Dudley Marjoribanks, 1st Baron Tweedmouth

{{Short description|Scottish businessman and a Liberal politician}}

{{Infobox officeholder

|honorific-prefix = The Right Honourable

|name = The Lord Tweedmouth

|honorific-suffix =

|image =

|alt =

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|constituency_MP = Berwick-upon-Tweed

|majority =

|term_start = 1853

|term_end = May 1859

|predecessor = John Stapleton and Matthew Forster

|successor = Charles William Gordon and Ralph Anstruther Earle

|term_start1 = August 1859

|term_end1 = 1868

|predecessor1 = Charles William Gordon and Ralph Anstruther Earle

|successor1 = John Stapleton and Viscount Bury

|birth_date = 29 December 1820

|birth_place =

|death_date = 4 March 1894 (aged 73)

|death_place =

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|nationality = British

|party = Liberal

|spouse = Isabella Weir Hogg

|relations =

|children = Edward, Mary, Stewart, Annie, Ishbel, Coutts, Archibald

|residence = 57.28587,-4.842773

|alma_mater = Harrow, Christ Church, Oxford

|occupation = Politician: Member of Parliament; member of the Lords

|profession = Politics

|cabinet = Liberal party

|committees =

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}}

File:Memorial to the founders of Guisachan House and Tomich village (209462130).jpg.]]

Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, 1st Baron Tweedmouth, also known as the Laird of Guisachan and Glenaffric{{cite web|title=Golden Retriever|url=http://www.dog-names.org.uk/golden-retriever.htm|accessdate=19 September 2017|website=dog-names.org.uk|quote=Golden Retriever History: Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, 1st Baron Tweedmouth (29 December 1820 – 4 March 1894), also known as the Laird of Guisachan and Glenaffric, is credited with developing the Golden Retriever at his Guisachan estate in the Scottish Highlands.}}{{cite web|url=http://scotland.forestry.gov.uk/visit/glen-affric/glen-affric-people/lairds|title=Lairds of Glen Affric|website=scotland.forestry.gov.uk|publisher=Forestry Commission|quote=The lairds (of Guisachan and Glenaffric, including the original Clan Chisholm and, later, Lord Tweedmouth) who controlled how land was managed in Affric have had a major influence on the look and life of the place...|accessdate=24 May 2016}} (29 December 1820 – 4 March 1894), was a Scottish businessman and a Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1853 until 1880, when he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Tweedmouth. He was the breeder of the first golden retriever.

Life

Marjoribanks was the son of Edward Marjoribanks of Greenlands who was a senior partner in Coutts Bank. He was unable to acquire the partnership in the Bank (it passed to his elder brother Edward) but he inherited a substantial fortune from his father, a partner in Coutts & Co Bank from 1796 until his death on 17 September 1868, aged 92. As to his parentage there was some controversy. Although the Lyon Office of Scotland registered his family pedigree, he was accused of being a charlatan. The disproofs were offered as a statement of contradiction concerning his descent.Foster, R. F, "Collectanea Generalis", part 8, pp. 61–72 Burnett of the Lyon's Herald wrote an article in The Genealogist upholding the Lyon Office's original assertion of genuine authenticity.The Genealogist magazine, vol. 6, pp. 294–303

Dudley Coutts, as his banking second name implies, acquired considerable family wealth of his own after the purchase of Meux Brewery. He grew rich as a partner of Meux & Co's brewery, and later a director of the East India Company. With some of this wealth he built the mansion of Brook House in London's fashionable Park Lane.

In 1854 he began leasing the highland deer forest of Guisachan in Glen Affric, Inverness-shire,{{cite web |title=Glen Affric |url=https://forestryandland.gov.scot/visit/glen-affric |publisher=2019 Forestry and Land Scotland |accessdate=30 August 2019 |quote=Sir Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, the first Lord Tweedmouth, was a rich Liberal MP who took a long lease on shooting rights over much of Glen Affric in 1846, paying £3,000 per year for the privilege: about £130,000 in today's money}} buying Guisachan outright in 1856.Scotland's Lost Houses by Ian Gow He also leased substantial estates of Hutton and Edington near his family roots in Berwickshire. Marjoribanks had large kennels at Guisachan and was directly responsible for developing a new breed of dog, the Golden Retriever.{{Cite web|url=https://www.k9web.com/breeds/golden-retriever/|title=Everything You Need to Know About the Golden Retriever|first=Cess|last=Gamas}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/169281|title=Geograph:: Memorial to Lord Tweedmouth © Gordon Brown|website=www.geograph.org.uk}}

In 1868, Majoribanks bred Nous, a Wavy-coated Retriever, with Belle, a Tweed Water Spaniel. This created the foundation litter of Golden Retriever, three yellow wavy-coated puppies named Crocus, Cowslip and Primrose.{{Cite web|url=https://friendsofguisachan.org/main/guisachan-dogs/|title=Guisachan Dogs – Welcome to the Friends of Guisachan}} Today, the Golden Retriever has become one of the most popular dog breeds, making it the top choice as a family pet.{{Cite web |last=Olivia |first=Zola |title=Is a Golden Retriever a Good Family Dog? |url=https://www.missmybuddy.com/blog/is-a-golden-retriever-a-good-family-dog/ |archive-date= |access-date=August 11, 2024}}

Family

He married Isabella Hogg, daughter of Sir James Hogg, Bt, in 1848. Their children were:Pine, Leslie Gilbert, The New Extinct Peerage 1884–1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages With Genealogies and Arms. London: Heraldry Today, 1972, {{ISBN|9780900455230}}

Edward Marjoribanks, 2nd Baron Tweedmouth (married Lady Fanny Octavia Louise Spencer-Churchill in 1873)
Mary Georgina Marjoribanks (married Matthew White Ridley, 1st Viscount Ridley, in 1873)
Stewart (died aged 11)
Annie Grizel (died aged one)
Ishbel, (married John Campbell Hamilton-Gordon, 1st Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair, in 1877)
Coutts Marjoribanks (born 1860, married Agnes Margaret Kinloch in 1895 and died in 1924{{Cite web |last=Evans |first=Gwyn |date=2021-02-26 |title=Coutts Marjoribanks |url=https://vernonmuseum.ca/20th-century/coutts-marjoribanks/ |access-date=2023-10-07 |website=The Museum & Archives of Vernon, British Columbia, Canada |language=en-CA}})
Archibald John Marjoribanks (married Elizabeth Trimble Brown of Tennessee in 1897; operated the Rocking Chair Ranche, and died in 1900)

Marjoribanks was descended from James Marjoribanks, a younger son of Thomas Marjoribanks of Ratho, head of the lowland Clan Marjoribanks, both of whom lived in the 16th century in Edinburgh.Marjoribanks, Roger. "Marjoribanks of Lees", [http://marjorib.awardspace.co.uk/JIssue3.html The Marjoribanks Journal Number 3], p. 14, June 1995. Accessed on 22 May 2010Marjoribanks, Roger, [http://marjorib.awardspace.co.uk/Marjoribanks_a_rural_family.html Marjoribanks – A Rural Family in the Capital], The Scottish Genealogist, December 2010, Accessed 4 April 2012