BUTE, The Most Hon 7th Marquess of 1958-2021
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Richard R
Mar 23, 2021, 3:34:27 AM3/23/21
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News of this event was first posted to the Group yesterday here: https://groups.google.com/g/peerage-news/c/bh7OP13bIWs
The Times of 23 March 2021 has been quick to publish Johnny Dumfires' obit.
EXTRACT
The 7th Marquess of Bute obituary
Le Mans-winning racing driver, Scottish landowner and wayward son who tried his hand at decorating, boxing and breaking lockdown
Johnny Dumfries claimed that he drove fast cars for three reasons: sheer enjoyment; to make his mark away from the names that he had been bequeathed; and to pocket some cash....
...His father, the 6th Marquess of Bute, had taken a non-interventionist view of this wayward son’s career choices. “He said he didn’t care what I did as long as I didn’t go to him for the money to pay for it,” recalled Dumfries...
...None of this was much preparation for his stewardship of Mount Stuart, the family’s ancestral Victorian gothic palace on the Isle of Bute that he inherited in 1993 along with the 18th-century Dumfries House in southwest Scotland. As though to emphasise the point, he preferred to live in Ladbroke Grove, west London. ...
...John Colum Crichton-Stuart, supposedly a descendant of Robert the Bruce, was born in a cottage hospital on the Isle of Bute in 1958. He was the third of four children of the 6th Marquess of Bute, KBE, Scotland’s most prominent Catholic, who ran the family estate, and his first wife, Nicola (née Weld-Forester).
..The marquisate had been created in 1794 for the 4th Earl of Bute, whose father, John Stuart, the 3rd Earl, was George III’s despotic prime minister for 11 months in 1762-63. The first marquess served as ambassador to Spain; the second built Cardiff docks and owned substantial oil and coal plants in the region; and the third scandalised Victorian society by converting to Catholicism, restoring Cardiff Castle and building the eccentric Castle Coch in south Wales.
Young John’s father marked the birth of a son and heir by lighting a 30ft beacon on Rothesay, blazing his triumph to the cheering peasantry, who were served free beer. He had two older sisters, Sophia, who married the rock musician Jimmy Bain, and Caroline, who died in a car accident in 1984, and a younger brother, Anthony, who is an art dealer in New York.
He was put in the care of Helen Lightbody, former nanny to Prince Charles and Princess Anne...
...In 1982 he met Carolyn Waddell, a teenage nanny from Lincolnshire [and they] married at a London registry office when she was seven months pregnant...They had three children, who all survive: Caroline, Cathleen and John, who succeeds in the title. ...
...He inherited not only the title but also an estate worth an estimated £144 million, including 25,000 acres of Scotland — as well as a £12 million overdraft. He dropped the Johnny Dumfries name, preferring to be known as John Bute...
...last year he was No 774 on The Sunday Times Rich List with a fortune estimated at £158 million. ...On the day before Valentine’s Day 1999, Bute married Serena Wendell, a fashion designer who runs the Serena Bute label, in the marble chapel at Mount Stuart. She also survives him with their daughter, Lola, and her two children from a previous marriage, Jazzy and Joshua.
The 7th Marquess of Bute, racing driver and landowner, was born on April 26, 1958. He died after a short illness on March 22, 2021, aged 62
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-7th-marquess-of-bute-obituary-9dp0pnknb
He was son of 6th Marquess of BUTE 1933-93 and his 1st w Beatrice Nicola Grace b 1933 d of Lt-Col Wolstan Beaumont Charles WELD-FORESTER 1899-1961 gs of 5th Baron FORESTER 1842-1917 and Anne Grace Christian STIRLING HOME DRUMMOND MORAY 1902-87 scion of that Scots gentry family of Abercairny. He m 1st 1984 (div 1993) Carolyn M R b 1964 reg Q2 Cornwall d of (Robert) Bryson WADDELL 1915-76 by his 1954 m reg Q2 Essex to Rosalia M H TYSSENS, and had a son and two daus. He m 2nd 1999 Serena Saltaire d of Maj Jac WENDELL 1924-2005 and Anthea Peronelle MAXWELL-HYSLOP b 1931 scion of the HYSLOP gentry family f/o Lotus, and had a further dau. His son succeeds him:
JOHN BRYSON Crichton-Stuart [8th] Marquess of BUTE b 21 Dec 1989, unm. Has yet to establish his claim and appear on The Peerage Roll.
