THE ARMS OF HUME-CAMPBELL EARLS OF MARCHMONT AND LORDS OF POLWARTH FOB SEAL
LATE 18TH CENTURY
£945
Scottish Works of Art & Whisky
Auction: 16 August 2023 at 11:00 BST
Description
the oval carnelian matrix with arms of Hume-Campbell, for Alexander Hume Campbell, 2nd Earl of Marchmont and Lord Polwarth (1675-1740), the domed mount with foliate engraved detail, to a scroll surmount with shell detail and a suspension loop
Dimensions
3.5cm overall, matrix: 2.1cm x 2cm
Footnote
Heraldry:
Arms:
Quarterly 1st Gyronny of eight or and sable (for Campbell) 2nd and 3rd Grandquarters Quarterly 1st Vert a lion rampant argent (for Hume) 2nd Argent three papingoes vert (for Pepdie) 3rd Gules three piles engrailed argent (for Polwarth) 4th Argent a cross engrailed azure (for St Clair of Herdmanston) over all on an escutcheon azure an orange with the stalk erect slipped and over it an Imperial Crown all proper and 4th Gyronny of eight ermine and gules (for Campbell of Loudoun)
Motto: Constanter et prudenter [Firmly and prudently]
Note:
Upon an examination of the matrix as there are no incidents of peerage shown (in this case an earl’s coronet ensigning the arms) this fob seal probably dates from between 1697 and 1724. These dates encompass the marriage of Alexander Hume (born 1675 and died 27th February 1740) to Margaret Campbell of Cessnock (died 1722). The earlier date being the year Alexander married Margaret, whilst the later date is the year when he succeeded his father as the 2nd Earl of Marchmont and 3rd Lord Polwarth in 1724. Alexander was the third but eldest surviving son of Patrick Hume, the 1st Earl of Marchmont and his wife, Grisel Ker of Cavers,3 whilst Margaret was the daughter and heiress of Sir George Campbell of Cessnock4 in the County of Ayrshire and his wife, Anna McMouran. Upon his marriage to Margaret, Alexander assumed the additional arms and surname of Campbell as Hume-Campbell hence the marshalling of arms engraved upon the matrix of this seal fob.
Alexander was by profession a lawyer having been educated in the law at Utrecht University and became an advocate in 1696. He was later appointed to the Court of Session in Edinburgh in 1704 with the judicial title Lord Cessnock and served at the Court for some ten years until 1714. He was a Commissioner to the Parliament of Scotland for Berwickshire in 1706 and had supported the Union with England. From 1716 to 1733 he served as Lord Clerk Register.5 Alexander also acted as a diplomat being the British ambassador to Denmark from 1715 to 1721, and to the Congress at Cambray in 1722. Although he inherited his father’s peerages in 1724, he served as a Scottish representative peer in the House of Lords at Westminster from 1727 to 1734.
Alexander was also one of the founding governors of the Foundling Hospital in London which was founded by Thomas Coram in 1739. He was succeeded in his peerages by his eldest son, Hugh Hume-Campbell, as the 3rd Earl of Marchmont and 4th Lord Polwarth (born 15th February 1708 and died 10th January 1794). Upon Hugh’s death in 1794, the Earldom of Marchmont fell into extinction or, perhaps, dormancy, whilst the Lordship of Polwarth descends to the present day through the line of Hugh’s third daughter, Lady Diana Hume-Campbell (de jure 5th Lady Polwarth) who married Walter Scott of Harden in the County of Roxburghshire in 1754.