MELVILLE, Robert Saunders Dundas, 2 Viscount (only son of Henry Dundas, 1 Viscount Melville 1742–1811). b. 14 March 1771; ed. at High school of Edinburgh and Emm. coll. Camb.; M.P. Hastings 1794–6, M.P. Rye 1796–1801; assumed name of Saunders 1796; M.P. co. of Edinburgh 1801–11; P.C. 26 March 1807; president of board of control for India 6 April 1807 to 17 July 1809 and 13 Nov. 1809 to 7 April 1812; chief sec. of Ireland 13 April 1809 to 18 Oct. 1809; succeeded his father as 2 viscount 29 May 1811; lord keeper of privy seal for Scotland 20 July 1811; first lord of the admiralty with a seat in the cabinet 25 March 1812 to 2 May 1827 and 19 Sep. 1828 to 25 Nov. 1830; an elder brother of the Trinity house 1809 to death; chancellor of univ. of St. Andrews 7 Feb. 1814 to death; K.T. 17 July 1821; F.R.S. 15 May 1817; F.R.A.S. d. Melville castle near Edinb. 10 June 1851. bur. in family vault Lasswade church 17 June. J. E. Doyle’s Official baronage, ii 494 (1886), portrait; G.M. xxxvi 191 (1851); I.L.N xviii 538 (1851); Jerdan’s National portrait gallery (1831) vol. 2, portrait 17 and pp. 8.
MELVILLE, Henry Dundas, 3 Viscount (eld. child of the preceding). b. Melville castle, Lasswade near Edinb. 25 Feb. 1801; ensign coldstream guards 18 Nov. 1819; major 28 foot 31 Jany. 1828 to 3 Dec. 1829; lieut.-col. 83 foot 3 Dec. 1829 to 2 Aug. 1842 when placed on h.p.; lieut.-col. rifle corps 26 July 1844 to 20 June 1854; brigadier Punjaub field force 1848–9; colonel of 100 foot 22 June 1858 to 28 Sep. 1862; colonel of 32 foot 28 Sep. 1862 to 1 April 1863; colonel commandant 60 rifles 1 April 1863 to death; general 1 Jany. 1868; C.B. 30 March 1839, K.C.B. 9 June 1849, G.C.B. 28 March 1865; succeeded as 3 viscount 10 June 1851; commander of forces in Scotland and governor of Edinburgh castle 29 Jany. 1855 to 1860; president of royal company of archers 1860. d. Melville castle 1 Feb. 1876. I.L.N. lxviii 167 (1876); J. B. Paul’s History of royal company of archers (1875) 250, portrait.
MELVILLE, Robert Dundas, 4 Viscount (brother of the preceding). b. Melville castle near Edinburgh 14 Sep. 1803; deputy controller of the navy 21 Oct. 1830; store keeper general of the navy 9 June 1832 to 27 Feb. 1869; succeeded as 4 viscount 1 Feb. 1876. d. Ramsgate 18 Feb. 1886.
MELVILLE, George John Whyte (only son of John Whyte Melville 1797–1883). b. near St. Andrews 19 July 1821; ed. at Eton to 1839; ensign 93 highlanders 19 July 1839; ensign Coldstream guards 11 Sep. 1840, lieut. 29 Dec. 1846, sold out 28 Jany. 1848; joined cavalry of Turkish contingent as major 27 March 1855 and resigned at close of Crimean war 1856; rode with the Pytchley hounds twenty years; author of Digby Grand, an autobiography 2 vols. 1853; Tilbury Nogo or passages in the life of an unsuccessful man 1854, 4 ed. 1866; General Bounce or the lady and the locusts 2 vols. 1855; Kate Coventry, an autobiography 1856; The Interpreter, a tale of the war 1858; The queen’s Maries, a romance of Holyrood 2 vols. 1862; Holmby house, a tale of Old Northamptonshire 2 vols. 1860; Good for nothing or all down hill 2 vols. 1861; Market Harborough 1861, 6 ed. 1864; The gladiators, a tale of Rome and Judea 3 vols. 1863, 2 ed. 1864; The true cross, a legend of the church 1873, new ed. 1879; Riding recollections 1878, new ed. 1880; Black but comely 3 vols. 1879 and 20 other books; killed while hunting near Charlton pond near Malmesbury 5 Dec. 1878. Babington’s Records of the Fife foxhounds (1883) 114, portrait; Fores’s Sporting Notes, Oct. 1884 p. 110, portrait; Land and water, xxvi 472, 486 (1878); Baily’s Mag. xiii 55–67 (1867), portrait; Illust. sporting news, vi 569 (1867), portrait; Graphic, xix 52 (1879), portrait.
