Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hay, John (1645-1713)
HAY, JOHN, second Marquis of Tweeddale (1645–1713), eldest son of John, first marquis [q. v.], by his wife Lady Jean Scott, daughter of Walter, first earl of Buccleuch, was born in 1645. On Argyll's invasion of Scotland in 1685, he was appointed colonel of the newly raised East Lothian regiment. Adhering with his father to the revolution in 1689, he was chosen a privy councillor of William and Mary, and appointed sheriff of Haddington. He succeeded his father in 1697, and was continued a privy councillor under Queen Anne. For a time he joined the Duke of Hamilton as joint leader of the national party, but, after some private negotiations with the English government, was appointed high commissioner to the Scottish parliament which met in August 1704. The compromise resulted in the passing by the parliament of the Act of Security. It was supposed that Tweeddale and others were influenced to some extent in their policy by personal considerations, but Lockhart gives Tweeddale the credit of being the ‘least ill-meaning man of his party either through inclination or capacity’ (Papers, i. 97). On the 18th of the following October Tweeddale was made lord high chancellor in room of the Earl of Seafield, who was, however, reinstated in office on the 9th of March following. On his removal from office Tweeddale became the head of the party known as the squadrone volante, from the independent attitude they assumed. Until almost the last moment this party remained silent as to their attitude towards the union, but after voting in favour of it on the first division, they were its constant and zealous advocates until the measure was successfully carried through. On 13 Feb. 1707 Tweeddale was chosen one of the sixteen Scottish representative peers. He died on 20 April 1713. Macky, who describes him as a ‘short brown man,’ states that he was ‘a great encourager and promoter of trade and of the welfare of his country.’ He also refers to him as both sensible and modest, and, though hot when much piqued, a man of honour. By his wife Lady Anne Maitland, only child of the Duke of Lauderdale, he had three sons and two daughters; Charles, third marquis, father of John, fourth marquis [q. v.], and of Lord Charles Hay [q. v.]; Lord John (d. 1706) [q. v.]; Lord William Hay of Newhall; Lady Anne, third wife of William, eleventh lord Ross; and Lady Jean, married to John, eighth earl of Rothes.
[Lockhart Papers; Burnet's Own Time; Jerviswood Correspondence (Bannatyne Club); Caldwell Papers (Maitland Club); Marchmont Papers, ed. Rose; Macky's Secret Memoirs; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), ii. 610; Crawfurd's Officers of State, pp. 245–6; Haig and Brunton's Senators of the College of Justice, pp. 477–8.]