The heir presumptive is the new Marquess' uncle Lord ANTHONY CRICHTON-STUART b 14 May 1961, m 1990 Alison J d of Keith BRUCE of Highgate and had a son (Anthony Alec b 23 Jan 2001) and two daus (Flora Grace b 1994 and Eliza Rose b 1996).
The 7th Marquess continued to use the name Johnny Dumfries after his succession to his title in 1993 and his son and heir was styled Lord Mount Stuart (contrary to previous family members assuming the invented style Viscount Mount-Stuart). This continued until the 2008 edn of Debrett's recorded the fact that he was styled Earl of Dumfries.
The Times of 23 March 2021 has been quick to publish Johnny Dumfires' obit.
EXTRACT
The 7th Marquess of Bute obituary
Le Mans-winning racing driver, Scottish landowner and wayward son who tried his hand at decorating, boxing and breaking lockdown
Johnny Dumfries claimed that he drove fast cars for three reasons: sheer enjoyment; to make his mark away from the names that he had been bequeathed; and to pocket some cash....
...His father, the 6th Marquess of Bute, had taken a non-interventionist view of this wayward son’s career choices. “He said he didn’t care what I did as long as I didn’t go to him for the money to pay for it,” recalled Dumfries...
...None of this was much preparation for his stewardship of Mount Stuart, the family’s ancestral Victorian gothic palace on the Isle of Bute that he inherited in 1993 along with the 18th-century Dumfries House in southwest Scotland. As though to emphasise the point, he preferred to live in Ladbroke Grove, west London. ...
...John Colum Crichton-Stuart, supposedly a descendant of Robert the Bruce, was born in a cottage hospital on the Isle of Bute in 1958. He was the third of four children of the 6th Marquess of Bute, KBE, Scotland’s most prominent Catholic, who ran the family estate, and his first wife, Nicola (née Weld-Forester).
..The marquisate had been created in 1794 for the 4th Earl of Bute, whose father, John Stuart, the 3rd Earl, was George III’s despotic prime minister for 11 months in 1762-63. The first marquess served as ambassador to Spain; the second built Cardiff docks and owned substantial oil and coal plants in the region; and the third scandalised Victorian society by converting to Catholicism, restoring Cardiff Castle and building the eccentric Castle Coch in south Wales.
Young John’s father marked the birth of a son and heir by lighting a 30ft beacon on Rothesay, blazing his triumph to the cheering peasantry, who were served free beer. He had two older sisters, Sophia, who married the rock musician Jimmy Bain, and Caroline, who died in a car accident in 1984, and a younger brother, Anthony, who is an art dealer in New York.
He was put in the care of Helen Lightbody, former nanny to Prince Charles and Princess Anne...
...In 1982 he met Carolyn Waddell, a teenage nanny from Lincolnshire [and they] married at a London registry office when she was seven months pregnant...They had three children, who all survive: Caroline, Cathleen and John, who succeeds in the title. ...
...He inherited not only the title but also an estate worth an estimated £144 million, including 25,000 acres of Scotland — as well as a £12 million overdraft. He dropped the Johnny Dumfries name, preferring to be known as John Bute...
...last year he was No 774 on The Sunday Times Rich List with a fortune estimated at £158 million. ...On the day before Valentine’s Day 1999, Bute married Serena Wendell, a fashion designer who runs the Serena Bute label, in the marble chapel at Mount Stuart. She also survives him with their daughter, Lola, and her two children from a previous marriage, Jazzy and Joshua.
