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Minto House, Borders: designs for a gated entrance to the burial grounds for Sir Gilbert Elliot, ND, unexecuted (2)

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Sir Gilbert Elliot, of Minto, 3rd Baronet (1722–1777) was a politician and literary patron, and the eldest son of the judge, Sir Gilbert Elliot, 2nd Baronet, Lord Minto. He attended the Universities of Edinburgh and Utrecht before a short tour across Holland and Germany, returning to Edinburgh in 1745. He held a number of posts include sheriff-depute of Roxburghshire, Lord of the Admiralty, the Lord of the Treasury, Treasurer of the Chamber, Keeper of the Signet and Treasurer of the Navy. He was elected MP for Selkirkshire, which he represented until May 1765. He was also one of the Trustees of the Register House, Edinburgh, a building to house the national records of Scotland designed by Robert Adam.

Minto House was a sixteenth-century tower house, updated for Elliot’s father to the designs of William Adam in c.1738. Robert or James Adam made unexecuted designs for a gated entrance to the ‘burying ground’ at Minto for Sir Gilbert Elliot. It is not clear when these designs were made, however, it must have been before 1777 which is when Sir Gilbert Elliot died. The burial ground possibly relates to the church located on the estate, to the south of Minto House. The church was demolished in the early-nineteenth century but there are still gravestones remaining on site with some dating from the eighteenth century. Minto House was demolished in 1992.

Literature: A.T. Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, 1922, Volume II, Index, pp. 22, 70; D. King, The Complete Works of Robert & James Adam and Unbuilt Adam, 2001, Volume 2, p. 57; P. Carter, ‘Elliot, Sir Gilbert, of Minto, third baronet (1722-1777)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online [accessed 9 October 2023]

Louisa Catt, 2023

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Contents of Minto House, Borders: designs for a gated entrance to the burial grounds for Sir Gilbert Elliot, ND, unexecuted (2)