James Oswald

James Oswald was a Burgh Commissioner of the Parliament of Scotland, 1703-1707, representing Kirkcaldy and, later, the Member of Parliament for Dysart Burghs in the House of Commons of Great Britain.

Early life He was born in 1650, second son of Thomas Oswald of Kirkcaldy in Fife and Isobel Anderson. His father was a merchant navy captain and he followed the same occupation becoming a wealthy captain. By 1689 he was a burgess of Kirkcaldy and successfully petitioned the Privy Council to relieve the burden of taxation on Kirkcaldy, because of the decay of trade of the burgh.

Contested Election to Parliament

Under an Act of Parliament of 1469, burgh members of Parliament were chosen by the town councils, so for the election of 1702 the town council of Kirkcaldy met on 8 September. The member, called "burgh commissioner", since 1689 had been John Boswell, but Captain James Oswald stood against him. Since 1690 the Earl of Leven had been annually re-elected as provost. There followed a power struggle between the Earl of Leven and the Oswald family lasting almost a year.

First, Captain Oswald claimed that the Earl of Leven, the provost, could not take part in the election meeting on several grounds. On his part, the provost disallowed four Oswald supporters from voting, councillors Henry Oswald, John Durie (future father in law of his son James ) and two others.

However, the Earl of Leven's father, George, Earl of Melville, was president of the Privy Council, and on 26 November the Privy Council decreed there had been no lawful quorum in the Kirkcaldy council, declared the election of officials null and void, that Captain James Oswald and 7 other councillors were ineligible to vote at the next election. Captain Oswald was ordered to seek pardon, "on his knees" from the Earl of Leven for "opprobrious words uttered by him against the earl".

When the new Parliament first met in May 1703, it placed Kirkcaldy on a list of contested elections and thus the contest went to the Committee for Controverted Elections. With the aid of the Earl of Rothes, hereditary sheriff of Fife, Oswald was able to overturn Leven’s influence and on 17 August, he was admitted to Parliament.

Meanwhile on 15 December 1702, the Earl of Leven's father was replaced as president of the Privy Council, by the Marquis of Annandale. group.

Shortly before Oswald was admitted to Parliament, it passed the Act of Security on 13 August 1703, which stipulated that the successor to Queen Anne must be a protestant, but not the same person who sat on the English throne, unless various trade and other conditions were met. However, the royal assent was withheld until 1704. The Duke of Hamilton tabled a motion on 17 July 1704 proposing these conditions and refusing assent to government funding until this was enshrined in law. Oswald voted in favour of the Duke of Hamilton’s motion.

When the proposed union with England came before Parliament, it first considered Article 1 of the treaty of union, namely that the two Kingdoms should on 1 May 1707 be united into one. Before the question was put, the Duke of Atholl presented a resolution against an Incorporating Union. The Country party urged that such a union was against the interests and honour of the country. Oswald voted for this protest, which was recorded in the parliamentary record. Oswald then voted against Article 1, but it was carried by a majority of 34 votes.

When Parliament considered Article 3 of the treaty, namely the amalgamation of the parliaments into one, Oswald voted for the resolution of the Marquis of Annandale against an Incorporating Union, but the vote was lost. He lost likewise when voting against the article itself, which abolished the Scottish Parliament. He, together with Scrymgeour of Dundee, Allardyce of Aberdeen, William Sutherland of Elgin, and Andrew Watson of St Andrews set about amending later articles give better terms. All, except Scrymgeour, were nationalists, with Allardyce and Sutherland furthermore being Jacobites.

Oswald missed the final vote ratifying the treaty, by which time Kirkcaldy burgh council called him home to save expense.

Parliament of Great Britain By the Acts of Union 1707 burgh constituencies of Scotland (except Edinburgh) were put into groups, each only electing one member of the Union parliament. In the group each burgh had one vote and in case of a tie the presiding burgh, which rotated, had a casting vote. Kirkcaldy was placed in the Dysart Burghs group, which had 4 burghs. In 1710, the first M.P. for Dysart burghs was found not qualified and James Abercromby, the illegitimate half-brother of the Duke of Hamilton, was elected at a by-election.

Later that year, a general election came about in the wake of the collapse of the Whig government led by Godolphin and the Whig Junto, who instigated the Union in 1707. Abercromby was overawed by the recent election of James Oswald as provost of Kirkcaldy, which would be presiding burgh at that election with a casting vote. Abercromby calculated he could only win if Oswald did not stand against him. As he did stand, Abercromby withdrew and Oswald was elected unopposed. From then until 1938, James Oswald's descendants owned the estate of Dunnikier. However, in 1791-93, his great grandson James Townsend Oswald arranged for a new mansion to be built in the northern part of the parish of Kirkcaldy, by Alexander Laing. but the estate continued to be named Dunnikier. The family lived there until the last of the line, Colonel St Clair Oswald, C.R., died at Dunnikier House on 14th Dec 1938.

Later life In 1715, his son and heir also called James married Ann Durie, daughter of John Durie, Captain Oswald’s ally in Kirkcaldy council. then by his son also called James Oswald (1715–69), who like his grandfather became M.P. for Dysart Burghs, in 1741.