David Leslie-Melville, 3rd Earl of Leven and 2nd Earl of Melville (5 May 1660 – 6 June 1728) was a Scots aristocrat, politician, and soldier.
The third son of George Melville, 1st Earl of Melville and his second wife Catherine Leslie-Melville, he shared the Whig political and the Presbyterian religious sympathies of his father.
In 1681, with the death of the rival claimant, John Leslie, 1st Duke of Rothes, he was permitted to enter into the Earldom of Leven.
In 1683 Leven and his father were suspected of complicity in the Rye House Plot, a Whig conspiracy to assassinate Charles II and his brother James, Duke of York. To escape arrest they fled to the Netherlands where they joined the band of British Protestant exiles at the court of Prince William of Orange.
Here Leven was used by William to obtain the support of German princes for his invasion of England in 1688, Leven himself having raised a regiment for that invasion, in the course of which he received the surrender of the town of Plymouth in south Devonshire.
In 1706 he was appointed as one of the Commissioners for the Union of England and Scotland. Privy Councillor [S] 1689; fought at the Battle of Killiecrankie 1689; Constable of Edinburgh Castle 1689-1702 and 1704–12; a Commissioner for the Pacification of the Highlands 1689; a Commissioner of the Scottish Exchequer 1689; Governor of the Bank of Scotland 1697-1728; Brig General 1702; Maj General 1704; Master of the Scottish Ordnance 1705; Commander in Chief of the forces in Scotland 1706; Lieut General 1707; a Commissioner for the Union 1707; one of the original Representative Peers for Scotland 1707-10; dismissed from all offices 1712[1]
He succeeded his father as Earl of Melville 20 May 1707.
| Peerage of Scotland | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Alexander Leslie |
Earl of Leven 1681 – 1728 |
Succeeded by David Melville |
| Preceded by George Melville |
Earl of Melville 1707 – 1728 |
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