Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Maule, Harry

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1404703Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 37 — Maule, Harry1894Thompson Cooper

MAULE, HARRY, titular Earl of Panmure (d. 1734), was the third son of George, second earl of Panmure, by his wife Lady Jean Campbell, eldest daughter of John, earl of Loudon, lord high chancellor of Scotland. In his youth he travelled on the continent, and spent much of his time at the courts of England and France. He was a member of the convention of estates in 1689, but left that assembly when he found it was determined to declare that James II had forfeited the crown. He joined eagerly in the rising of 1715, and with his brother, James, fourth earl of Panmure, fought at the indecisive battle of Sheriffmuir. The earl was taken prisoner by the royal troops, but was afterwards rescued by his brother under circumstances of great peril. This stirring incident is commemorated in the Jacobite ballad on the battle. In 1716 Maule was obliged to fly to Holland, where he devoted his leisure to the study of the civil and canon laws. Both before and after his return to Scotland he corresponded largely with the leading adherents of the Jacobite cause and other prominent men. From the leading Jacobites of the day he was constantly receiving news-letters, of a number of which abstracts are given in ‘Historical Manuscripts Commission,’ 1st Rep. App. pp. 117–19. His latter years were spent in his castle of Kelly, where he occupied himself in historical pursuits, and both he and his brother made extensive collections of chronicles, chartularies, and documents bearing on the history of Scotland, all of which are preserved in the library at Brechin Castle (Hist. MSS. Comm. 2nd Rep. p. 186). He appears to have been a nonjuror, and had much correspondence on religious topics with the Rev. James Greenshields, an episcopalian clergyman of Edinburgh, who had been thrown into prison for using the English prayer book. Sometimes he was styled Earl of Panmure, a title to which he would have succeeded on his brother's death but for the attainder. He died at Edinburgh in June 1734, and was buried in Holyrood Abbey.

He married, first, in 1695, Lady Mary Fleming, only daughter of William, fifth earl of Wigton; and secondly in 1704 Anne, second daughter of the Hon. Patrick Lindsay of Kilburnie, and sister of John, first viscount Garnock. Among the children by his first wife was James Maule, who assisted him in his historical researches, and who died unmarried on 16 April 1729. Among the issue of the second marriage was John Maule, who became a member of parliament and one of the barons of the court of exchequer in Scotland, and who died unmarried on 2 July 1781.

Maule was the author of ‘Registrum de Panmure. Records of the Families of Maule, De Valoniis, Brechin, and Brechin-Barclay, united in the line of the Barons and Earls of Panmure. Compiled by the Hon. Harry Maule of Kelly, A.D. 1733. Edited by John Stuart, LL.D.,’ with illustrations and facsimiles, 2 vols. 1874, 4to. Prefixed to this magnificent work, of which only 150 copies were privately printed, is a portrait of the author in armour, engraved from the original at Dalhousie Castle.

[Memoir by Stuart prefixed to the Registrum de Panmure; Douglas's Peerage of Scotland (Wood), ii. 355.]

T. C.