Lords Balfour of Burleigh (1607)

1^st Lord Balfour, Michael Balfour, b.1569, a.1607, d.1619

Balfour is a traditional name in Fife. Michael Balfour was the son of Sir James Balfour (b.c.1525, d.1583-1584), who had been President of the Court of Session. He served as Ambassador to the Grand Duke of Tuscany and the Duke of Lorraine in 1606 and was raised to the peerage as 1^st Lord Balfour of Burleigh, Kinross, in 1607 and was made a Privy Counsellor.

2^nd Lord (Lady) Balfour, Margaret Balfour, b.?, a.1619, d.1639

Daughter of the 1^st Lord and Margaret Lundie (b.?, d.1625), daughter of William Lundie of that Ilk. Her husband Robert Arnot assumed the Balfour surname and served as 2^nd Lord Balfour de uxoris. He was a made Privy Counsellor and became President of the Court of Session in 1640. He fought for the Covenanters against Montrose, on the losing side at the Battles of Aberdeen and of Kilsyth.

3^rd Lord Balfour, John Balfour, b.?, a.1639, d.1696-1697

Son of the Lady Balfour and Robert Arnot (b.?, d.1663).

4^th Lord Balfour, Robert Balfour, b.?, a.1697, d.1713

Son of the 3^rd Lord and Isabel Balfour, daughter of Sir William Balfour of Pitcullo.

5^th Lord Balfour, Robert Balfour, b.?, a.1713, d.1757

Son of the 4^th Lord and Margaret Melville (b.1658, d.?), daughter of George Melville, 1^st Earl of Melville. He took part in the Jacobite Uprising of 1715 and was attainted.

6^th Lord Balfour, Alexander Hugh Bruce, b.1849, a.1869, d.1921

The 5^th Lord’s sister Mary Balfour (b.?, d.1758) married Brigadier-General Alexander Bruce (b.?, d.1747). Their son Robert Bruce (b.1718, d.1785), a Scottish Law Lord under the title Lord Kennet, married Helen Abercromby. Their son Alexander Bruce (b.1755, d.1808) married Hugh (sic) Blackburn. Their son Robert Bruce (b.1795, d.1864), who fought at Waterloo and became an MP, claimed the title but died before a decision was made. He married Jane Dalrymple Hamilton Fergusson (b.?, d.a.1910), daughter of Sir James Fergusson, 4^th Baronet Fergusson of Kilkerran. Their son succeeded as 6^th Lord Balfour on the reversal of attainder of 1869. He was educated at Eton and Oriel College Oxford. He was a Representative Peer from 1876 to 1921 and held senior posts within Government. He was a Lord-in-Waiting from 1887 to 1888, a Privy Counsellor from 1892 and Secretary of State for Scotland from 1895 to 1903, and was Governor of the Bank of Scotland in 1904. He was invested as a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George, a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order and was made a Knight of the Thistle in 1901. He also obtained honorary degrees from a number of universities, including Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh, St Andrews and Oxford.

7^th Lord Balfour, George John Gordon Bruce, b.1883, a.1921, d.1967

Son of the 6^th Lord and Lady Katherine Eliza Gordon (b.1852, d.1931), daughter of George John James Hamilton-Gordon, 5^th Earl of Aberdeen. Educated at Eton, he fought in the First World War, being wounded and mentioned in dispatches. He reached the rank of Captain in the Intelligence Corps and Brevet Major in the 7^th Battalion, Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders. He was a Representative Peer from 1922 to 1963 and was Chairman of Lloyds Bank from 1946 to 1954.

8^th Lord Balfour, Robert Bruce, b.1927, a.1967

Son of the 7^th Lord and Violet Dorothy Evelyn Done (b.?, d.1976). He served in the Royal Navy before going into business as a Chartered Engineer, and was Director of the English Electric Company of India and then in Liverpool. He was invested as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the Institute of Electrical Engineers. He has two daughters.

(Last updated: 04/12/2009)