The 7th Marquess of Bute, racing driver and landowner, was born on April 26, 1958. He died after a short illness on March 22, 2021, aged 62
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-7th-marquess-of-bute-obituary-9dp0pnknb
He was son of 6th Marquess of BUTE 1933-93 and his 1st w Beatrice Nicola Grace b 1933 d of Lt-Col Wolstan Beaumont Charles WELD-FORESTER 1899-1961 gs of 5th Baron FORESTER 1842-1917 and Anne Grace Christian STIRLING HOME DRUMMOND MORAY 1902-87 scion of that Scots gentry family of Abercairny. He m 1st 1984 (div 1993) Carolyn M R b 1964 reg Q2 Cornwall d of (Robert) Bryson WADDELL 1915-76 by his 1954 m reg Q2 Essex to Rosalia M H TYSSENS, and had a son and two daus. He m 2nd 1999 Serena Saltaire d of Maj Jac WENDELL 1924-2005 and Anthea Peronelle MAXWELL-HYSLOP b 1931 scion of the HYSLOP gentry family f/o Lotus, and had a further dau. His son succeeds him:
JOHN BRYSON Crichton-Stuart [8th] Marquess of BUTE b 21 Dec 1989, unm. Has yet to establish his claim and appear on The Peerage Roll.
The heir presumptive is the new Marquess' uncle Lord ANTHONY CRICHTON-STUART b 14 May 1961, m 1990 Alison J d of Keith BRUCE of Highgate and had a son (Anthony Alec b 23 Jan 2001) and two daus (Flora Grace b 1994 and Eliza Rose b 1996).
The 7th Marquess continued to use the name Johnny Dumfries after his succession to his title in 1993 and his son and heir was styled Lord Mount Stuart (contrary to previous family members assuming the invented style Viscount Mount-Stuart). This continued until the 2008 edn of Debrett's recorded the fact that he was styled Earl of Dumfries.
Henry W
Mar 23, 2021, 4:19:51 PM3/23/21
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I would add that whilst the hp is the Marquess' uncle for many titles, the Earldom of Dumfries and associated titles can pass in the female line. The heir to those titles is the new Marquess' sister (and two other sisters before it could pass to the uncle)
Richard R
Mar 24, 2021, 2:02:44 AM3/24/21
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The Telegraph of 24 March has published and obit:
EXTRACT
Johnny Dumfries, racing driver and scion of one of the richest families in Scotland – obituary
Later in life, as John Bute, he put the Gothic family seat, Mount Stuart, Isle of Bute, on a sound commercial footing
The 7th Marquess of Bute, who has died of cancer aged 62, was known in the 1980s, under the pseudonym Johnny Dumfries, as a racing driver the height of whose career was winning the Le Mans 24 Hour Race in 1988...
...John Colum Crichton-Stuart was born on April 26 1958 at Mount Stuart house, the huge Gothic Revival fantasy at Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, the third of four children of the 6th Marquess of Bute and his first wife Nicola, née Weld-Forester. On his birth he was styled the Earl of Dumfries.
The family claim descent from King Robert the Bruce through John Stewart (1360–1449), the “Black Stewart”, Sheriff of Bute, an illegitimate son of the Bruce’s grandson Robert II, who was granted the lands of Bute, Arran and Cumbrae by his father.
The family acquired an earldom in 1703, but the foundations of the family’s fortunes were laid by John, 3rd Earl of Bute, briefly and unsuccessfully Prime Minister to King George III, who made a judicious marriage to an heiress, Mary Wortley-Montagu. The marquisate was created in 1794 for his son, the 4th Earl of Bute, who served as ambassador to Spain.
The family’s red sandstone Gothic palace Mount Stuart had been built to the designs of Robert Rowand Anderson in the late 19th century to replace the original house, destroyed by fire in 1877, by the 3rd Earl, a historian, patron of the arts and mystic who caused a scandal in Victorian society by throwing over the Presbyterian Church of his birth to become a Roman Catholic.
The family also owned Dumfries House in Cumnock, Ayrshire, built in the 1750s for William Dalrymple, 5th Earl of Dumfries, by John and Robert Adam and inherited in 1814 by the 2nd Marquess of Bute. Regarded as one of the finest mid-18th century Scottish country houses to have survived intact, until 1993 it was lived in by John’s grandmother, Lady Eileen, Dowager Marchioness of Bute.
