(1691 - 1740) of Cromlix, 3rd s. of 7th E. of Kinnoull [S]; attainted 1716; m. 1715 Hon. Marjory Murray (d. 1768), dau. of 5th Vct. Stormont [S]; cr. E. of Inverness [J] 1718, and D. of Inverness [J] 1727; KT [J] 1725; acting sec. of state [J] 1724 - 7.
1717 - 27 Rome (1717 - 27), Pisa (1727)
1730 - 1 Rome (1730), Pisa (Mar. 1731), Leghorn (Apr.)
1736 Rome ( - 24 Jul.)
1740 Rome (Jun.), Leghorn ( - Oct.)
1749 Rome (Lady Inverness only)
A Protestant Jacobite of the Pretender's inner court, John Hay arrived at Rome from Paris on 26 May 1717; by the 28th he had kissed the Pope's foot (and had found the Pontiff 'a very good jolly man').1 The Pretender told the 6th Earl of Mar (Hay's brother-in-law) that he was 'extremely satisfied with him', and that it was 'a pleasure to be attended by such a one'.2 Hay was listed in Italy in December 1717 and in January/February 1718 was made one of the Pretender's grooms of the bedchamber.3 In 1718 the Pretender made him Earl of Inverness, and Mrs Hay, described by Lockhart as 'a mere cocquet, tollerably handsome, but withall, prodigiouslie vain and arrogant',4 attended the Princess Clementina in Rome.5 Mrs Hay visited France in 1724.6
In 1725 Hay succeeded Mar as the Pretender's secretary and chief adviser. He was made KT, and he and his wife then exerted considerable influence within the factious Jacobite court. 'Mrs Haye', wrote Colman, 'had so absolute a power with the Pretender, that everything was disposed of in the way she would have it',6 and her husband was described as 'cunning, false, avaricious ... altogether void of experience in business'.4 Mrs Hay sat to Trevisani (priv. coll.). They were eventually dismissed from the Pretender's service at the instigation of the Princess Clementina in 1727, but the Pretender then further created Hay Duke of Inverness.
They retired to Avignon, where they became Catholics. They returned to Rome in 17307 and were in Pisa in March 1731, leaving for France from Leghorn the following month.8 Hay visited Rome again in 1736, but returned to Avignon where he had bought an estate on 24 July.9 He died at Avignon in 1740.(10) Lady Inverness had come to Rome in June 1740 and left Leghorn in October 'to look after the effects of her late husband'.(11) Later she was in Rome in 1749, but lived principally with her brother (see Hon. James Murray) at Avignon, where Boswell saw her in 1765.(12)
1. HMC Stuart, 4:289. 2. Ibid., 317, 446. 3. Ibid., 5:526, 603; 6:606. 4. Lockhart Papers, 2:340. 5. Tayler 1938, 28. 6. Rawlinson jnl.MSS (7 Aug. 1724). SP 92/31, f.390 (Molesworth, 9 Sep. 1724). 6. SP 98/27 (24 Nov. 1725). 7. Tayler 1938, 28. 8. SP 98/26 (Skinner, 10 Mar., 4 Apr. 1731). 9. SP 98/37, f.386 (Walton, 4 Aug. 1736). 10. Tayler 1938, 31. 11. SP 98/43, f.50 (Walton, 11 Jun. 1740). SP 98/44 (Florence Newsletter, 14 Oct. 1740). See also Wal.Corr., 17:28. 12. See F. McLynn, Charles Edward Stuart, 375. Boswell, Italy, 262 - 6.