Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Melville, David
MELVILLE, DAVID, third Earl of Leven and second Earl of Melville (1660–1728), military commander, third son of George, first earl of Melville [q. v.], by his wife, Lady Catherine Leslie, only daughter of Alexander, lord Balgonie, afterwards second earl of Leven, was born on 5 May 1660. On the death of the second Earl of Leven in 1664 without male issue the title was to devolve, after his daughters, first on the second son of John, duke of Rothes, and after him on the second son of the first Earl of Melville. On the death of Leven's two daughters, successively Countesses of Leven in their own right, the Earl of Melville in 1676 applied, on the ground that Rothes had no male issue, that the earldom should be assigned to his second surviving son, David; but to this Rothes objected, and the objection was sustained by the court of session. On the death, however, of Rothes without male issue on 27 July 1681, David Melville assumed the title.
Although in no degree implicated in the Rye House plot, Leven in 1683 accompanied his father to Holland. In 1685 he entered the service of the elector of Brandenburg as captain of horse, and in September 1687 was appointed colonel. At the court of Berlin he acted as a confidential agent to the Prince of Orange, and arranged the meeting at Cleves between him and the elector of Brandenburg. Subsequently at his own expense he raised a regiment of Scottish refugees in Germany and Holland, of which he was appointed colonel, on 7 Sept. 1688, and with which he accompanied the Prince of Orange to England. The regiment was chosen to garrison Plymouth after its surrender.
Leven was selected by William of Orange to be the bearer of his letter to the Scottish convention in March 1689. He was also empowered to raise a regiment of eight hundred men to guard the city until the arrival of the regular troops from England. On the alarm occasioned by the march of Dundee out of Edinburgh, and his interview with the Duke of Gordon at the castle ramparts, Leven ordered the drums to beat, and assembled a sufficient force to restore the confidence of the convention. His own regiment subsequently arrived in Scotland, and in command of it he joined Mackay in his campaigns against Graham of Claverhouse. At Killiecrankie, on 17 July 1689, his regiment occupied a position on the extreme right, and escaping therefore the brunt of the highland charge, remained practically intact when the other troops broke and fled. After Claverhouse received his mortal wound, the fire of Leven's regiment compelled Claverhouse's friends to forego their purpose of carrying him immediately off the field. The steadiness of Leven's regiment amidst general panic and flight was highly estimated by General Mackay, who wrote: ‘I had no regiment or troop with me but behaved like the vilest cowards in nature, except Hastings' and my Lord Leven's, whom I must praise to such a degree as I cannot but blame others of whom I expected more’ (Memoirs, p. 248; cf. Macaulay, ed. 1883, ii. 59). Leven showed also great coolness and determination in guarding the rear of the retreat to Stirling. He also distinguished himself in the campaign in Ireland.
After the surrender of the castle of Edinburgh by the Duke of Gordon on 14 June 1689, Leven on 23 Aug. obtained a commission as keeper of the castle. In 1692 he served in the campaign in Flanders. Although he took an active part in promoting the succession of Queen Anne in 1702, and in October was appointed a commissioner for the union, he was on 31 Dec. superseded in the command of the castle by William, earl of March. In January 1703 he was, however, constituted major-general of the forces in Scotland. On 20 May 1704 his services were recognised by a gift of the wards which had fallen into the hands of the crown since 1689. The same year he went to London to give his advice on Scottish affairs, probably in connection with the so-called Queensberry plot [see Douglas, James, second Duke of Queensberry]. Simon Fraser of Lovat (1726–1782) [q. v.] asserted that while in Scotland on behalf of the Pretender he had communications with Queensberry, Argyll, and Leven, who he says ‘may at this time be styled the triumvirate of Scotland;’ but the opinions of the two last were so well known that the Earl of Middleton remarked on his statement that ‘he had not been as careful as authors of romances to preserve probability’ (quoted in Ferguson's Ferguson the Plotter, p. 338).
On 17 Oct. 1704 Leven was restored to the command of the castle of Edinburgh; on 7 Aug. 1705 was appointed master of ordnance in Scotland, with a pension of 150l., in addition to the usual salary of 150l.; and on 22 March 1706 was appointed commander-in-chief of the forces in Scotland. After the union, which he had taken an active part in promoting, he was chosen a representative peer for Scotland, and he was re-elected till 1710. On the death of his father, on 20 May 1707, he united the title of Earl of Melville to that of Leven. He displayed vigour and activity in suppressing the attempt at a Jacobite rising in 1708, when a large force was placed by Marlborough at his disposal (Despatches, iii. 690); but Lockhart testifies that ‘he was nowise severe, but rather very civil to all the cavaliers, especially such as were prisoners in the castle of Edinburgh’ (Papers, i. 91). In 1712 he was deprived of all his offices by the tory administration. He died on 6 June 1728, and was buried at Markinch. Lockhart states that ‘in the beginning of his life’ Leven ‘was so vain and conceity that he became the jest of all sober men,’ but admits that ‘as he grew older he overcame that folly in part, and from the proudest became the civilest man alive;’ and that he ‘was a man of good parts and sound judgment,’ although ‘master of no kind of learning.’ He professes, however, to entertain great doubts as to his military abilities (ib.) Leven had two sons—George, lord Balgonie and Raith, who died before his father, leaving a son David, fourth earl of Leven and third earl of Melville, who died in 1729, in his twelfth year; and Alexander, fifth earl of Leven and fourth earl of Melville—and two daughters: Mary, married to William, lord Haddo, second earl of Aberdeen, and Margaret, who died in infancy.
[Leven and Melville Papers and Lauder of Fountainhall's Historical Notices (both Bannatyne Club); Lockhart Papers; General Mackay's Memoirs; Harl. MS. 6584; Sir William Fraser's The Melvilles, Earls of Melville, and the Melvilles, Earls of Leven, i. 245–307; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), ii. 117.]