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Maj.-Gen. William Douglas-Maclean-Clephane
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Maj.-Gen. William Douglas-Maclean-Clephane was born 20
Apr. 1759, the eldest son of George Clephane of Carslogie (died 1790)
and his second wife, Anne Jean Douglas, daughter and heiress of Rev.
Robert Douglas, minister of Portmoak, Kinross. He took the
additional name of MacLean 6 Nov. 1790.
He served in the
3rd Regiment of Foot Guards: Captain & Lieutenant-Colonel 16 May 1792;
brevet Colonel 3 May 1796; Major-General 1 January 1801; 2nd Major 22
April 1802
In 1788 Clephane was
a liferenter in Kinross-shire in the right of his mother’s inheritance.
On the death of the former Member George Graham in December 1801, he was
on active service at Port Mahon(1), but his family put him forward by
prearrangement as champion of the ‘independent interest of the county’
under the aegis of William Adam. Although an opposition was at first
threatened by Graham’s heir, Clephane, who arrived home in time for the
election, was chosen unanimously. He was listed a supporter of
Addington’s ministry and independent of Henry Dundas. Some of his
friends had wished for him to be George Graham’s successor as lord
lieutenant, but he was prepared to cede it to William Adam.
Nevertheless, his success was reported to have gone to his head. On 4
Mar. 1803 he voted in the minority for the inquiry into the Prince of
Wales’s debts, ‘paying his adorations to the rising sun’, as Andrew
Clephane put it. The latter added, ‘Conceive our General refusing the
station of Ceylon as comdr. in chief. What does he expect? To be made
peer of the blood, I suppose.’ Andrew also professed to be astonished
‘after the speech he made at Kinross’, that Clephane should be ‘so long
silent’ in the House: but no speech by him is reported.
On 27
Apr. 1803 Clephane informed Adam that he had accepted the place of
commissioner at Trinidad, which vacated his seat. On 19 May, however,
Lord Hobart recommended him to the King as lieutenant governor of
Grenada, where he proceeded. As he hoped, his brother David succeeded as
county Member.
He died at Grenada, 4 Nov. 1803, ‘a bad subject
for a warm climate’. His funeral was ‘the most sumptuous one ever seen
on that island’.4 Sir Walter Scott was his children’s guardian.
He married 14 Sept. 1790 Marianne Maclean, 3rd daughter of Lachlan
Maclean, 7th of Torloisk and Margaret Smith. They had three daughters:
1. Margaret
Douglas-Maclean-Clephane (d. 2 Apr 1830) married
Charles
Douglas-Compton, 3rd Marquess of Northampton.
2. Anna Jane,
a lady of superior accomplishments, and endowed with high natural
attainments.
3. Wilmina Marianne, married in 1831 to
Willhelm Baron de Normann, then in the diplomatic service of Prussia,
who died in 1832: Issue, Wilhelm Frederic Carl Helmuth Theodore, now
Baron de Normann. The baroness is lady of honour to the Grand Duchess of
Mecklenburgh Strelitz, and resides at the court of that princess.
Notes:
1. Menorca was captured in
1708 by a joint British-Dutch force on behalf of Holy Roman Emperor
Charles VI, during the War of the Spanish Succession. The British saw
the island's potential as a naval base and sought to take full control.
Its status as a British possession was confirmed by the Treaty of
Utrecht in 1713. During the island's years as a British dependency, the
capital was moved from Ciutadella de Menorca to Mahon, which then served
as residence for the governor, the most famous being General Richard
Kane. During this period the natural harbour leading to the town and
surrounding settlements were sometimes collectively known as "Port
Mahon".
The island was lost to the French in 1756 following the
naval Battle of Menorca and the final Siege of Fort St Philip, which
took place several miles from the town. After their defeat in the Seven
Years' War, France returned the island to the British in 1763. In a
joint Franco-Spanish effort and following a long five month invasion,
the British surrendered the island again in 1782; It was transferred to
Spain in 1783 as part of the Peace of Paris. The British recaptured the
island in 1798, during the French Revolutionary Wars. The British and
the French tried (and failed) to end hostilities between themselves with
the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. Both nations agreed to cede or withdraw
from certain territories, with the island of Menorca passing to the
Spanish, with whom it has remained since. Maj.-Gen. William Douglas-Maclean-Clephane
played a significant part in the handover to the Spanish. He was praised
by Rear-admiral Sir James Saumarez, commanding his Britannic Majesty’s
squadron in the port of Mahon for the alacrity with which he had cleared
the harbours of the island of men and stores.
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Sources
Sources for this article include:
• The History of Parliament Trust
• Exit Britannia, By Janet Sloss
• The Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 15
• An historical and
genealogical account of the Clan Maclean, from its first settlement at
Castle Duar
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
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