Earl of Leven
(1785-1860)

Volume 1, page 165, sitting number 864.    

David Leslie-Melville, 8th Earl of Leven and 7th Earl of Melville, was a Scottish peer and an admiral in the Royal Navy.

He entered the Royal Navy around 1800, rising to the rank of Rear Admiral in 1846 and Vice Admiral in 1858. He was a Representative Peer for Scotland from 1831 to 1860.

On 21 June 1824 he married Elizabeth Anne Campbell, second daughter of Sir Archibald Campbell of Succoth.Their marriage produced four daughters and two sons. Both of his sons predeceased him.

Lord Leven died on 8 October 1860 at his residence, Melville House in Fife. He was succeeded by his younger brother John Thornton Leslie-Melville. 

According to his obituary in the Fife Herald (11 October 1860): 'In politics his Lordship was a Tory of the Old School. He was a good landlord and much liked by his tenantry, in whose prosperity he took a warm interest, and who seldom had difficulty in obtaining new houses, as his Lordship, like the representatives of most old resident families disliked changes. Notwithstanding the gruff manner in which his Lordship exacted all the deference due to his rank, he was very popular in his immediate neighbourhood on account of the many charities which he dispensed with liberal hand. Through the lamented death of his gallant and only [sic] son, Lord Balgonie, which happened in 1857 the titles of Earl of Leven and Melville are, we understand, inherited by the Honourable John Thornton Leslie Melville, banker in London, now Earl of Leven and Melville; while the entailed estates fall to his Lordship's eldest daughter, Lady Elizabeth Jane Cartwright. The death of Lord Leven will put many noble families in mourning.'