Alexander Abercromby (Scottish politician, born 1678)
Scottish Army officer and politician
Alexander Abercromby of Glassaugh, Fordyce, Banffshire (5 November 1678 – 23 December 1728) was a Scottish Army officer and politician who sat in the Parliament of Scotland from 1706 to 1707 and as a Whig in the British House of Commons from 1707 to 1727.
In 1699 he inherited Tullibody House east of Stirling from his cousin George Abercromby. He remodeled the house in 1710 and in 1719 additionally acquired the nearby Menstrie Castle.[1] Abercromby was a book collector who had a significant private collection, and books bearing his bookplate can still be found in libraries today.[2]
Abercromby was the third, but eldest surviving son of Alexander Abercromby and his wife Katherine Dunbar, daughter of Sir Robert Dunbar, of Grangehill, Elgin. By 1703, he married Helen Meldrum, daughter of George Meldrum of Crombie, Marnoch, Banff, minister of Glass, Banff. From 1706 he was an officer in the 21st Foot, the Royal Scots Fusiliers. He was ADC to the Duke of Marlborough in the Low Countries in 1711, and rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, retiring on half-pay in 1721.[3]
Abercrombie died on 23 December 1728. He and his wife, Helen Meldrum, had two sons and four daughters, including Patrick Abercromby.[5] His daughter Catherine was the great-grandmother of Lord Byron.
