Lot 190
Documents Relating to the Marriage of Elizabeth, Dowager Duchess of Hamilton and Brandon with Colonel John Campbell
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photography
Auction: 31 August 2016 at 12:00 BST
Description
Ms. Marriage contract between Colonel John Campbell, afterwards 5th Duke of Argyll and Elizabeth, Duchess of Argyll, née Gunning, dated 2 March 1759, 9 pages, and other Ms., either pasted in or loosely inserted. Folio, c. 1900 full red polished morocco, by Rivière and Son, original "Dutch" patterned wrappers bound in
Footnote
Note: The Duchess was born Elizabeth Gunning (1733-1790), one of a pair of Irish sisters whose beauty took English society by storm in the early 1750s. On 14 February 1752 the teenage Elizabeth secretly married James 6th Duke of Hamilton and 3rd Duke of Brandon; he died aged 33 in January 1758, leaving Elizabeth a widow, not yet twenty-five years old, with three young children (the 7th and future 8th Dukes of Hamilton and a daughter, Elizabeth). The bridegroom, Colonel John Campbell, in 1759 may have been without a title, but his father, also John, was heir presumptive to the elderly Archibald, 3rd Duke of Argyll, and the groom was the eldest son, so a dukedom was expected in time.
Elizabeth's son's, George James, claim to be heir of Archibald, Duke of Douglas, on the Duke's death in 1761, gave rise to one of the longest law suits known in Scottish legal history at that time. The celebrated 'Douglas Cause' ultimately ended in the House of Lords overturning the original decision by the Court of Session in George James's favour.
The marriage contract is signed at the foot of each page by the bride on the left, and, at the bottom right, the groom, his father and brother Frederick. The last page is also signed by the witnesses: the Duke of Argyll, John Ross Mackye, Sir Henry Bellenden (Usher of the Black Rod and the groom's maternal uncle), and George Ross, the London lawyer who drew up the contract and whose clerk, Hugh Robertson, wrote it. The first three folios are each impressed with embossed tax stamps for 1/6d.
The contract outlines the financial provisions to be made to the Duchess: she is to receive an annuity of £800 per annum in the event of the groom's death, and the document outlines how this sum is to be raised and gives guarantees that it will be paid in various family circumstances. She is also to receive a lump son of £2000 on the occasion of her husband's death; and there are details of her rights to moveable property. The document details payment by the groom's father, when he becomes Duke, to his son of £2,000 per annum, and the handing over of Argyll property at Roseneath, whose income is to be part of the £2,000. The bride is to make over to the groom the income of certain Hamilton properties of which she currently has control (for example the barony of Kinneil) according to her Hamilton marriage contract of 15 September 1752.
Pasted into the album immediately after the contract is a document in the same hand, undated but probably early March 1759, concerning money owed to James Masterton by the brothers John and Frederick Campbell. Following this is another contemporary document part printed, part manuscript, also relating to money owed by John Campbell to James Masterton. The exact relationship, if any, between these two documents and the marriage contract is unclear.
Next is a short pasted-in document relating to the Roseneath details of the marriage contract. This is partly in the hand of the groom's father, and partly in the hand of the head of the Campbells, Archibald 3rd Duke of Argyll. The last document pasted into the album is a copy of this document, dated 21 March 1764[?], written and signed by the lawyer, George Ross. Pasted in at the front of the album is a third version of this document in the hand of the groom's younger brother Frederick, dated 21 March 1764. This notes who wrote the original, and certifies its authenticity. Frederick was by now Lord Frederick Campbell (he was to become Lord Clerk Registrar of Scotland in 1768 until his death in 1816) and the groom Marquis of Lorne, his father having become 4th Duke of Argyll in 1761.
Loosely inserted into the folder is a much later copy of the contract and two copies of a related document, in the same hand as the contract itself. These last documents are unsigned, and undated, although one has tax stamps. One is endorsed "Copy Obligation for an Additional Annuity of £700 from Lieut. General John Campbell, Col. John Campbell, Mr Frederick Campbell and Mr William Campbell In favour of Her Grace Elizabeth Duchess of Hamilton and Brandon". There is also a much later copy of this document.