Charles Bruce, 3rd Earl of Ailesbury

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The Earl of Ailesbury and Elgin
Charles, Lord Bruce (1682–1747), attributed to Godfrey Kneller and Joshua Reynolds.jpg
The Earl of Ailesbury and Elgin.
Personal details
Born29 May 1682
Died10 February 1747(1747-02-10) (aged 64)
NationalityBritish
Spouse(s)Lady Anne Savile
(died 1717)
Lady Juliana Boyle
(died 1739)
Lady Caroline Campbell
(1721–1803)
Children5
ParentsThomas Bruce, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury
Lady Elizabeth Seymour

Charles Bruce, 3rd Earl of Ailesbury (later styled Aylesbury) and 4th Earl of Elgin (29 May 1682 – 10 February 1747), of Ampthill, Bedfordshire and Savernake Park, Wiltshire, styled Viscount Bruce of Ampthill from 1685 to 1741, was a British landowner and Tory politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons from 1705 until 1711 when he was raised to the peerage as one of Harley's Dozen and sat in the House of Lords.

Background[]

Coats of arms of the Earl of Elgin

Bruce was the son of Thomas Bruce, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury and his first wife Lady Elizabeth Seymour, daughter of Henry Seymour, Lord Beauchamp and Mary Capell.[1] His father was arrested for treason in 1696 and confined to the Tower of London, and his mother died in premature childbirth in 1697, a death probably brought on by a false report that his father had been executed. His father was allowed to leave England soon afterwards: he spent the rest of his life in Flanders, and quickly became content there. He made a happy second marriage to the Belgian noblewoman Charlotte d'Argenteau, comtesse d'Esneux: his children visited him regularly and became deeply attached to their stepmother. The English Crown made no effort to seize the family estates, so that there was enough money to allow Bruce to live in comfort.

Public life[]

Bruce was returned to Parliament for Great Bedwyn at the 1705 English general election, and was returned again at the 1708 British general election. At the 1710 British general election, he was returned for both Great Bedwyn and Marlborough and chose to sit for the latter. In December 1711 he was summoned to the House of Lords through a writ of acceleration in his father's junior title Baron Bruce of Whorlton.[1] In 1741 he succeeded his father in the earldoms of Elgin and Ailesbury. With his two sons having predeceased him, he was in 1746 created Baron Bruce, of Tottenham in the County of Wilts, with a special remainder to his nephew the Honourable Thomas Brudenell.[2]

Family[]

Lord Ailesbury married, firstly, Lady Anne Savile,[3] daughter of William Savile, 2nd Marquess of Halifax. They had four children:

Juliana Boyle (d. 1739) (Jonathan Richardson)

After his first wife's death in July 1717, Lord Ailesbury married, secondly, Lady Juliana Boyle, daughter of Charles Boyle, 2nd Earl of Burlington.[3] They had no children. After her death in March 1739 he married, thirdly, aged 47, the 18-year-old Lady Caroline Campbell, daughter of John Campbell, 4th Duke of Argyll, in 1739. They had one daughter:

Because neither of his sons survived him or left children, upon his death, the earldom of Elgin and subsidiary Scottish peerages was inherited by his cousin the Earl of Kincardine, while the earldom of Ailesbury and subsidiary English peerages became extinct. The barony of Bruce of Tottenham created for him in 1746 passed upon his death the next year according to the special remainder to his nephew Thomas Brudenell. His Scottish lordship of Kinloss was subsequently determined to have devolved upon James Brydges, 3rd Duke of Chandos, who, however, did not claim the title. The Countess of Ailesbury and Elgin married as her second husband Henry Seymour Conway, by whom she had the sculptor Anne Seymour Damer. She died in January 1803, aged 82.

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b "BRUCE, Charles, Lord Bruce (1682-1747), of Ampthill, Beds. and Savernake Park, Wilts". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  2. ^ "No. 8528". The London Gazette. 15 April 1746. p. 6.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c Burke, Bernard (1866). A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire. Harrison. p. 81.
  4. ^ The Third Register Book of the Parish of St James in the Liberty of Westminster For Births & Baptisms. 1723-1741. 12 May 1740.
Parliament of England
Preceded by
Sir George Byng
Member of Parliament for Great Bedwyn
1705–1707
With: 1705–1707
Succeeded by
Parliament of Great Britain
Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by
Parliament of England
Member of Parliament for Great Bedwyn
1707–1710
With: 1707, 1707–1708
1707
1708–1710
Sir Edward Seymour, Bt 1710–1711
Succeeded by
Sir Edward Seymour, Bt
Preceded by

Sir Edward Ernle, Bt
Member of Parliament for Marlborough
1710–1711
With:
Succeeded by

Richard Jones
Peerage of England
Preceded by
Thomas Bruce
Earl of Ailesbury
1741–1747
Extinct
Baron Bruce of Whorlton
(writ in acceleration)

1711–1747
Peerage of Great Britain
New creation Baron Bruce
1746–1747
Succeeded by
Thomas Brudenell
Peerage of Scotland
Preceded by
Thomas Bruce
Earl of Elgin
1741–1747
Succeeded by
Charles Bruce
Lord Kinloss
1741–1747
Succeeded by
James Brydges
Retrieved from ""