Alexander Brodie, 19th of that Ilk (17 August 1697 – 9 March 1754) was a Scottish clan chief and politician from

Moray Moray () gd, Moireibh or ') is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland (council area), ...

. He sat in the

House of Commons of Great Britain The House of Commons of Great Britain was the lower house of the Parliament of Great Britain between 1707 and 1801. In 1707, as a result of the Acts of Union of that year, it replaced the House of Commons of England and the third estate of the ...

for 34 years from 1720 to 1754, as a government supporter. For 27 years he was

Lord Lyon King of Arms The Right Honourable the Lord Lyon King of Arms, the head of Lyon Court, is the most junior of the Great Officers of State in Scotland and is the Scottish official with responsibility for regulating heraldry in that country, issuing new grants ...

, the most junior of the Scottish

Great Officers of State Government in medieval monarchies generally comprised the king's companions, later becoming the Royal Household, from which the officers of state arose, initially having household and government duties. Later some of these officers became ...

, responsible for regulating the

heraldry Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known bran ...

of Scotland.

Early life

Brodie was the second son of George Brodie of Brodie and Aslick in Moray. His mother Emilia was the 5th daughter and co-heir of James Brodie of that Ilk. He was educated at

Marischal College Marischal College ( ) is a large granite building on Broad Street in the centre of Aberdeen in north-east Scotland, and since 2011 has acted as the headquarters of Aberdeen City Council. However, the building was constructed for and is on lon ...

in Aberdeen, and possibly also at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city o ...

in the Netherlands. In 1724 he married Mary Sleigh (1704–1760), daughter of Major Samuel Sleigh of the

16th Foot The Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment was the final title of a line infantry regiment of the British Army that was originally formed in 1688. After centuries of service in many conflicts and wars, including both the First and Second World ...

. They had two children: a daughter Emilia (born 1730) who married John Macleod, and a son, Alexander (1741–1759).

Career

Brodie's older brother James had inherited their father's estates, and was elected in 1720 as the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for Elginshire. However, James died later that year aged 25, and Alexander succeeded to his estates as

laird Laird () is the owner of a large, long-established Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a baron and above a gentleman. This rank was held only by those lairds holding official recognition in ...

Brodie Brodie can be a given name or a surname of Scottish origin, and a location in Moray, Scotland, its meaning is uncertain; it is not clear if Brodie, as a word, has its origins in the Gaelic or Pictish languages. In 2012 this name was the 53rd m ...

. At the resulting by-election on 29 December 1720, Alexander was elected unopposed in James's place, in the interest of Sir James Grant. The Grants of that Ilk had become the dominant interest in the county since the 7th Earl of Moray, the hereditary sheriff of Elginshire, had been implicated in the 1715 Jacobite rising. After the death of Alexander Grant in 1719, Sir James supported first James Brodie and then Alexander Brodie in the Elginshire seat. This arrangement continued until 1735, when Sir James passed his estates on to his son Ludovick Grant, who took the seat at the 1741 election. Brodie was instead returned for

Caithness Caithness ( gd, Gallaibh ; sco, Caitnes; non, Katanes) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. Caithness has a land boundary with the historic county of Sutherland to the west and is otherwise bounded ...

by the county's hereditary sheriff George Sinclair of Ulbster, who was Brodie's nephew. As an alternating constituency, Caithness was not represented in the 1747–54 Parliament, and at the 1747 general election arrangements were made for Brodie to be returned for the Inverness Burghs, as part of a plan by

Henry Pelham Henry Pelham (25 September 1694 – 6 March 1754) was a British Whig statesman who served as 3rd Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1743 until his death in 1754. He was the younger brother of Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, who ...

to avoid electoral contests between Scottish supporters of the government.

Lord Lyon

Brodie's loyalty to the government was rewarded in July 1727, when he was appointed as

, with a salary of £300 per year (). His predecessor Sir Alexander Erskine of Cambo had been a Jacobite, and the Lyon's office was known to include other Jacobites, so the office was viewed with suspicion. The appointment of the staunchly Hanoverian Brodie was intended to remove those Jacobite connections, and to make the office less Scottish. Brodie was the first ever Lyon not to be crowned, and the first since the early 16th century not be

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the G ...

when appointed. Brodie fulfilled the office with diligence. He was reputed to have enforced the laws of arms without fear or favour, and removed bogus arms even from senior peers. Brodie attached himself to Lord Ilay, Walpole's manager of elections in Scotland, and was accused of "airs of being my Lord Ilay’s minister in the north". In 1733 he fell out with

Lord Lovat Lord Lovat ( gd, Mac Shimidh) is a title of the rank Lord of Parliament in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1458 for Hugh Fraser by summoning him to the Scottish Parliament as Lord Fraser of Lovat, although the holder is referred ...

, and at the 1734 election this spread to a series of intrigues which escalated into a serious disturbance at a by-election in 1735 in Nairnshire, where he put up a candidate unsuccessfully at a by-election in which both sides used force. After the

1745 Jacobite rising The Jacobite rising of 1745, also known as the Forty-five Rebellion or simply the '45 ( gd, Bliadhna Theàrlaich, , ), was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the British throne for his father, James Francis Edward Stuart. It took pl ...

, Brodie became an informer. He told the

Duke of Newcastle Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne was a title that was created three times, once in the Peerage of England and twice in the Peerage of Great Britain. The first grant of the title was made in 1665 to William Cavendish, 1st Marquess of Newcastle ...

that the Earl of Sutherland had sheltered a rebel, and is reported to have helped gather evidence against

. In 1746, he supported the Highland Dress Bill, insisting that it should apply even to those

clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clans may claim descent from founding member or apical ancestor. Clans, in indigenous societies, tend to be endogamous, mea ...

s who had taken the government's side during the rising. However, he was magnanimous to staff in the Lyon office who had supported the Jacobites. He intervened to protect them from punishment, ensured that their salaries were reinstated, and won a pardon from a death sentence one of his clerks.

Death

Brodie died in London on 9 March 1754, of heart failure. His body was brought back to Moray and buried at Dyke, close to Brodie Castle.

Family

His daughter, Emilia Brodie, married Major General Norman MacLeod of MacLeod (1754-1801).

Arms

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brodie, Alexander 1697 births 1754 deaths Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Scottish constituencies British MPs 1715–1722 British MPs 1722–1727 British MPs 1727–1734 British MPs 1734–1741 British MPs 1741–1747 People from Moray Alumni of the University of Aberdeen Leiden University alumni Lord Lyon Kings of Arms Freemasons of the Premier Grand Lodge of England