ever, as Lockhart states, ‘at the bottom of the union,’ and that ‘to him in a great measure it owes its success,’ is not probably wide of the mark, although the inference of Lockhart, ‘and so he may be stiled the Judas of his country,’ is not one to be taken for granted. The truth is, that patriotic statesmen both in England and Scotland who were friends of the government had come to discern that the union was almost a necessity. At the same time many despaired of its accomplishment, and even the most sanguine ‘thought it must have run out into a long negotiation for several years’ (Burnet, Own Time, ed. 1838, p. 798). That ‘beyond all men's expectation it was begun and finished in the compass of one year’ (ib.) may be attributed chiefly to the tact and skill of Stair in the private negotiations and arrangements, and his unfailing watchfulness and powers of persuasion in the stormy debates during the discussion of the question in the Scottish parliament. So great were the demands it made upon his attention that it ‘allowed him no time to take care of his health, though he perceived it ruined by his continual attendance and application’ (Letter of John, second earl of Stair, in Marchmont Papers, iii. 447). He spoke on 1 Jan. 1707, when the twenty-second article of the treaty, the only remaining one of importance, was carried, but his spirits were ‘quite exhausted by the length and vehemence of the debate’ (Burnet, Own Time, p. 801), and having retired to rest he died next morning, 8 Jan., of apoplexy (Hume of CrossRigg's Diary, p. 194). The opponents of the union spread the report that he had committed suicide, but there is no shadow of evidence to lend credibility to the rumour.
Though the name of the first earl of Stair is unhappily chiefly associated with the barbarous massacre of Glencoe, severity or cruelty was by no means one of his characteristics. Even his enemy, Lockhart, admits that he was, ‘setting aside his politics (to which all did yield), good-natured’ (Papers, p. 88), and Macky, who, like Lockhart, refers to his ‘facetious conversation,’ states that he ‘made always a better companion than a statesman, being naturally very indolent’ (Memoirs of Secret Services, p. 212). Neither of his great gifts nor services as a statesman can there, however, be any question, and if his inability to recognise the turpitude of the outrage of Glencoe must be regarded as deepening the stain with which that deed has tarnished his memory, it cannot be denied that even here his motives were unselfish and patriotic. Before the revolution his policy was chargeable with crookedness, but in working for the revolution there is every reason to suppose that he had the welfare of Scotland at heart, and at any rate his consistent and unwavering devotion to the interests of the new government, and his superiority to the party prejudices of the time, though it may be explained on the theory of enlightened self-interest, enabled him to confer on his country services which almost atone for the crime of his connection with Glencoe. He had five sons and two daughters, and was succeeded by his second son John [q. v.]
[Leven and Melville Papers (Bannatyne Club); Fountainhall's Historical Notices (Bannatyne Club); ib. Historical Observes; Papers Illustrative of the Highlands (Maitland Club); Burnet's Own Time; Sir John Dalrymple's Memoirs; Lockhart Papers; Carstares' State Papers; Marchmont Papers; Macky's Memoirs of Secret Services; Luttrell's Diary; Gallienus Redivivus, or Murder will out, 1692; The Massacre of Glenco, being a true narrative of the barbarous murder of Glenco-men in the Highlands of Scotland, by way of military execution, on 13 Feb. 1692; containing the Commission under the Great Seal of Scotland for making an Enquiry into the Horrid Murder, the Proceedings of the Parliament of Scotland upon it, the Report of the Commissioners upon the Enquiry laid before the King and Parliament, and the address of the Parliament to King William for Justice on the Murderers; faithfully extracted from the Records of Parliament, and published for undeceiving those who have been imposed upon by false accounts, 1703, reprinted in Somers Tracts, xi. 529–47; An Impartial Account of some of the Transactions in Scotland concerning the Earl of Breadalbin, Viscount and Master of Stair, Glenco-men, Bishop of Galloway, and Mr. Duncan Robertson. In a letter to a friend, 1695, reprinted ib. pp. 547–61; Complete History of Europe for 1707, p. 579; Crawfurd's Peerage of Scotland, p. 459; Douglas's Peerage of Scotland (Wood), ii. 527–8; Omond's Lord Advocates, i. 225–71; Graham's Stair Annals, 1875, pp. 115–220; Mark Napier's Memoirs of Viscount Dundee; Macaulay's History of England; Hill Burton's History of Scotland; Edinburgh Review, vol. cv.]
DALRYMPLE, JOHN, second Earl of Stair (1673–1747), general and diplomatist, was the second son of John Dalrymple, second viscount and first earl of Stair [q. v.], lord advocate, lord justice clerk, and secretary of state for Scotland, by his wife, Elizabeth, heiress of Sir John Dundas of Newliston, and was born at Edinburgh on 20 July 1673. When only eight years old, in April 1682, he accidentally shot his elder brother dead at the family seat, Carsrecreugh Castle, Wigtonshire. For this act he received a pardon under the great seal, but his parents could not bear to see his face, and after he had spent