...In July 1993 his grandmother, the Dowager Marchioness, died, quickly followed by his father, and Johnny Dumfries, now the 7th Marquess, was hit with double death duties. Although he inherited an estate worth an estimated £144 million, it came with a substantial overdraft and some rationalisation was inevitable.
...In 1996 he sold family furniture and paintings which fetched £10.7 million at Christie’s. Three years later he sold the island of Great Cumbrae, in the Firth of Clyde, for £1 million, and in 2000 he sold a rare copy of Audubon’s Birds of America for £5.5 million.
...He put a new roof on Dumfries House, and in 2007, after long and tortuous negotiations with the National Trust for Scotland came to nothing, the house, with its magnificent collection of Chippendale furniture, was sold after a consortium headed by Prince Charles bought it for the nation for £45 million.
...When in Scotland, the Marquess lived in a farmhouse on the other side of Bute from Mount Stuart, though for most of the time he lived in London where, aged 45, he took up boxing for an exhibition match to help launch a new boxing club owned by a friend.
...In 1984 he married Carolyn Waddell, with whom he had two daughters and a son. The marriage was dissolved and in 1999 he married, secondly, Serena Wendell, with whom he had a daughter.
His son, John Bryson Crichton-Stuart, Earl of Dumfries, born in 1989, inherits the Marquisate.
Johnny Dumfries, the 7th Marquess of Bute, born April 26 1958, died March 22 2021
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2021/03/23/johnny-dumfries-racing-driver-scion-one-richest-families-scotland/
Later in life, as John Bute, he put the Gothic family seat, Mount Stuart, Isle of Bute, on a sound commercial footing
The 7th Marquess of Bute, who has died of cancer aged 62, was known in the 1980s, under the pseudonym Johnny Dumfries, as a racing driver the height of whose career was winning the Le Mans 24 Hour Race in 1988...
...John Colum Crichton-Stuart was born on April 26 1958 at Mount Stuart house, the huge Gothic Revival fantasy at Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, the third of four children of the 6th Marquess of Bute and his first wife Nicola, née Weld-Forester. On his birth he was styled the Earl of Dumfries.
The family claim descent from King Robert the Bruce through John Stewart (1360–1449), the “Black Stewart”, Sheriff of Bute, an illegitimate son of the Bruce’s grandson Robert II, who was granted the lands of Bute, Arran and Cumbrae by his father.
The family acquired an earldom in 1703, but the foundations of the family’s fortunes were laid by John, 3rd Earl of Bute, briefly and unsuccessfully Prime Minister to King George III, who made a judicious marriage to an heiress, Mary Wortley-Montagu. The marquisate was created in 1794 for his son, the 4th Earl of Bute, who served as ambassador to Spain.
The family’s red sandstone Gothic palace Mount Stuart had been built to the designs of Robert Rowand Anderson in the late 19th century to replace the original house, destroyed by fire in 1877, by the 3rd Earl, a historian, patron of the arts and mystic who caused a scandal in Victorian society by throwing over the Presbyterian Church of his birth to become a Roman Catholic.
The family also owned Dumfries House in Cumnock, Ayrshire, built in the 1750s for William Dalrymple, 5th Earl of Dumfries, by John and Robert Adam and inherited in 1814 by the 2nd Marquess of Bute. Regarded as one of the finest mid-18th century Scottish country houses to have survived intact, until 1993 it was lived in by John’s grandmother, Lady Eileen, Dowager Marchioness of Bute.
...In July 1993 his grandmother, the Dowager Marchioness, died, quickly followed by his father, and Johnny Dumfries, now the 7th Marquess, was hit with double death duties. Although he inherited an estate worth an estimated £144 million, it came with a substantial overdraft and some rationalisation was inevitable.
...In 1996 he sold family furniture and paintings which fetched £10.7 million at Christie’s. Three years later he sold the island of Great Cumbrae, in the Firth of Clyde, for £1 million, and in 2000 he sold a rare copy of Audubon’s Birds of America for £5.5 million.
