Baronets Dundas (1762)

1st Baronet Dundas, Lawrence Dundas, b.c.1710, a.1762, d.1781

Lawrence Dundas was a successful businessman, who made his fortune supplying the British troops during the Jacobite Uprising and later during the Seven Years War in Flanders. He then went into banking, and was a major backer of the Forth & Clyde Canal, developing the town of Grangemouth into a major port. He bought the Aske Estate, near Richmond in Yorkshire and extensively remodelled the country house there. His house in St Andrews Square in Edinburgh eventually became the headquarters for the Royal Bank of Scotland. He was a man of expensive tastes, and employed some of the most famous designers and architects of the day, including Robert Adam, Thomas Chippendale and Capability Brown.

2^nd Baronet Dundas, Thomas Dundas, b.1741, a.1781, d.1820

Son of the 1^st Baronet and Margaret Bruce. Educated at Eton and the University of St Andrews, he became an MP for Richmond in 1763 after indulging in the Grand Tour (the traditional right of passage for upper-class Europeans), and then represented Stirlingshire from 1768 to 1794. He was elevated to the Peerage as 1^st Baron Dundas of Aske, in 1794, and continued his father’s interests. He is responsible for the development of the first steam powered boat, the Charlotte Dundas, made by William Symington to work on the Forth & Clyde Canal.

Barons Dundas of Aske (1794)

1^st Baron Dundas, Thomas Dundas, as above

2^nd Baron Dundas, Lawrence Dundas, b.1766, a.1820, d.1839

Son of the 1^st Baron and Charlotte Fitzwilliam. Educated at Harrow and Trinity College Cambridge, he became a Whig MP for Richmond in 1790, and then York, before switching back to Richmond in 1808. In 1811, he returned to York, and became Lord Mayor. He was made Lord-Lieutenant of Orkney and Zetland in 1831, and at the Coronation of Queen Victoria, he was created 1^st Earl of Zetland in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.

Earls of Zetland (1838)

1^st Earl of Zetland, Lawrence Dundas, as above

2^nd Earl of Zetland, Thomas Dundas, b.1795, a.1839, d.1873

Son of the 1^st Earl and Harriot Hale (b.1769, d.1834). Educated at Harrow and Trinity College Cambridge, he represented York and Richmond as a Whig MP. He was a prominent freemason, and was Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England from 1844 to 1870. In 1840, he became Lord-Lieutenant of the North Riding of Yorkshire, and in 1861 he was made a Knight of the Thistle, resigning from this Order in 1872 to become a Knight of the Garter.

3^rd Earl of Zetland, Lawrence Dundas, b.1844, a.1873, d.1929

Nephew of the 2^nd Earl and son of John Charles Dundas (b.1808, d.1866) and Margaret Matilda Talbot (b.?, d.1907). Like his predecessors, he was educated at Harrow and Trinity College Cambridge, before joining the Royal Horse Guards as a Cornet. He retired as a Lieutenant in 1869 and became MP for Richmond for a short time before moving to the House of Lords. Initially a Liberal, he joined the Conservative Party in 1884. In 1889, he was made Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and was created 1^st Marquess of Zetland in 1892. In 1900 he was made a Knight of the Thistle.

Marqesses of Zetland (1892)

1^st Marquess of Zetland, Lawrence Dundas, as above

2^nd Marquess of Zetland, Lawrence John Lumley Dundas, b.1876, a.1929, d.1961

Son of the 1^st Marquess and Lady Lillian Selina Elizabeth Lumley (b.?,d. 1943). Like his predecessors, he went into politics, and found himself Governor of Bengal during the First World War, and was Secretary of State for India in the 1930s. He was instrumental in obtaining the Government of India Act in 1935. He resigned when Churchill came to power in 1940. He was made a Knight of the Garter and a Privy Counsellor, and received the honorary awards of Knight Grand Commander of the Orer of the Star of India (GCSI) and of the Order of the Indian Empire (GCIE).

3^rd Marquess of Zetland, Lawrence Aldred Mervyn Dundas, b.1908, a.1961, d.1989

Son of the 2^nd Marquess and Cicely Archdale (b.1886, d.1973). A noted tennis player, he appeared at Wimbledon in the 1940s.

4^th Marquess of Zetland, Lawrence Mark Dundas, b.1937, a.1989

Son of the 3^rd Marquess and Penelope Pike (b.c.1914, d.2003).

The courtesy title for the heir is Earl of Ronaldshay.

(Last updated: 13/11/2009)