(1698 - 1778), s. of 2nd D. of Queensberry [S]; suc. fa. 1711 as 3rd D.; m. 1720 Ldy. Catherine Hyde, dau. of 4th E. of Clarendon; FRS 1722.
1717 - 18 Padua (by 7 Nov. - 2 Dec. 1717), Venice (by 10 Dec. 1717 - 3 Mar. 1718), Loreto, Rome, Naples (by 1 Apr.), Rome (by 6 Apr. - Aug.)
While the Duke of Queensberry was in Italy with his Scottish tutor, George Barclay (presumably the 'worthy old' Scot who was to attend Norborne Berkeley in Italy in 1736 - 8), he was much courted by the Jacobites, apparently without success. In November 1717 the Earl of Mar was trying to meet him in Padua;1 he had written a long letter to Queensberry from Venice on 7 November, urging the Jacobite cause on one whom he had known since childhood,2 but Barclay replied the next day from Padua explaining that Queensberry's 'age and want of experience make him ordinarily and wisely silent, but not without some resentment of what he and some of his friends have met with'.3 Queensberry (and Barclay) were at Padua on 2 December,4 and had arrived in Venice by 10 December.5 While he was there the libretto of Michel Angelo Gasparini's Arsace was dedicated to him.6 He left on 3 March to go to Rome via Loreto.7 On 1 April he was reported in Naples,8 but five days later he had met the Earl of Mar in Rome.9 On 27 May Alexander Cunningham said he was still in Rome, and was to have an audience with the Pope.(10)
In June one of Lord Linton's Italian servants 'barbarously killed' a Scottish servant of Queensberry's.(11) The masters remained friendly, according to the Jacobite Francis Panton, who described the incident in a letter to the Earl of Mar: Panton thought Queensberry 'a fine gentleman' who probably had Jacobite sympathies.(12) William Kent met Queensberry in Rome and said he drew 'very prettely', and by 16 August 1718 Kent had painted for him a Venus and Aeneas with life-sized figures.(13) Queensberry was then still in Rome, but by the end of September he and Barclay were expected in Lyons.14 Meanwhile it was mistakenly announced that Queensberry was back in London on the 29 August.15
1. SP 99/61, f.423 (Cunningham, 26 Nov. 1717). 2. HMC Stuart, 5:182 - 4. 3. Ibid., 186. 4. Brown 1555, 1557. 5. SP 99/61, f.439 (Cunningham, 10 Dec. 1717). 6. HMC Stuart, 5:351 - 2. Gibson 1987, 147 - 8, and 1989, 77. 7. SP 99/62, f.27 (Cunningham, 4 Mar. 1718). 8. Ibid., f.37 (1 Apr. 1718). 9. HMC Stuart, 6:264. 10. SP 99/62, f.59. 11. SP 93/4 (Fleetwood, 29 Jul. 1718). 12. HMC Stuart, 6:592 (29 Jun. 1718). 13. Kent letters MSS (8 Jun., 16 Aug., 15 Nov. 1718). 14. Coutts ledgers, 12:92. 15. Gibson 1989, 78.