...He put a new roof on Dumfries House, and in 2007, after long and tortuous negotiations with the National Trust for Scotland came to nothing, the house, with its magnificent collection of Chippendale furniture, was sold after a consortium headed by Prince Charles bought it for the nation for £45 million.
...When in Scotland, the Marquess lived in a farmhouse on the other side of Bute from Mount Stuart, though for most of the time he lived in London where, aged 45, he took up boxing for an exhibition match to help launch a new boxing club owned by a friend.
...In 1984 he married Carolyn Waddell, with whom he had two daughters and a son. The marriage was dissolved and in 1999 he married, secondly, Serena Wendell, with whom he had a daughter.
His son, John Bryson Crichton-Stuart, Earl of Dumfries, born in 1989, inherits the Marquisate.
Johnny Dumfries, the 7th Marquess of Bute, born April 26 1958, died March 22 2021
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2021/03/23/johnny-dumfries-racing-driver-scion-one-richest-families-scotland/
BREMENMURRAY
Mar 25, 2021, 1:41:39 PM3/25/21
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One of the few Marquesses in the Sunday Times Rich List.Pleased the Times and Telegraph recorded the Obit immediately and not weeks later as with other members of the peerage
bx...@yahoo.com
Mar 25, 2021, 2:03:23 PM3/25/21
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Henry W, thanks so much for pointing this out.
I, for one, would have thought the uncle was hp to all of the titles.
Brooke
sven_me...@web.de
Mar 25, 2021, 3:55:59 PM3/25/21
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How active was he in the Lords?
David Beamish
Mar 26, 2021, 1:54:00 AM3/26/21
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He never spoke in the House of Lords: see https://hansard.parliament.uk/search/MemberContributions?memberId=3348&startDate=1993-07-21&endDate=1999-11-11&type=Spoken&outputType=List&partial=False
It looks as if he never took his seat (and maybe never obtained a writ of summons) but that is harder to check from online sources.
marquess
Mar 26, 2021, 5:03:23 AM3/26/21
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When I first started taking the Times Rich List back in 1990 Bristol used to be on it at 30 million and I also think that Lothian was also there.
sven_me...@web.de
Mar 26, 2021, 12:07:10 PM3/26/21
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https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199697/ldinfo/ld03mem/inf3b.htm At least he has not taken the oath in the 1997/98 session. I don't know if the others are to be find online.
colinp
Dec 13, 2024, 4:38:44 PM12/13/24
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The succession of John Bryson Crichton-Stuart as Marquess of Bute in the Peerage of Great Britain has been approved by the Secretary of State for Justice
colinp
Dec 23, 2024, 7:38:49 AM12/23/24
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Sir John Bryson Crichton-Stuart, 8th Marquess of Bute is now entered on the Official Roll of the Baronetage as the 13th Baronet Crichton-Stuart, formerly Stuart, of Bute
Patricia Light
Oct 13, 2025, 5:34:09 AM (3 days ago) Oct 13
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According to wikipedia John Bryson Crichton-Stuart, 8th Marquess of Bute's heir is: JOHN, EARL OF DUMFRIES B.2024.
I was not aware that the Marquess was married and cannot find a record of this.
Link to Marquess of Bute's Wikipedia Page - under present peer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquess_of_Bute
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquess_of_Bute
Patricia Light
Oct 13, 2025, 5:42:32 AM (3 days ago) Oct 13
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Further info regarding the Marquess - looks like he goes by the name of Jack Dumfries and his instagram page (which is private) shows a picture of him with his bride - link is:
bx...@yahoo.com
Oct 13, 2025, 1:12:02 PM (2 days ago) Oct 13
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Hi Patricia.
Thanks for the post.
I looked at the Wikipedia page as well.
They don't cite any source for the birth, so I think most of us would like to see some sort of confirmation first.
Brooke
Patricia Light
Oct 13, 2025, 1:13:18 PM (2 days ago) Oct 13
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True
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bx...@yahoo.com
Oct 14, 2025, 1:49:12 PM (yesterday) Oct 14
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We may have to wait to see if it will be included in the new Who's Who edition, when it comes out in the next few months.
Brooke.
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