Patrick Stewart, 2nd Earl of Orkney

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Patrick Stewart, 2nd Earl of Orkney and Lord of Zetland (Shetland) (b. c1569 – d. 1614) was the son of Robert Stewart, 1st Earl of Orkney.

In his youth Patrick Stewart was a good friend of James VI; however, their relations became strained in the 1590s after Lord Patrick succeeded his father as Earl of Orkney. In 1600, after receiving confirmation of his lordship of Zetland, Earl Patrick built Scalloway Castle at Scalloway in the Shetland Islands to strengthen his control there against the position of Laurence Bruce, who had been appointed Sheriff of Shetland by his half brother, the deceased Earl Robert. In 1607 Earl Patrick began the construction of the Earl's Palace in Kirkwall, the capital of the Orkney Islands.

Earl Patrick's financial mismanagement and his brutality against the local population led to opposition from Laurence Bruce and others. A force was sent against him in Scalloway and took him prisoner back to Edinburgh. There he was convicted of the charge of treason and beheaded in 1614. While he was in prison, Earl Patrick's son Robert led an armed rebellion in Kirkwall. Lord Robert was defeated and executed, and the earldom was forfeit to the crown, but was recreated in 1696 for George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney, the husband of Elizabeth Villiers, recently discarded mistress of King William III.