Friendships with well connected Scots must have helped the career of Adam Smith, example here is Friendship Number 1:
Scots often visited Paris. Adam Smith was no exception, but he could not have spent so long in France without meeting the young Duke of Buccleuch. He was able to go because he was tutor to Henry Scott, 3rd Duke of Buccleuch and Queensbury. They visited Europe together. It was David Hume, Adam’s friend, who recommended him to the Buccleuch family. Henry’s father had died of smallpox aged 29. Caroline, Henry’s mother, wanted a suitable tutor for her precious son. She had married Charles Townshend, and he arranged for Henry to attend Eton College, and then funded Henry to travel abroad with Adam Smith as his tutor from 1764 to 1766. The Duke remained lifelong friends with Adam Smith.
Indeed, Henry generated more wealth for his family during his life time (1746 – 1812) than any other Buccleuch. No doubt he applied the instruction from Adam Smith enabling his success. Buccleuch was Governor of the Royal Bank of Scotland from 1777 to 1812. He was President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from 1783 to 1812. He was Lord-Lieutenant of Haddington from 1794 to 1812, and Lord-Lieutenant of Midlothian from 1794 to 1812. In 1778, he raised successfully a regiment of Fencibles. He was appointed a deputy lieutenant of Northamptonshire on 9 May 1803.
The Buccleuch family are well known in the Scottish Borders:
Sir Walter Scott, Bart., was directly descended of the Lords of Buccleuch. His family history, fancifully interpreted, is the main subject of much of The Lay of the Last Minstrel.
The current Duke of Buccleuch, Richard Scott, the 10th Duke, is the largest private landowner in the United Kingdom and chairman of the Buccleuch Group, a holding company with interests in commercial property, rural affairs, food, and beverages. The title originally comes from a holding in the Scottish Borders, near Selkirk.
The family seats are Bowhill House, three miles outside Selkirk, representing the Scott line; Drumlanrig Castle in Dumfries and Galloway, representing the Douglas line; and Boughton House in Northamptonshire, England, representing the Montagu line. These three houses are still lived in by the family and are also open to the public. The family also owns Dalkeith Palace in Midlothian, which is let, and has owned several other country houses and castles in the past. Its historic London residence was Montagu House, Whitehall, now demolished.
Most of the Dukes of Buccleuch (the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th) are buried in the Buccleuch Memorial Chapel in St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Dalkeith, Midlothian. The 2nd Duke (died 1751) is buried in Eton College Chapel. The most recent Dukes (the 8th and 9th) are buried among the ruins of Melrose Abbey in Melrose.
This was a new line of Buccleuch since a previous line ended with:
The Scotts of BUCCLEUCH, whose Dukedom dates from 1673, ended in Anne, who married James, Duke of Monmouth, natural son of Charles II, who was beheaded for rebelling against his uncle, James II. From this marriage comes the line of the later Dukes of Buccleuch and Queensberry.
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