for his family.6

In 1788 Barclay was returned with the support of Henry Dundas, and voted with Pitt on the Regency bill. He is not known to have spoken in the House.

He died 8 Apr. 1797.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: Edith Lady Haden-Guest

Notes

• 1. Barclay Allardice mss, SRO.
• 2. Barclay Allardice mss. 208.
• 3. Statistical Account, xii. 598.
• 4. Ibid. 598-60; xvii. 387.
• 5. Ibid. vi. 211.
• 6. Ms. notes, Barclay Allardice mss; Scots Peerage, i. 144; Adam, Pol. State Scotland 1788, p. 184.