Charles Dundas, 1st Baron Amesbury (5 August 1751 – 7 July 1832) was a British politician.
Background and education
Charles was a younger son of
Thomas Dundas of Fingask,
MP for
Orkney and
Shetland (1768–1771) and a commissioner of police in
Scotland (31 January 1771), who died on 10 April 1786. His mother was his father's second wife, Janet, daughter of
Charles Maitland, 6th Earl of Lauderdale. He was educated at
Edinburgh Academy and
Trinity College, Cambridge. He was called to the bar from the
Middle Temple, but devoted himself to a political life.
Political career
Dundas first sat for the borough of
Richmond in 1774,
Orkney and Shetland in 1780, Richmond again in 1784–1786, and finally for
Berkshire, which he represented in ten successive parliaments (1794–1832). He was, finally, the second eldest member in the house. He was a liberal in politics. In 1802, on the resignation of
Mitford (afterwards
Lord Redesdale), the then
speaker, he was nominated, by
Sheridan, as his successor in opposition to
Abbot. He, however, withdrew from the contest. Dundas was
Counsellor of State for Scotland to the
Prince of Wales, and
colonel of the White Horse volunteer cavalry. He was raised to the peerage as
Baron Amesbury, of Kintbury, Amesbury, and Barton Court in the County of Berkshire, and of Aston Hall in the County of Flint, on 11 May 1832. Apart from his political career he was also the first chairman...
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