2nd Viscount Melville

2nd Viscount Melville
Title:2nd Viscount
Surname:Melville
Year elected:1815
Last year on list:1831
MembershipMember
Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville  was a British statesman, the son of Henry Dundas, the 1st Viscount.

Dundas was the Member of Parliament for Hastings in 1794, Rye in 1796 and Midlothian in 1801. He was also Keeper of the Signet for Scotland from 1800. He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1807, a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1817, a Knight of the Thistle in 1821, and was Chancellor of the University of St Andrews from 1814.

Melville filled various political offices and was First Lord of the Admiralty from 1812 to 1827, and from 1828 to 1830; his eldest son inherited his title.

The old governing interest in Scotland began to break up, a process which did not halt when Melville returned under Wellington and Sir Robert Peel as President of the Board of Control in 1828, then again at the Admiralty as First Lord of the Admiralty. The Reform Act would anyway end the arrangements under which the Dundases had ruled Scotland. Melville resigned in 1830, never to hold office again. But he made himself useful in good works, notably chairmanship of the royal commission which in 1845 proposed reform of the Scots poor law.

Yachts Owned

NameRig ClassfromtoMMSI
Admiralty Yacht   1815 1830  

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