James Steuart (economist) - Family and Titles

Family and Titles

This Sir James Steuart was descended from another Sir James Stewart, knight, an Edinburgh merchant, a staunch Presbyterian, who supported Charles II in the British Civil Wars of 1642-1660. This Sir James died in 1681, having made enough money to purchase landed estates for his sons; three of those sons were prominent enough to have their families receive the title of Baronet after the Glorious Revolution of 1688: Sir Thomas Steuart of Coltness, the first son; Sir James Steuart of Goodtrees, Lord Advocate, the fourth son; Sir Robert Steuart of Allandale, the youngest of the seven sons; two of these baronetcies were eventually held by the subject of this article. The Lord Advocate, Sir James Steuart of Goodtrees, was grandfather to the subject of this article; his father, also Sir James Steuart, was the eldest son of the Lord Advocate, and rose to be Solicitor General for Scotland.

The third Sir James Steuart of Goodtrees, the subject of this article, inherited his baronetcy and estates at the age of fourteen; he was also to acquire much of the possession of his cousins, the senior line of Steuarts. Sir Thomas Steuart of Coltness, had married twice: to Margaret Elliot, his step-mother's daughter, and then to Susan, the sister of Sir William Denham, 1st Baronet of Westshield, Master of the Mint for Scotland, and had fourteen sons by them. His eldest son had sold the estate and mansion (but not the title) of Coltness to his uncle, Sir James Steuart, the Lord Advocate, in 1712. The subject of this article is therefore often called of Coltness, since it was his house; he sold the estate of Goodtrees after he returned from France.

By that time, the last surviving son of Sir Thomas Steuart had inherited the Coltness baronetcy, from his father; he had also inherited the property and baronetcy of Denham of Westshield through his mother; he styled himself Sir Archibald Steuart Denham, Baronet. When Sir Archibald died, in 1773, the baronetcy of Coltness and the Steuart property passed to Sir James Steuart; the Denham title and property passed to the last heir of the Denhams, Sir Archibald's half-nephew on his mother's side, who took the style of Sir William Lockhart Denham. When he died, three years later, in 1776, the Denham baronetcy became extinct; he also left his property, including the estate of Westshield, to Sir James Steuart, who then assumed the name of Denham, although he was not descended fom.

For the last four years of his life, therefore, he was Sir James Steuart Denham, Baronet, of Coltness and Westshield. His major book and his posthumous collected works were published as by Sir James Steuart; economic literature also calls him Sir James Steuart Denham.

He had one son, another Sir James Steuart Denham, born in 1744, before he went to France. That son, who called himself Denham in England and Steuart in Scotland, edited his father's complete works, was a Member of Parliament, and an officer, Colonel of the Scots Greys. He was promoted full General, and lived to be ninety-five, ranking officer in the British Army. On his death, both baronetcies went to a cousin, a grandson of a younger son of the Lord Advocate, who died in 1851, since when they have been dormant.

Reliable sources differ on when and to whom the Goodtrees baronetcy was given. It was in honour of the Lord Advocate, but while the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography twice says it was conferred on him in 1695, the Complete Baronetcy says it was given to his son, the future Solicitor General, in 1705, on the occasion of the son's marriage, in the father's lifetime. The chief significance of this question is the numbering of the baronets; it is not inconceivable that both grants occurred.