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P0017 · Person · 1788 – 1836

Sir Michael Shaw-Stewart, 6th Baronet (4 October 1788 – 19 December 1836) was a Scottish politician, Member of Parliament for Lanarkshire 1827-1830 and Renfrewshire 1830-1836.

He was the son of Sir Michael Shaw Stewart, 5th Baronet 1766-1825 and the father of Sir Michael Shaw-Stewart, 7th Baronet 1826-1903. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, where he befriended Robert Peel, becoming a lifelong political supporter of his.

Whilst the Ardgowan House estate has been owned by the Stewart family since the 15th century, the present house dates from 1797 and remains the seat of the Shaw Stewarts, whose baronetcy of Nova Scotia was conferred by King Charles II on Archibald Stewart of Blackhall in 1667.

Michael Shaw Stewart, who, like so many young gentlemen at the time, took advantage of France’s defeat in 1814 to visit the continent. The Treaty of Fontainebleau signed on 11 April 1814 marked the immediate abdication of Napoleon and the end of the embargo on British goods known as the Continental Blockade, suddenly making it much more congenial for the British to visit Europe once more, resurrecting the tradition of The Grand Tour.

Interrupting his career in politics, Shaw Stewart, then aged 27, seized the opportunity to embark on his Grand Tour without hesitation. He carefully recorded his adventures in a diary which, initially intended for his parents, provides contemporary readers with an exceptional insight in the state of Europe so soon after the first defeat of Napoleon. Shaw Stewart travelled to Germany and the Low Countries, France and Italy, where he was particularly attracted to the artistic milieu, visiting the studios of the greatest artists of the time, including those of Canova and later Thordvaldsen, to whom he returned in 1828, once he had inherited the Baronetcy from his father in 1825.

In the early years of the 19th Century Europe’s eyes were fixed on Napoleon and his tumultuous rise to power which undoubtedly did not escape Shaw Stewart. So it is not surprising he seized the opportunity afforded by his travels to meet many of Napoleon’s family, including his brother Jérôme and his mother, Madame Mère, but never Napoleon himself. In 1814 he was able to purchase the hat worn by the Emperor throughout the 1807 campaign, from the Keeper of the Palace of Dresden. On his second meeting with Madame Mère, in 1816, she presented him with a full-length portrait of Napoleon by Robert Lefèvre. Shaw Stewart continued to make additional purchases throughout his life, such as the wine bottle and lock of mane from Napoleon's favourite charger, by tradition Marengo's. These later acquisitions serving to demonstrate that his fascination did not diminish over time.

Shaw-Stewart married Eliza Mary Farquhar on 16 September 1819. Eliza Mary Farquhar, born circa 1899, was the daughter of Robert Farquhar. Eliza Farquhar was a direct descendant of Princess Pocahontas, the native American princess, who died in 1617 and was the daughter of Powhatan, chief of the Algonquian Indians in the Tidewater region of Virginia. She died in 1852. Their marriage produced four sons and four daughters.

P0001 · Person · 1755 – 1836

Montrose was the son of William Graham, 2nd Duke of Montrose, and Lady Lucy, daughter of John Manners, 2nd Duke of Rutland. Montrose was twice married. He married firstly Lady Jemima Elizabeth, daughter of John Ashburnham, 2nd Earl of Ashburnham, in 1785. After her death in September 1786, aged 24 (following the death of a son, who died as an infant), he married secondly Lady Caroline Maria, daughter of George Montagu, 4th Duke of Manchester, in 1790. They had six children. Montrose died in December 1836, aged 81, and was succeeded in the dukedom by his son, James. The Duchess of Montrose died in March 1847, aged 76.

Montrose was educated at Eton College and at Trinity College, Cambridge from where he graduated MA in 1775. In 1780, he was elected MP for Richmond, Yorkshire and, from 1784, he represented Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire. Montrose held a number of offices including those of Lord Justice General of Scotland and President of the Board of Trade, and he was Lord Chamberlain on two occasions.

Montrose was succeeded as Chancellor in 1837 by his son James Graham, the 4th Duke of Montrose.

He was appointed a Knight of the Thistle in 1793, resigning from the Order when appointed a Knight of the Garter in 1812. He was Chancellor of the University of Glasgow from 1780 to 1836, Lord Lieutenant of Huntingdonshire from 1790 to 1793, Lord Lieutenant of Stirlingshire from 1795 until his death, and Lord Lieutenant of Dumbartonshire from 1813 until his death.

P0024 · Person · 1788 – 1850

Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, FRS (5 February 1788 – 2 July 1850) was a British Conservative statesman who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–35 and 1841–46) and twice as Home Secretary (1822–27 and 1828–30). He is regarded as the father of modern British policing, owing to his founding of the Metropolitan Police Service. Peel was one of the founders of the modern Conservative Party.