William George Hay, 18th Earl of Erroll, KT, GCH, PC (21 February 1801 – 19 April 1846), styled Lord Hay between 1815 and 1819, was a Scottish peer and politician.

Early life

Erroll was the son of William Hay, 17th Earl of Erroll, and his wife Alice (''née'' Eliot). His paternal grandfather was James Hay, 15th Earl of Erroll, son of William Boyd, 4th Earl of Kilmarnock (who was attainted with his titles forfeited in 1746). He became heir apparent to the earldom in 1815 on the death of his elder brother, Lord Hay, who was killed during the

Waterloo Campaign The Waterloo campaign, also known as the Belgian campaign (15 June – 8 July 1815) was fought between the French Army of the North (France), Army of the North and two War of the Seventh Coalition, Seventh Coalition armies, an Anglo-allied arm ...

. He was educated at Eton.

Career

Erroll succeeded his father in the earldom in 1819, aged 18. In 1823 he was elected a

Scottish representative peer This is a list of representative peers elected from the Peerage of Scotland to sit in the House of Lords after the Acts of Union 1707 abolished the unicameral Parliament of Scotland, where all Scottish Peers had been entit ...

and took his seat in the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

. He was

Master of the Horse Master of the Horse is an official position in several European nations. It was more common when most countries in Europe were monarchies, and is of varying prominence today. (ancient Rome) The original Master of the Horse () in the Roman Rep ...

to Queen Adelaide from 1830 to 1834. In 1831 he was sworn of the Privy Council and created Baron Kilmarnock, of

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock ( ; ; , ), meaning "the church of Mernóc", is a town and former burgh in East Ayrshire situated in southwest Scotland. The town has served as the administrative centre of East Ayrshire Council since 1996 and is the region's main ...

in the

County of Ayr Ayrshire (, ) is a Counties of Scotland, historic county and registration county, in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. The lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area of Ayrshire and Arran covers the entirety ...

, in the

Peerage of the United Kingdom The Peerage of the United Kingdom is one of the five peerages in the United Kingdom. It comprises most peerages created in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the Acts of Union in 1801, when it replaced the Peerage of Great B ...

, a revival of the Kilmarnock title held by his great-grandfather. When the Whigs came to power under Lord Melbourne in 1835, Erroll was appointed

Master of the Buckhounds The Master of the Buckhounds (or Master of the Hounds) was an officer in the Master of the Horse's department of the British Royal Household. The holder was also His/Her Majesty's Representative at Ascot. The role was to oversee a hunting pack; a ...

. In 1839 he was promoted to

Lord Steward of the Household The Lord Steward or Lord Steward of the Household is one of the three Great Officers of the Royal Households of the United Kingdom, Household of the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, British monarch. He is, by tradition, the first great officer of ...

on the decease of the

Duke of Argyll Duke of Argyll () is a title created in the peerage of Scotland in 1701 and in the peerage of the United Kingdom in 1892. The earls, marquesses, and dukes of Argyll were for several centuries among the most powerful noble families in Scotlan ...

, a post he held until the administration fell in 1841. Apart from his political career Lord Erroll was also Knight Marischal of Scotland from 1832 to 1846, and Lord-Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire from 1836 to 1846.

Personal life

Lord Erroll married Lady Elizabeth FitzClarence, the illegitimate daughter of King

William IV William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded hi ...

and Dorothy Jordan, on 4 December 1820. They were the parents of four children: * Lady Ida Harriet Augusta Hay (1821–1867), who was one of the Queen Victoria's bridesmaids and who married Charles Noel, 2nd Earl of Gainsborough. * William Harry Hay, 19th Earl of Erroll (1823–1891), married Eliza Amelia Gore, the eldest daughter of Sir Charles Stephen Gore (the third son, by his second wife, of the 2nd Earl of Arran) in 1848. * Lady Agnes Georgiana Elizabeth Hay (1829–1869), who married James Duff, 5th Earl Fife on 16 March 1846. Their son,

Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are ...

, married

Princess Louise Princess Louise may refer to: People * Louise of Denmark (disambiguation), various princesses * Louise of Prussia (disambiguation), various princesses * Louise of Saxe-Meiningen (disambiguation), various princesses * Princess Louise of Schleswig-H ...

, daughter of King

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until Death and state funeral of Edward VII, his death in 1910. The second child ...

. * Lady Alice Mary Emily Hay (1835–1881), who married Charles Edward Louis Casimir Stuart (1824–1882), nephew of fraud John Sobieski Stuart. Lord Erroll died in London in April 1846, aged 45, and was succeeded by his eldest son,

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

. The Countess of Erroll died in January 1856, aged 54.

Recreation

Lord Erroll was the chief organiser of the Dublin Bay regatta held in Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) in 1828.The Scotsman, 21 June 1828

Ancestry

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Erroll, William Hay, 18th Earl Of 1801 births 1846 deaths People educated at Eton College 18 Knights of the Thistle Lord-lieutenants of Aberdeenshire Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Scottish representative peers Masters of the Buckhounds Residents of Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park Peers of the United Kingdom created by William IV Rectors of the University of Aberdeen