David Melville, 3rd Earl of Leven

http://books.google.com/books?id=lyENAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA366#v=onepage&q=... Page 366 - 367

“V. David, fifth Earl of Leven, did not assume the title till 1682, after the death of John, Duke of Rothes, the title being kept in abeyance, as the second son of the Duke of Rothes would have been a nearer heir of entail than the second son of the Earl of Melville. The Lords of Session decided that as the Duke of Rothes might yet have sons, the succession whould in the interim merge in the king as pater patriæ. Charles II., by a grant under the Privy Seal, 27th May 1677, assigned the rents of the Leven estates to George, Earl of Melville, father of David, the heir in abeyance, who was then a minor. On the death of the Duke of Rothes in 1681, without male-issue, David Melville entered into possession of the Leven estates, and was served heir to his mother, Lady Catherine Leslie, 26th April 1682.

“David Melville, fifth Earl of Leven, took the name and arms of Leslie on his accession to the title. In his youth he went to Germany and served in the army of the Duke of Brandenburg. He returned home after the revolution of 1688, and was made governor of the Castle of Edinburgh by William III. He was also appointed colonel of a regiment and a Privy Councillor. In 1703 he was appointed Major-General of the forces in Scotland. In 1704 he was appointed General of the Ordnance, and, 2d March 1706, he was made Lieutenant-General and Commander-in-chief of the forces in Scotland. He was one of the commissioners for the union of Scotland and England in 1707; and in the same year he succeeded his father as second Earl of Melville-his elder brother Alexander, Lord Raith, having died in 1695, before his father, without issue.

“David, fifth Earl of Leven and second Earl of Melville, married, in 1691, Lady Anne Wemyss, eldest daughter of Margaret, Countess of Wemyss, sister of David, third Earl of Wemyss, and had issue--

“ I. George, Lord Balgonie and Raith, who died before his father, in August 1721, having married in 1716 his cousin-german, Lady Margaret Carnegie, eldest daughter of David, fourth Earl of Northesk, by Lady Margaret Wemyss, second daughter of Margaret, Countess of Wemyss, and by her had issue- “ I. David, who succeeded his grandfather as Earl of Leven and Melville. “ II. Anne, born 7th April 1721, died unmarried. “ II. Alexander, who succeeded his nephew, David, as Earl of Leven and Melville. “ III. Lady Mary, married to William, second Earl of Aberdeen, and had a daughter, Anne, Countess of Dumfries.

“David, fifth Earl of Leven and second Earl of Melville, died in May 1728, aged sixty-eight years, and was succeeded by his grandson"

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The 3rd Earl of Leven. David Melville, later Leslie, 3rd Earl of Leven and de jure 2nd Earl of Melville (5 May 1660 – 6 June 1728) was a Scots aristocrat, politician, and soldier.

The third son of George Melville, 1st Earl of Melville and his second wife Catherine Leslie-Melville, he shared the Whig political and the Presbyterian religious sympathies of his father.

In 1681, with the death of the rival claimant, John Leslie, 1st Duke of Rothes, he was permitted to enter into the Earldom of Leven.

In 1683 Leven and his father were suspected of complicity in the Rye House Plot, a Whig conspiracy to assassinate Charles II and his brother James, Duke of York. To escape arrest they fled to the Netherlands where they joined the band of British Protestant exiles at the court of Prince William of Orange.

Here Leven was used by William to obtain the support of German princes for his invasion of England in 1688, Leven himself having raised a regiment for that invasion, in the course of which he received the surrender of the town of Plymouth in south Devonshire.

In 1706 he was appointed as one of the Commissioners for the Union of England and Scotland. Privy Councillor [S] 1689; fought at the Battle of Killiecrankie 1689; Constable of Edinburgh Castle 1689-1702 and 1704–12; a Commissioner for the Pacification of the Highlands 1689; a Commissioner of the Scottish Exchequer 1689; Governor of the Bank of Scotland 1697-1728; Brig General 1702; Maj General 1704; Master of the Scottish Ordnance 1705; Commander in Chief of the forces in Scotland 1706; Lieut General 1707; a Commissioner for the Union 1707; one of the original Representative Peers for Scotland 1707-10; dismissed from all offices 1712[1]

He succeeded his father as Earl of Melville 20 May 1707, but did not use the title.