| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
He was the fourth son of Robert Dundas (1685-1753), lord president of the Scottish court of session, and was born at Edinburgh in 1742. He was educated at the high school and University of Edinburgh.
Becoming a member of the faculty of advocates in 1763, he soon acquired a leading position at the bar; and he had the advantage of the success of his half-brother Robert (1713-1787), who had become lord president of the court of session in 1760. He became solicitor-general to Scotland in 1766; but after his appointment as lord-advocate in 1775, he gradually relinquished his legal practice to devote his attention more exclusively to public business. In 1774 be was returned to parliament for Midlothian, and joined the party of Lord North; and notwithstanding his speaking Scots and ungraceful manner, he soon distinguished himself by his clear and argumentative speeches.
After holding subordinate offices under the Earl of Shelburne and Pitt the Younger, he entered the cabinet in 1791 as home secretary. From 1794 to 1801 he was secretary of state for war under Pitt, his great friend. In 1802 he was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Melville and Baron Dunira. Under Pitt in 1804 he again entered office as First Lord of the Admiralty, when he introduced numerous improvements in the details of the department. Suspicion had arisen, however, as to the financial management of the Admiralty, of which Dundas had been treasurer between 1782 and 1800; in 1802 a commission of inquiry was appointed, which reported in 1805. The result was the impeachment of Lord Melville in 1806, on the initiative of Samuel Whitbread, for the misappropriation of public money; and though it ended in an acquittal, and nothing more than formal negligence lay against him, he never again held office. An earldom was offered in 1809 but declined.
He was friends with John Graves SimcoeJohn Graves Simcoe ( February 25, 1752 October 26, 1806) was the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada (modern-day southern Ontario plus the shoreline of Georgian Bay and Lake Superior) from 1791- 1796. He founded York (now Toronto) and was instrument, Lieutenant GovernorThis is a list of Lieutenant Governors of the Canadian province of Ontario. Lieutenant Governors of Upper Canada Upper Canada was created out of the western part of Quebec by the Constitutional Act of 1791. NameTerm John Graves Simcoe 1791- 1796 Peter Rus of Upper CanadaUpper Canada is an early name for the land at the upstream end of the Saint Lawrence River in early North America the territory south of Lake Nipissing and north of the St. Lawrence River and Lakes Ontario and Erie plus the eastern shoreline of Georgian B. Simcoe named Dundas Street after him (now Highway 2 in southern OntarioOntario ( In Detail) ( In Detail) Motto: Ut Incepit Fidelis Sic Permanet (Loyal she began, loyal she remains Capital Toronto Largest City Toronto Area Total % fresh water 4th largest(2nd lgst prov. 1 076 395 km² 14. 7% Population Total (2001) Density Rank), and the town of DundasDundas, Ontario is a suburb of Hamilton, Ontario. From 1848 to 2001 it had a town charter. On January 1, 2001, the former Regional Municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth, which contained Dundas in addition to other towns such as Ancaster, was formally amalgam is also named after him.
See Hon. JW Fortescue, History of the British Army, vol. iv (1907).