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Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, 1st Baron Tweedmouth, also known as the Laird of Guisachan and Glenaffric (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. Burnett of the Lyon's Herald wrote an article in The Genealogist upholding the Lyon Office's original assertion of genuine authenticity.

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, buying Guisachan outright in 1856. 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.

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. Today, the Golden Retriever has become one of the most popular dog breeds, making it the top choice as a family pet.

Family

He married Isabella Hogg, daughter of Sir James Hogg, Bt, in 1848. Their children were:

• 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)
• 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.

References

1. "Golden Retriever". dog-names.org.uk. Retrieved 19 September 2017. 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.
2. "Lairds of Glen Affric". scotland.forestry.gov.uk. Forestry Commission. Retrieved 24 May 2016. 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...
3. ^ Marjoribanks, Roger. "Marjoribanks of Lees", The Marjoribanks Journal Number 3, p. 14, June 1995. Accessed on 22 May 2010
4. Foster, R. F, "Collectanea Generalis", part 8, pp. 61–72
5. The Genealogist magazine, vol. 6, pp. 294–303
6. "Glen Affric". 2019 Forestry and Land Scotland. Retrieved 30 August 2019. 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
7. Scotland's Lost Houses by Ian Gow
8. ^ Gamas, Cess. "Everything You Need to Know About the Golden Retriever".
9. "Geograph:: Memorial to Lord Tweedmouth © Gordon Brown". www.geograph.org.uk.
10. "Guisachan Dogs – Welcome to the Friends of Guisachan".
11. Olivia, Zola. "Is a Golden Retriever a Good Family Dog?". Retrieved 11 August 2024.
12. 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
13. Evans, Gwyn (26 February 2021). "Coutts Marjoribanks". The Museum & Archives of Vernon, British Columbia, Canada. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
14. Marjoribanks, Roger, Marjoribanks – A Rural Family in the Capital, The Scottish Genealogist, December 2010, Accessed 4 April 2012

Bibliography

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Dudley Marjoribanks

• 1820 births
• 1894 deaths
• Nobility from the Scottish Borders
• Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
• Scottish bankers
• Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
• UK MPs 1852–1857
• UK MPs 1857–1859
• UK MPs 1859–1865
• UK MPs 1865–1868
• UK MPs 1874–1880
• UK MPs 1880–1885
• UK MPs who were granted peerages
• Directors of the British East India Company
• Peers of the United Kingdom created by Queen Victoria
• 19th-century Scottish nobility
• 19th-century Scottish businesspeople