John Stewart, 7th Earl of Galloway

John Stewart was the eldest son and second child of Alexander Stewart, 6th Earl of Galloway (c. 1694–1773) and his, second wife, Lady Catherine Cochrane. His older sister, Lady Susanna Stewart (d. 1805), married Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford. His other siblings included Admiral the Honourable Keith Stewart of Glasserton (1739–1795), Lady Margaret Stewart (d. 1762), Lady Charlotte Stewart (d. 1818) who married John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, Lady Catherine Stewart (b. c. 1750), and Lady Harriet Stewart (d. 1788) who married Archibald Hamilton, 9th Duke of Hamilton.[1]

His paternal grandparents were James Stewart, 5th Earl of Galloway and Catherine (née Montgomerie), a daughter of Alexander Montgomerie, 9th Earl of Eglinton. His mother was the youngest daughter of the John Cochrane, 4th Earl of Dundonald.[1]

John Stewart depicted in James Gillray's An Old Encore at the Opera! of 1803

He was elected one of the representative peers, representing the Peerage of Scotland in the House of Lords, in 1774 and sat there until the 1790s.[2] From 1783 until his death he was a Lord of the Bedchamber to King George III.

The Earl, a Tory, was the target of two hostile poems by Robert Burns, John Bushby's Lamentation and On the Earl of Galloway.[3][4]

Galloway, a frequent opera-goer, was caricatured by James Gillray in An Old Encore at the Opera! of 1803.[2] In 1762, James Boswell wrote of him that he had "a petulant forwardness that cannot fail to disgust people of sense and delicacy".[5]

Besides being a Member of Parliament, Lord Galloway was a Lord of Police from 1768 to 1782, a Representative Peer for Scotland from 1774 to 1790, a Knight of the Thistle (1775), and a Lord of the Bedchamber from 1784 to 1806.[6]

He succeeded his father Alexander in 1773.[1][6]

Portrait of his second wife, Anne Dashwood by Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1764, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Lord Galloway's second wife, Anne Stewart, and their daughter, Susan Stewart, later Duchess of Marlborough (1767-1841), by Angelica Kauffmann.

On 14 August 1762, he married Lady Charlotte Greville (d. 1763), the daughter of Francis Greville, 1st Earl of Warwick (1719–1773).[2] They had two sons, both of whom died in infancy.[1]

After his first wife's early death, he remarried to Anne Dashwood (1743–1830), daughter of Sir James Dashwood, 2nd Baronet, on 13 June 1764. Together, John and Anne were the parents of sixteen children:[1]

• Lady Catherine Stewart (1765–1836), who married Sir James Graham, 1st Baronet in 1781.
• Hon. Alexander Stewart (1766–1766), who died in infancy.
• Lady Susan Stewart (1767–1841), who married George Spencer-Churchill, 5th Duke of Marlborough in 1791.
• Adm. George Stewart, 8th Earl of Galloway (1768–1834), a naval commander and politician.
• Lady Anne Harriet Stewart (1769–1850), who married Lord Spencer Chichester in 1795[11]
• Lady Elizabeth Euphemia Stewart (1771–1855), who married William Philips Inge in 1798.
• Hon. Leveson Keith Stewart (1772–1780), who died young.
• Lady Georgiana Frances Stewart (1776–1804).
• Lt.-Gen. Hon. Sir William Stewart (1774–1827), a military officer who was the first Commanding Officer of the Rifle Corps, a Division Commander in the Peninsular War, and an MP.
• Rt. Rev. Hon. Charles James Stewart (1775–1837), who became the Bishop of Quebec.
• Lady Charlotte Stewart (1777–1842), who married Sir Edward Crofton, 3rd Baronet in 1801.
• Lady Caroline Stewart (1778–1818), who married Rev. Hon. George Rushout-Bowles in 1803; mother of George Rushout, 3rd Baron Northwick.[12]
• Hon. Montgomery Granville John Stewart (1780–1860).
• Hon. Edward Richard Stewart (1782–1851), an MP who became a Commissioner of the Victualling Board[13] and Paymaster and Inspector-General of the Marines.[14]
• Lt.-Col. James Henry Keith Stewart (1783–1836), who became a Tory Member of Parliament.
• Lady Georgiana Charlotte Sophia Stewart (1785–1809), who married Col. Hon. William Bligh (1775-1845), son of John Bligh, 3rd Earl of Darnley, in 1806.

Lord Galloway died on 13 November 1806 and was succeeded in his titles by his eldest surviving son, the Admiral George Stewart, 8th Earl of Galloway, who married Lady Jane Paget, the daughter of Henry Paget, 1st Earl of Uxbridge, and sister of Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey.[15]