John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute, PC, FRS (30 June 1744 – 16 November 1814), styled Lord Mount Stuart until 1792 and known as the Earl of Bute between 1792 and 1794, was a British diplomat and politician who represented Bossiney in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1766 to 1776.
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Early life
Stuart was born at Mount Stuart House on the Isle of Bute, the son of prime minister John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, and his wife Mary Wortley Montagu. He was educated at Harrow School and Winchester College. He went to the University of Oxford, where he had private tuition from James Bladen. The degree of D.C.L., awarded to him by the university in 1793, was honorary. Around 1757 Stuart began to be tutored by the philosopher Adam Ferguson.
Political career
Lord Mount Stuart was returned as Tory Member of Parliament for Bossiney at a by-election in 1766. He was returned in the general elections of 1768 and 1774. On 2 November 1775, he announced in the House of Commons his intention to introduce a bill to establish a militia in Scotland, and during the next few months James Boswell assisted in seeking support for the bill in Scotland. In March 1776 the bill was debated, but ultimately failed to pass. He left the House of Commons in 1776 when he was elevated to the Peerage of Great Britain in his own right as Baron Cardiff, of Cardiff Castle in the County of Glamorgan. Though this title was also used, he continued to be known by his courtesy title of Lord Mount Stuart. (He ranked higher in the order of precedence as the heir to an earldom than he did as a substantive baron.)