John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute
Encyclopedia
John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute KT, KSG, KGCHS
Order of the Holy Sepulchre
The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem is a Roman Catholic order of knighthood under the protection of the pope. It traces its roots to Duke Godfrey of Bouillon, principal leader of the First Crusade...

 (12 September 1847 – 9 October 1900) was a landed aristocrat
Aristocracy
Aristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...

, industrial magnate
Magnate
Magnate, from the Late Latin magnas, a great man, itself from Latin magnus 'great', designates a noble or other man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or other qualities...

, antiquarian
Antiquarian
An antiquarian or antiquary is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient objects of art or science, archaeological and historic sites, or historic archives and manuscripts...

, scholar, philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...

 and architectural patron
Patrón
Patrón is a luxury brand of tequila produced in Mexico and sold in hand-blown, individually numbered bottles.Made entirely from Blue Agave "piñas" , Patrón comes in five varieties: Silver, Añejo, Reposado, Gran Patrón Platinum and Gran Patrón Burdeos. Patrón also sells a tequila-coffee blend known...

.

Early life

The 3rd Marquess was born at the family seat of Mount Stuart
Mount Stuart House
Mount Stuart House on the east coast of the Isle of Bute, Scotland is a Neo-Gothic country house with extensive gardens. Mount Stuart was designed by Sir Robert Rowand Anderson for the 3rd Marquess of Bute in the late 1870s, to replace an earlier house by Alexander McGill, which burnt down in...

, on the Isle of Bute
Isle of Bute
Bute is an island in the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. Formerly part of the county of Buteshire, it now constitutes part of the council area of Argyll and Bute. Its resident population was 7,228 in April 2001.-Geography:...

 in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, to John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute
John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute
John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute, KT, FRS was the son of John, Lord Mount Stuart and the former Lady Elizabeth McDouall-Crichton...

 and Sophia Rawdon-Hastings (daughter of Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings
Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings
Francis Edward Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings KG PC , styled The Honourable Francis Rawdon from birth until 1762 and as The Lord Rawdon between 1762 and 1783 and known as The Earl of Moira between 1793 and 1816, was an Irish-British politician and military officer who served as...

). The Crichton-Stuarts were illegitimate offspring of the Scottish royal House of Stuart
House of Stuart
The House of Stuart is a European royal house. Founded by Robert II of Scotland, the Stewarts first became monarchs of the Kingdom of Scotland during the late 14th century, and subsequently held the position of the Kings of Great Britain and Ireland...

, ennobled in the 17th century. The foundations of the family's fortunes were laid by John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute
John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute
John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute KG, PC , styled Lord Mount Stuart before 1723, was a Scottish nobleman who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain under George III, and was arguably the last important favourite in British politics...

, Prime Minister to George III, who married an heiress, Mary Wortley-Montagu, and attained great political prominence, although this was not accompanied by great political success. His son, John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute
John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute
John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute, PC, FRS was a British nobleman.He was the son of the 3rd Earl of Bute and the former Mary Wortley Montagu, a granddaughter of the 1st Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull and great-granddaughter of the 1st Earl of Sandwich...

, out-stripped his father by marrying two heiresses, Charlotte Hickman, daughter of the 2nd Viscount Windsor
Viscount Windsor
Viscount Windsor is a title that has been created twice. The first creation came in the Peerage of Ireland in 1699 when the Hon. Thomas Windsor was made Viscount Windsor, of Blackcastle. He was the younger son of Thomas Hickman-Windsor, 1st Earl of Plymouth, and notably represented Droitwich,...

, and Frances Coutts, of the Coutts
Coutts
Coutts & Co. is one of the UK's private banking houses, now wholly owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland . RBS acquired Coutts and all of its overseas subsidiaries when it bought NatWest. On 1 January 2008, Coutts' international businesses were renamed RBS Coutts, aligning them more closely with...

 banking dynasty. By his first marriage, the Marquess fathered John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute
John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute
John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute, KT, FRS was the son of John, Lord Mount Stuart and the former Lady Elizabeth McDouall-Crichton...

