John Drummond, 4th Duke of Perth

Portrait by Domenico Duprà.

John Drummond (1714–1747), titular 7th Earl and 4th Duke of Perth, was a Scottish nobleman and Jacobite.

John Drummond was the younger son of James Drummond, fifth earl and second titular Duke of Perth, and Lady Jane Gordon, daughter of George Gordon, 1st Duke of Gordon. He was the grandson of James Drummond, 4th Earl of Perth, who was stripped of his titles for taking part in the Jacobite Rising of 1715. However, the 4th Earl was created Duke of Perth by James Edward Stuart, the "Old Pretender", in the Jacobite Peerage. The Drummonds continued to claim both titles, though they were never recognised by the de facto British government.

John Drummond was brought up by his mother at Drummond Castle till his father's death in 1720, when his mother took him and his elder brother James to France. This step gave great offence to the boy's kinsmen and to the Scottish Jacobites, who feared that it might entail a confiscation of the estates, and would be held up to odium by the whigs. They accordingly urged the Pretender to interfere, but he replied that as she pleaded her husband's repeated injunctions, and her anxiety for a Catholic education for her children, he could do nothing.

He was educated at Douai, showed decided military tastes, and passed through several grades in the French Army. He then raised the Royal Scotch regiment, and was sent in December 1745 with this and other reinforcements to Scotland to support the Jacobite Rising of 1745. He called upon six thousand Dutch soldiers to withdraw, as having capitulated in Flanders and promised not to serve against France. Hessians had to be sent for to take their place. His tardiness in joining Charles Edward Stuart is not easy to explain, for he was repeatedly urged to hasten his movements, but his march was perhaps through a hostile country, and the firths were watched by English cruisers. He came up just before the battle of Falkirk, and mainly contributed to its success, taking several prisoners with his own hand, having a horse killed under him, and receiving a musket-shot in the right arm. On the siege of Stirling being raised he covered the rear. At Culloden he was posted in the centre, and prevented the retreat from becoming a rout. He died, without issue, at the siege of Bergen-op-Zoom on 28 September 1747.

He was succeeded by his uncle John, son of James, first duke, by his second wife, who died, also without issue, in 1757. John's half-brother Edward, sixth duke, son of the first duke by his third wife, was a zealous Jansenist, and was confined in the Bastille for his opinions, his wife Lady Anne Elizabeth Middleton (Charles Middleton, 2nd Earl of Middleton's daughter) being twice refused the last sacraments and obliged to apply for judicial compulsion. He died at Paris on 6 February 1760, being the last male descendant of the first duke.

References

• His page on Genealogics

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Drummond, James (1713-1747)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.