John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute

Who was John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute?

John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute, KT, FRS, styled Lord Mount Stuart between 1794 and 1814, was a wealthy aristocrat and industrialist in Georgian and early Victorian Britain. He developed the coal and iron industries across South Wales and built the Cardiff Docks.

Bute's father, John, Lord Mount Stuart, died a few months after he was born and as a young child he was brought up first by his mother, the former Lady Elizabeth McDougall-Crichton, and later by his paternal grandfather, John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute. He travelled widely across Europe, before attending Cambridge University. He contracted an eye condition and remained partially sighted for the rest of his life. Having inherited large estates across Britain, he married his first wife, Lady Maria North, in 1818, and together they lived a relatively secluded life in Mount Stuart House in Scotland, one of Bute's four seats. Bute was dour but industrious, with a flair for land management. He focused his daily routine around extensive correspondence with his estate managers, making biannual tours of his lands around the country. The couple did not conceive any children, and Maria died in 1841.