, the founder of modern Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

 and father of the 3rd Marquess. The 2nd Marquess was a far-sighted early industrialist and began, at great financial risk, the development of Cardiff as a port to export the mineral wealth of the South Wales Valleys
South Wales Valleys
The South Wales Valleys are a number of industrialised valleys in South Wales, stretching from eastern Carmarthenshire in the west to western Monmouthshire in the east and from the Heads of the Valleys in the north to the lower-lying, pastoral country of the Vale of Glamorgan and the coastal plain...

. Accumulating great debts and mortgages on his, admittedly, vast estates, the Marquess rightly foresaw the potential of Cardiff, telling his concerned solicitor in 1844, "I am willing to think well of my income in the distance." The following fifty years saw his faith triumphantly vindicated but the ensuing riches were to be enjoyed, and spent, by his son, rather than himself.



The 2nd Marquess died in 1848 and John Patrick Crichton-Stuart acceded to the Marquessate at only sixth months old. He was educated at Harrow School
Harrow School
Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...

 and Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...

. Here he came under the influence of the advanced section of the Anglican Church, whose tenets his keen and logical intellect quickly saw to be inconsistent with non-communion with the Catholic Church. Bute's letters to one of his very few intimate friends during his Oxford career show with what conscientious care he worked out the religious question for himself. On the 8th of December, 1868, he was received into the Church by Monsignor Capel
Thomas John Capel
Monsignor Thomas John Capel was born in Ireland on 28 October 1836 and died in Sacramento CA 23 October 1911.He was something of a celebrity in Victorian England famous for his high profile conversions to Catholicism, however various scandals caused him to be sent to the United States and further...

 at a convent in Southwark
Southwark
Southwark is a district of south London, England, and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Southwark. Situated east of Charing Cross, it forms one of the oldest parts of London and fronts the River Thames to the north...

, and a little later was confirmed by Pius IX, in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

. At a young age, it was apparent that Bute's interests lay in the scholastic, religious and antiquarian spheres and his father's accumulated wealth was to give him the means to indulge those interests on a stupendous scale. But it would be entirely wrong to view the 3rd Marquess as a dilettante
Amateur
An amateur is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science, without pay and often without formal training....

; his interests were serious, scholarly and profound. His serious and committed outlook led to a sensational public scandal when he converted to Roman Catholicism in 1868. His conversion was the inspiration for Benjamin Disraeli's novel, Lothair
Lothair (novel)
Lothair was the first novel written by Benjamin Disraeli after his first term as Prime Minister. It deals with the comparative merits of the Catholic and Anglican churches as heirs of Judaism, and with the topical question of Italian unification...

.

Interests

The Marquess's vast range of interests; religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

, medievalism
Medievalism
Medievalism is the system of belief and practice characteristic of the Middle Ages, or devotion to elements of that period, which has been expressed in areas such as architecture, literature, music, art, philosophy, scholarship, and various vehicles of popular culture.Since the 18th century, a...

, the occult
Occult
The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...

, architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

, travelling, linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

, philanthropy; filled his relatively short life. A prolific writer, bibliophile and traveller, as well as, somewhat reluctantly, a businessman, his energies were on a monumentally Victorian scale. But at a distance, just over one hundred years from his death, it is his architectural patronage
Patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors...

 that creates his lasting memorial.

In 1865, the Marquess met William Burges
William Burges (architect)
William Burges was an English architect and designer. Amongst the greatest of the Victorian art-architects, Burges sought in his work an escape from 19th century industrialisation and a return to the values, architectural and social, of an imagined mediaeval England...

 and the two embarked on an architectural partnership, the results of which long outlasted Burges' own death in 1881. Bute's desires and money, allied with Burges' fantastical imagination and skill led to the creation of two of the finest creations of the late Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 Gothic Revival, Cardiff Castle
Cardiff Castle
Cardiff Castle is a medieval castle and Victorian architecture Gothic revival mansion, transformed from a Norman keep erected over a Roman fort in the Castle Quarter of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. The Castle is a Grade I Listed Building.-The Roman fort:...

 and Castell Coch
Castell Coch
Castell Coch is a 19th-century Gothic Revival castle built on the remains of a genuine 13th-century fortification. It is situated on a steep hillside high above the village of Tongwynlais, to the north of Cardiff in Wales, and is a Grade I listed building as of 28 January 1963.Designed by William...

. The two buildings represent both the potential of colossal industrial wealth and the desire to escape the scene of that wealth's creation. The theme recurs again and again in the huge outpouring of Bute's patronage, in chapels, castle, abbeys, universities and palaces.

