David Dundas (solicitor)

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Sir David Dundas, 2nd Baronet QC (17991877) was a Scottish lawyer and Liberal politician.

Dundas was educated at Westminster School and at Christ Church, Oxford. He was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple in 1823, and appointed Queen's Counsel in February 1840.

He was elected to represent Sutherland in Parliament as a Liberal in March 1840. In July 1846 he was appointed Solicitor General for England and Wales. At the time, it was the normal practice that accepting ministerial office caused a by-election; he was re-elected on July 28th. In February 1846 he was knighted, a traditional perquisite of the office, but he resigned the position in March 1848 due to ill-health and returned to the backbenches. In May 1849 he was appointed Judge Advocate General, again re-elected in a by-election on 5th June, and made a member of the Privy Council on June 29th.

He retired from politics in the 1852 general election, and was succeeded by the Marquess of Stafford, also a Liberal.

In retirement he lived and worked in his chambers at the Inner Temple; among other work, he served as a Trustee of the British Museum. His retirement from politics was not permanent; when Stafford was elevated to the House of Lords in March 1861 on becoming the third Duke of Sutherland, Dundas returned to Parliament. He stood down again in May 1867, being succeeded by Lord Ronald Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, the Duke's younger brother.

[edit] References

  • Oliver & Boyd's new Edinburgh almanac and national repository for the year 1850. Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh, 1850
  • Gordon Goodwin, "Dundas, Sir David (1799–1877)", rev. H. C. G. Matthew, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 11 July 2006
  • Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
William Howard
Member of Parliament for Sutherland
1840–1852
Succeeded by
The Marquess of Stafford
Preceded by
The Marquess of Stafford
Member of Parliament for Sutherland
1861–1867
Succeeded by
Lord Ronald Sutherland-Leveson-Gower
Political offices
Preceded by
John Jervis
Solicitor-General
1846–1848
Succeeded by
Sir John Romilly
Preceded by
William Goodenough Hayter
Judge Advocate General
1849–1852
Succeeded by
George Bankes