Ancient deeds and other writs in the Mackenzie-Wharncliffe charter-chest

THE LATE EARL OF WHARNCLIFFE
Mr. Stuart Wortley did not establish his right of succession to the
Mackenzie estate without much trouble. He had to run the gauntlet of
the Scottish Courts, and also of the House of Lords, in an action to
which the Marquess of Bute and Lord Herbert Windsor Stuart, his
second son, were parties. The Judgment of the House of Lords in Mr.
Stuart Wortley 's favour was given in March 1803.
The succession to the estates of Sir George Mackenzie forms another
admirable illustration of the folly of the lawyer, however eminent, who
prepares his own will. Although Sir George was the author of the
famous Entail Act of 1685, he so framed his own deeds of entail that
very shortly after his death their meaning had to be determined by the
Court of Session. His only son who reached manhood having died
unmarried, the succession to his estates was contested by the then Earl
of Bute's only son, Lord Mountstuart, whose mother was Agnes
Mackenzie, the eldest daughter of Sir George Mackenzie, and by her
younger sister, Lady Langton, as she was called, who had married as
her second husband Sir James Mackenzie of Royston, a Senator of the
College of Justice, under the name of Lord Royston. Lord Royston
was also a party to the litigation. Although the case was most interest-
ing in itself, and underwent some startling changes during its progress,
it is unnecessary to say more about it now than that the Bute family
made good their contentions.
The son of James Archibald Stuart Wortley was the first Baron
Wharncliffe, so created in 1826. He was a man of the highest ability,
and a very eminent and influential politician. He was Lord Privy Seal
in 1834, and in 1841 became Lord President of the Council. So much
reliance was placed on his sagacity and tact that he was intrusted with
the mission of effecting a compromise between the Duke of Wellington
and Earl Grey as to the Reform Bill, and at the time of the repeal of the
Corn Laws his good judgment and influence were brought to bear
successfully in soothing the feelings of the members of the old Tory
party. This Peer's name has been long associated with railway law.
Shareholders know well what a ' Wharncliffe ' meeting is. His son,
John Stuart Wortley, became the second Lord Wharncliffe in 1845.
He is described as having been ' a man of scholarly tastes and habits,'
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