John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute

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John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute
John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute

John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute KT (12 September 1847 – 9 October 1900, landed aristocrat, industrial magnate, antiquarian, scholar, philanthropist and architectural patron.

The 3rd Marquess was born at the family seat of Mount Stuart, on the Isle of Bute in Scotland, to John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute and Sophia Rawdon-Hastings (daughter of Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings). The Crichton-Stuarts were illegitimate off-spring of the Scottish royal House of Stuart, ennobled in the 17th century. The foundations of the family's fortunes were laid by John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, Prime Minister to George the Third, 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, out-stripped his father by marrying two heiresses, Charlotte Hickman, daughter of the 2nd Viscount Windsor, and Frances Coutts, of the Coutts banking dynasty. By his first marriage, the Marquess fathered John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute, the founder of modern Cardiff 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. 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 and Christ Church, Oxford. 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; 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.

The Marquess's vast range of interests; religion, medievalism, the occult, architecture, travelling, linguistics, 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 that creates his lasting memorial.

In 1865, the Marquess met William Burges and the two embarked on an architectural partnership that 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, if not the very finest, creations of the late Victorian era Gothic Revival, Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch. 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.

The Marquess was involved in a notable trust law case, reported on appeal in 1892 called Re Cardiff Savings Bank [1892] 2 Ch 100. The Marquess had been anointed onto the board of directors of the Cardiff Savings Bank from infancy, as a way to raise the bank's profile. When it went insolvent following a fellow director's fraudulent dealing, Stirling J held that the Marquess had no duty of care to ensure the other directors were acting properly. This case is held up as one example of the bad old subjective standard of care that directors had, in that any old body, even a kid could be entrusted with the serious matter of running a company. Luckily for the Marquess however, the case against him failed.

Bute died in 1900 and was buried in a small chapel on the Isle of Bute, his ancestral home. His heart was buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.

John Patrick Crichton-Stuart married Gwendolen Fitzalan-Howard (daughter of Edward Fitzalan-Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Glossop) in 1872 and had four children:

[edit] See also

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

[edit] External links

Academic offices
Preceded by
The Marquess of Dufferin and Ava		 Rector of the University of St Andrews
1892–1898		 Succeeded by
James Stuart
Honorary titles
Preceded by
Unknown		 Lord Lieutenant of Buteshire
1892–1900		 Succeeded by
Andrew Murray
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by
John Crichton-Stuart		 Marquess of Bute
1848–1900		 Succeeded by
John Crichton-Stuart