Patronage

The Marquess's patronage was extensive, with a particular enthusiasm for buildings of religion and academia. Whilst Rector of the University of St Andrews
Rector of the University of St Andrews
The Lord Rector of the University of St Andrews is a university official chosen every three years by the students of the University of St Andrews...

, he provided the University with a new home for its Medical School
Bute Medical School
The University of St Andrews School of Medicine is the school of medicine at the University of St Andrews in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland; it used to be known as the 'Bute Medical School' until the 2010–2011 academic year...

 and endowed the Bute Chair of Medicine. At the University of Glasgow
University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...

, he gifted the funds required to complete the University's huge central hall, named the Bute Hall in his honour, and he is commemorated both at the University's Commemoration Day and on its Memorial Gates
University of Glasgow Memorial Gates
The Memorial Gates at the University of Glasgow were erected in 1952 as a celebration of the University's quincentenary, or five hundredth anniversary. They form a portal through the University Avenue side of the perimeter fence around the University's original site on Gilmorehill...

.

The Marquess of Bute's Case

The Marquess was involved in a notable company law case, known as "the Marquess of Bute's Case", reported on appeal in 1892, called Re Cardiff Savings Bank
Re Cardiff Savings Bank
Re Cardiff Savings Bank [1892] 2 Ch 100, often called the Marquess of Bute's case is a UK company law case, concerning the duty of care owed by members of the board...

[1892] 2 Ch 100. The Marquess had been appointed to the board of directors of the Cardiff Savings Bank as "President", at the age of six months, in effect inheriting the office from his father. He only attended one board meeting in the next 38 years. When the bank went insolvent following a fellow director's fraudulent dealing, Stirling J held that the Marquess was not liable as he knew nothing of what was going on. It was not suggested that he ought to have known what was going on, and had a duty of care to inform himself as to the affairs of the bank. The case set a famous legal precedent, now superseded, for the minimal view of the duties of company directors. It was naturally a considerable embarrassment for the Marquess, despite escaping legal blame.

Family life

John Patrick Crichton-Stuart married Gwendolen Fitzalan-Howard (daughter of Edward Fitzalan-Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Glossop
Edward Fitzalan-Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Glossop
Edward George Fitzalan-Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Glossop PC , styled Lord Edward Howard between 1842 and 1869, was a British Liberal politician...

) in 1872 and had four children:
  • Lady Margaret Crichton-Stuart (24 December 1875 – 6 June 1964)
  • John Crichton-Stuart, 4th Marquess of Bute
    John Crichton-Stuart, 4th Marquess of Bute
    John Crichton-Stuart, 4th Marquess of Bute KT was a Scottish peer, the son of John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute....

     (20 June 1881 – 16 May 1947)
  • Lt.-Col. Lord Ninian Edward Crichton-Stuart (15 May 1883 – 2 October 1915)
  • Lord Colum Edmund Crichton-Stuart
    Colum Edmund Crichton-Stuart
    Lord Colum Edmund Crichton-Stuart was a British Conservative Party politician. He served as Member of Parliament for the Northwich constituency in Cheshire from 1922 to 1945....

     (3 April 1886 – 18 August 1957)

Death

Bute died in 1900 and was buried in a small chapel on the Isle of Bute
Isle of Bute
Bute is an island in the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. Formerly part of the county of Buteshire, it now constitutes part of the council area of Argyll and Bute. Its resident population was 7,228 in April 2001.-Geography:...

, his ancestral home. His heart was buried
Heart-burial
Heart-burial is a type of burial in which the heart is interred apart from the body. This is a very ancient practice, and the special reverence shown towards the heart is doubtless due to its early association with the soul, affections, courage and conscience of man.In medieval Europe heart-burial...

 on the Mount of Olives
Mount of Olives
The Mount of Olives is a mountain ridge in East Jerusalem with three peaks running from north to south. The highest, at-Tur, rises to 818 meters . It is named for the olive groves that once covered its slopes...

 in Jerusalem.

See also

  • Re Cardiff Savings Bank
    Re Cardiff Savings Bank
    Re Cardiff Savings Bank [1892] 2 Ch 100, often called the Marquess of Bute's case is a UK company law case, concerning the duty of care owed by members of the board...

    [1892] 2 Ch 100, a case where the Marquis was charged with negligence in his place on the board of a bank.
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