BRODIE, Alexander (1697-1754), of Brodie, Elgin.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

29 Dec. 1720 - 1741
1741 - 1747
1747 - 9 Mar. 1754

Family and Education

b. 17 Aug. 1697, 2nd s. of George Brodie, M.P. [S], of Brodie and Aslick, Elgin by Emilia, da. and coh. of James Brodie of Elgin; bro. of James Brodie. educ. Marischal Coll. Aberdeen 1710; ?Leyden 1719. m. 3 Sept. 1724, Mary, da. of Maj. Samuel Sleigh of the 16th Ft., 1s. 1da. suc. bro. 1720.

Offices Held

Ld. lyon king of arms, 1727-d.

Biography

Brodie succeeded his brother for Elginshire, which he represented without a contest for over twenty years. Politically attached to Lord Ilay, Walpole’s election manager for Scotland, he was appointed lord lyon king of arms, with a salary of £300 a year in 1727,1 voting consistently with the Government. ‘Giving himself the airs of being my Lord Ilay’s minister in the north’, he set out to gain control of Nairnshire, where he put up a candidate unsuccessfully at a by-election in 1735.2 In 1741 he had to surrender his Elginshire seat to Sir Ludovick Grant, but was brought in for Caithness-shire by his nephew, George Sinclair of Ulbster, its hereditary sheriff. After the Forty-five he reported to Newcastle that the Earl of Sutherland had been harbouring a prominent rebel, adding ‘if it is known that I am your Grace’s informer it will prove of fatal consequence to me’, in spite of which a copy of the document was sent to Duncan Forbes. He was also said to have helped to procure evidence against his old friend, Lord Lovat, observing that ‘it will be of the greatest service to the family of Lovat to have the old man beheaded, which would save the son’.3 Next year he reported to Newcastle the landing of a Jacobite agent by a French privateer on the west coast of the Highlands.4 In the 1747 Parliament, in which Caithness was not represented, he sat for Inverness Burghs under a scheme drawn up by Pelham to prevent contests between government supporters in Scotland.5 At the time of his death, 9 Mar. 1754, he was receiving a secret service pension of £300 a year.6

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: J. M. Simpson

Notes

  • 1. HMC Polwarth, v. 7.
  • 2. Sir W. Fraser, Chiefs of Grant, i. 379; see under NAIRNSHIRE.
  • 3. Add. 32709, f. 389; More Culloden Pprs. v. 142, 171.
  • 4. Add. 32712, f. 332.
  • 5. See under INVERNESS BURGHS.
  • 6. Add. 33038, f. 352.