William Elphinstone, 15th Lord Elphinstone

William Buller Fullerton Elphinstone, 15th Lord Elphinstone and 1st Baron Elphinstone (18 November 1828 – 18 January 1893), known as William Elphinstone until 1861, was a Scottish Conservative politician.

William Elphinstone, 15th Lord Elphinstone
The 1st Baron Elphinstone by Frederick Sargent.
Born	William Buller Elphinstone 18 November 1828
Died	18 January 1893 (aged 64)
Spouse(s)	Lady Constance Euphemia Murray ​ ​ (m. 1864; his death 1893)​
Parent(s)	James Drummond Fullerton Elphinstone Anna Maria Buller Elphinstone
Relatives	William Fullerton Elphinstone (grandfather) Sir Edward Buller, 1st Baronet (grandfather)

Early life

Elphinstone was born on 18 November 1828. He was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel James Drummond Fullerton Elphinstone (1788–1857) and his second wife, Anna Maria (née Buller) Elphinstone, who married on 25 February 1824.[1] His father was previously married to Diana-Maria Clavering, who died Christmas Eve of 1821.[2]

His father was the fourth son of the Hon. William Elphinstone, himself the third son of Charles Elphinstone, 10th Lord Elphinstone. His paternal uncle was Major-General William George Keith Elphinstone.[2] His mother was the only daughter of Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Buller and Gertrude van Cortlandt (descendant of Stephanus Van Cortlandt, the Schuyler family and the de Peyster family from British North America).[3]

Career

He served as a midshipman on HMS Grampus from 1845 to 1847.[4]

He succeeded his second cousin in the lordship in 1861 and was elected a Scottish Representative Peer in 1867. Elphinstone served as a Lord-in-waiting (government whip in the House of Lords) under Benjamin Disraeli from 1874 to 1880 and under Lord Salisbury from 1885 to 1886 and from 1886 to 1889. In 1885, he was created Baron Elphinstone, of Elphinstone in the County of Haddington, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.[5]

In February 1885, he spent three weeks in Victoria in south-eastern Australia with the English historian James Anthony Froude and his son, Ashley Anthony Froude.[6] In March 1885 he accompanied the Froudes to New Zealand where they visited the Pink & White Terraces at Tarawera and stayed with Sir George Grey on Kawarau Island. During his travels, Lord Elphinstone kept a portfolio of sketches which the elder Froude used when he published Oceana, or, England and Her Colonies in 1886.[6]

Personal life

Lord Elphinstone married Lady Constance Euphemia Murray (1838–1922), daughter of Alexander Murray, 6th Earl of Dunmore, in 1864. Among her siblings was Lady Susan Murray, Charles Murray, 7th Earl of Dunmore, and Lady Victoria Alexandrina (wife of Rev. Henry Cunliffe, a son of Sir Robert Cunliffe, 4th Baronet). Together, they were the parents of five children, only one of whom married:[1]

• James Drummond Elphinstone (1865–1890), who died unmarried.[1]
• The Hon. Lilian Elphinstone (1867–1956), who died unmarried.[1]
• Sidney Buller-Fullerton-Elphinstone, 16th Lord Elphinstone (1869–1955), who married Lady Mary Bowes-Lyon, the daughter of Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne and Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck and the sister of the Queen Mother.[1]
• Hon. Mountstuart William Fullerton-Elphinstone (1871–1957), who served as Private Secretary to the Military Secretary, War Office during the World War I and who died unmarried.[1]
• Hon. Constance Lothian Fullerton-Elphinstone (1873–1895), who died unmarried.[1]

He died in January 1893, aged 64, and was succeeded in his titles by his eldest surviving son Sidney.[1] Lady Elphinstone died in March 1922, and lived in Pinewood, Windlesham, Surrey.[7]

Notes

1. Fraser, Sir William (1897). The Elphinstone Family Book of the Lords Elphinstone, Balmerino and Coupar. T. and A. Constable at the Edinburgh University Press. p. 149. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
2. Lodge, Edmund (1859). The Genealogy of the Existing British Peerage and Baronetage: Containing the Family Histories of the Nobility. With the Arms of the Peers. Hurst and Blackett. p. 204. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
3. The Peerage: A genealogical survey of the peerage of Britain as well as the royal families of Europe http://www.thepeerage.com/p3041.htm#i30404. Accessed 11 February 2015.
4. https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/drawings-watercolors/william-frederick-mitchell-hms-grampus-in-the-4987323-details.aspx
5. Johnson, Phillip (2018). Parliament, Inventions and Patents: A Research Guide and Bibliography. Routledge. p. 2245. ISBN 9781351332637. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
6. Clark, Ian (2015). A Peep at the Blacks': A History of Tourism at Coranderrk Aboriginal Station, 1863-1924. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 109. ISBN 9783110468243. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
7. H.E. Malden (editor) (1911). "Parishes: Windlesham". A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 25 October 2012.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link).

References

• Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990,
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
• Lundy, Darryl. "FAQ". The Peerage.