Burnet Abercrombie, MP of Brucefield

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ABERCROMBY, Burnet (?1738-92), of Brucefield, Clackmannan.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790, ed. L. Namier, J. Brooke., 1964
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency CLACKMANNANSHIRE 29 Nov. 1788 - 1790

Family and Education

b. ?1738, 2nd s. of George Abercromby of Tullibody, Clackmannan; bro. of Ralph and nephew of James Abercromby. m. Elizabeth, s.p.

Biography

The least distinguished of four brothers, Burnet Abercromby went to sea in the East India Company’s service, and on his visits to Bengal gained the favour of Clive, to whom he appealed for help in July 1767 in getting ‘a good voyage’.1 Appointed to the command of the Grenville, he sailed for Bombay in 1768, but did not make the expected fortune. In May 1773 ‘Burnet Abercromby of Bury St., St. James’s, mariner and merchant’, was declared bankrupt.2 On the death of his uncle James Abercromby in 1775, he and his father succeeded to the Brucefield estate. Thereafter his fortunes improved and by 1788 he was ‘in opulent circumstances, connected with India shipping’.3

He was returned for Clackmannan through the interest of Henry Dundas, an intimate family friend. On 16 Dec. 1788 and on 11 Feb. 1789 he voted with Administration on the Regency. Dundas wrote to Col. Robert Abercromby in India, 8 Apr. 1789,4 that Burnet ‘gave a steady and cordial support in all our late struggles’.

Clackmannan was not represented in the 1790 Parliament and Abercromby does not appear to have sought election elsewhere. He died 24 Mar. 1792.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790
Author: Edith Lady Haden-Guest

Notes

• 1.Clive mss.
• 2.London Gaz., 4-8 May 1773.
• 3.Pol. State Scotland 1788, p. 83.
• 4.H. Furber, Hen. Dundas, 71.