Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 54.djvu/269

 copies of his replies, was in 1879 in the possession of Sir Edward Reid of Derry.



STEWARDSON, THOMAS (1781–1859), portrait-painter, born at Kendal in August 1781, was son of John and Anne Stewardson of Kendal, who belonged to a quaker family at Ullsmoor, near Shap in Westmoreland. After a short apprenticeship with John Fothergill, a painter at Kendal, Stewardson studied for some years under [q. v.], who painted a portrait of him, which is stated to have been engraved. After this he came to London, and exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy in 1804. A portrait was painted of Stewardson in that year by [q. v.], from whom he is also said to have received instruction; this portrait was engraved in mezzotint by W. W. Barney. Stewardson settled at first in Leadenhall Street, where he soon obtained a considerable practice as a portrait-painter, his portraits being well drawn and the colouring good. He painted members of the family of the Duke of Marlborough, the Marquis of Winchester, and others; and among his sitters were Sir Thomas S. Pasley, bart., the Right. Hon. George Canning (engraved for the National Portrait Gallery, i. 75), Lord Skelmersdale, the Earl of Liverpool, and others. Latterly he resided in Adam Street, Adelphi. A portrait, by Stewardson, of George Grote, the historian, is in the National Portrait Gallery. Many of his portraits were engraved. Stewardson sometimes painted fancy subjects, usually with children in them. One of these, ‘The Indian Serpent Charmer,’ exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1818, attracted a good deal of attention. He was prevented by illness from practising his profession for the last thirty years of his life, and died, unmarried, at his lodgings in Pall Mall on 28 Aug. 1859. He was buried in Kensal Green cemetery.



STEWART. [See also, , and .]

STEWART, ALEXANDER, and, called the ‘Wolf of Badenoch’ (1343?–1405?), born probably before 1344, was the fourth son of King Robert II of Scotland, by his mistress Elizabeth Mure, whom he subsequently married in 1347. He received from his father a grant of the lands of Badenoch on 30 March 1371, with the famous castle of Lochindorb, but he exercised lordship over Badenoch and Strathspey at an earlier date, for in August 1370 he promised Alexander Burr, bishop of Moray, that he would protect the bishop's lands and tenants within the territories named (Registrum Moraviense, p. 171). In 1372 he was king's lieutenant and justiciary north of the Forth. As such he held court at the standing stones of the Rathe of Kingussie and afterwards in his castle of Ruthven in Badenoch on 10 and 11 Oct. 1380, when a serious debate took place between him and the bishop of Moray, who denied the lieutenant's jurisdiction and appealed direct to the crown. The matter ended in favour of the bishop, and the process, with the lieutenant's decree against him, was solemnly burned in presence of the assemblage. This was followed a year later by a declaration from Stewart renouncing jurisdiction over the church lands in the district (ib. pp. 183–9). About 1382 the lord of Badenoch married Euphemia, countess of Ross, daughter of William, earl of Ross, and widow of Sir Walter Lesley, and by this marriage he became, or was created, Earl of Buchan, acquiring also the lordship of Ross and other large possessions (Registrum Magni Sigilli, i. 165 et seq.) He however deserted his wife for another woman, perhaps the mother of his children, and in November 1389 the censure of the church was pronounced upon him by the bishops of Moray and Ross. Resentment for this and other causes of quarrel between him and the bishop of Moray probably led the earl to incite his men, in May 1390, to burn the town of Forres and certain church buildings there; while in the month following he himself in person led a lawless band against Elgin, destroying by fire the hospital there, the houses of the clergy, and the noble and beautiful cathedral, and earning for himself his popular designation, the ‘Wolf of Badenoch.’ For this offence he was excommunicated, but was afterwards absolved by the bishop of St. Andrews in the presence of Robert III at Perth (Registrum Moraviense, pp. 353, 381).

After this the earl appears to have taken little part in public affairs, and it is usually stated that he died on 24 July 1394. But this is an error first published by Duncan Stewart (History of the Stewarts) in 1739,