Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Drummond-Hay, John Hay
DRUMMOND-HAY, Sir JOHN HAY (1816–1893), diplomatist, third son of Edward William Auriol Drummond-Hay (d. 1845), nephew of the ninth earl of Kinnoul, was born on 1 June 1816 at Valenciennes, where his father was major on Lord Lynedoch's staff in the army of occupation in France; afterwards he was Lord-Lyon clerk at Edinburgh, where he knew Sir Walter Scott, Cockburn, and others, and in 1829 he became consul-general of Morocco. His mother was Louisa Margaret, daughter of John Thomason, deputy commissary-general.
He was educated at the Charterhouse from 1827 to 1832, when he joined his father at Tangier; he entered the diplomatic service as attaché under Ponsonby and afterwards Stratford Canning at Constantinople in 1840, during most part of which year he was employed in Egypt.
But it was with Morocco that Drummond-Hay's life was mainly identified. After a visit to England, Stockholm, and Copenhagen, he was in 1844 sent to Morocco as assistant to the consul-general. He became consul-general himself in 1845, and subsequently he was charge d'affaires, 1847-60, minister resident, 1860-72, and finally minister plenipotentiary, 1872-86. During his long residence in the country he did much to improve its relations with European powers. Besides acting for England, he was also agent in Morocco for Austria and Denmark. He was the first to break through the custom of envoys of presenting their credentials to the sultan on their knees. In 1844 he vainly attempted to arrange terms between the French and the Moors before the bombardment of Mogador by the Prince de Joinville on 15 Aug. In the same year he published his 'Western Barbary; or, its Wild Tribes and Savage Animals' (London, 16mo), which reached a second edition in 1861, and was translated into French in 1844, and into Spanish in 1859. In 1845 he was concerned in the negotiation of conventions between Morocco and Denmark, Sweden and Spain, and in December 1856 negotiated a general treaty and convention of commerce between Great Britain and Morocco (Hertslet, Treaties, x. 903, xi. 425). In 1848 Hay published his 'Journal of an Expedition to the Court of Morocco;' other parts of his 'Journals' form the basis of the 'Memoir' of Hay published in 1896, which 'not only affords valuable insight into local politics and character, but contains a number of original reflections from the diaries and letters of a keen and careful student' (Meakin, p. 479). He was created K.C.B. on 20 May 1802, G.C.M.G. on 4 Dec. 1884, and was also K.G.C. of the Dauebrog. On his retirement he was on 3 Aug. 1886 sworn of the privy council. For some years before his retirement he wielded in Morocco an influence commensurate with his great natural abilities, long residence in the country, and perfect knowledge of the people. He died at his seat, Wedderburn Castle, Duns, N.B.,on 27 Nov. 1893; a portrait is prefixed to his 'Memoir.'
He married, in 1845, Annette, daughter of M. Cazytensen, of Copenhagen, privy councillor to the king of Denmark.
[Memoir by his two daughters. 1896; Burke's Peerage, 1893; Ann. Reg. 1893, ii. 203; Times, 29 Nov. 1893; S. Lane-Poole's Life of Stratford Canning; Budgett Meakin's Moorish Empire, 1899, passim.]