MELVILLE, Henry Saxelby. b. 1801; formerly printer and publisher of Australian papers; author of Narrow guage, speedier than broad guage railways, as well as cheaper 1846. d. Ladbroke crescent, London 23 Dec. 1873.
MELVILLE, Sir John (eld. son of George Melville of Newington, Edinburgh). b. Kirkcaldy 1802; ed. at Edinb. univ.; a writer to the signet 6 Dec. 1827; lord provost of Edinb. 1854–9; crown agent for Scotland 1860; knighted by the queen at Holyrood palace 15 Oct. 1859. d. 15 Heriot row, Edinburgh 5 May 1860. The Scotsman 7 May 1860 p. 2.
MELVILLE, John Whyte (younger son of John Whyte of Bennochry, Fifeshire 1755–1813, who assumed surname of Melville 1809). b. 21 June 1797; cornet 9 lancers 4 Dec. 1817, placed on h.p. 18 Feb. 1819; succeeded his brother 26 Feb. 1818; joint master of the Fife fox hounds 1827, master 1838–48 when the hounds were sold to sir R. Sutton; a golf player for 67 years, captain of the St. Andrew’s club 1823. d. Mount Melville near St. Andrews 16 July 1883. Babington’s Records of Fife fox hounds (1883) 30, portrait; H. G. Hutchinson’s Golf. Badminton library (1890) pp. 437–40, portrait.
MELVILLE, Michael Linning (son of Robert Melville, M.D.) b. 1804; registrar to British and foreign courts of commission at Sierra Leone for suppression of slave trade 7 April 1835 and sec. to mixed British and Spanish courts of justice 9 April 1836; commissioner of arbitration in slave trade courts 20 Feb. 1841; commissary judge at Sierra Leone 12 April 1842, superannuated on an allowance 1 Jany. 1849; barrister L.I. 23 Nov. 1843. d. 22 June 1878.
MELVILLE, Robert (only son of the preceding). b. 1842; ed. at Magd. coll. Oxf., B.A. 1861, M.A. 1864; barrister L.I. 17 Nov. 1864; judge of county courts, circuit 27, comprising Herefordshire and Shropshire, Oct. 1889 to death; gave evidence in a case at county police court, Ludlow 31 Aug. 1891. d. suddenly at Ashford hall near Ludlow at 5 a.m. 1 Sep. 1891.
MELVIN, James. b. Aberdeen 21 April 1795; ed. at Aberdeen gr. sch. and Marischal college, M.A. 1816, LL.D. 1834; a master at Aberdeen gr. sch. 1822–6, rector 1826 to death; lecturer on humanity (i.e. Latin) at Marischal college, contested professorship of Latin 1839 and 1852; probably most accomplished Scottish Latinist of his day; a testimonial of £300 in a silver snuff-box was presented to him by old pupils 18 June 1853; author of Latin exercises as dictated by the late James Melvin 1857, a supplementary volume or key appeared in 1858, and a third ed. revised by rev. J. Pirie 1873; his books numbering 6984 were presented to Marischal college in Sep. 1856 by his sister Agnes Melvin; there is a stained-glass memorial window in univ. library, Aberdeen. d. Belmont st. Aberdeen 29 June 1853. Macmillan’s Mag. Jany. 1864 pp. 225–39; Anderson’s Fasti academiæ Mariscallanæ (1889) 527–9.