Sir Alexander Bosville Macdonald of the Isles, 14th Bt.

Sir Alexander Wentworth Macdonald Bosville Macdonald, 14th Baronet JP DL ( Alexander Wentworth Macdonald Bosville; 26 September 1865 – 26 March 1933) was an English landowner of Scottish descent.

Early life Born as Alexander Wentworth Macdonald Bosville (1826–1865) on 26 September 1865, he was the only son of Godfrey Wentworth Bayard Bosville, de jure 13th Baronet, and Hon. Harriet Cassandra Willoughby, who was granted the rank of a baron's daughter in . His father died less than a month after his birth. His paternal aunt, Julia Louisa Bosville, married his maternal uncle, Henry Willoughby, 8th Baron Middleton. Alexander's claim, however, was not formally recognised until a Court of Sessions decree on 4 June 1910. With this revival of the 1625 title, granted precedence as second of the Nova Scotia baronets at the time, the holder became the premier baronet. To 1908, the Gordon baronets of Letterfourie, created 28 May 1625, had been premier. On 30 June 1910 his name was legally changed to Alexander Wentworth Macdonald Bosville Macdonald confirmed by Lord Lyon King of Arms.

He inherited the family estates at Thorpe and Gunthwaite, both in Yorkshire, which came into the family through Elizabeth Diana Bosville (wife of Alexander Macdonald, 1st Baron Macdonald and heiress of her uncle, William Bosville). He was a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant of East Riding, Yorkshire. He also served as High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1901.

Personal life

On 20 October 1886, Alexander married Alice Edith Middleton (1861–1935), a writer who was a daughter of John Middleton of Kinfauns Castle, Perth, a descendant of the "old Scottish Earls of Middleton." and were the parents of: His widow died on 15 July 1935. The Miraculous Draught of Fishes had been acquired by his great-grandfather, the 3rd Baron Macdonald, by 1821, and Arcadian Shepherds by the 3rd Baron Macdonald from Christie's in 1822 (from the 2nd Marquess of Bute). Both stayed in the family until the early 1907s when they were sold by his great-grandson, Sir Ian Bosville Macdonald, 17th Baronet. Arcadian Shepherds was sold at Christie's in 1970 to David Carritt, Ltd. (who sold it to the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1972) and The Miraculous Draught of Fishes was consigned in 1971 to Herner-Wengraf Ltd in London who sold it to the J. Paul Getty Museum.