Grand Masters of Scotland - Onondaga and Oswego Masonic ...

David Melville, 6th Earl of Leven (4 May 1722 – 9 June 1802) was the son of Alexander Melville, 5th Earl of Leven.
On 29 July 1747, he married Wilhelmina Nisbet, daughter of William Nisbet * and they had eight children:
Mary Elizabeth Melville (d. 1820)
Charlotte Melville (d. 1830)
Alexander Leslie-Melville, 7th Earl of Leven (1749–1820)
William Melville (d. 1777)
General David Melville (d. 1838)
Jane Melville (d. 1829)
Lt.-Gen. John Melville (1759–1824)
George Melville (1766–1812)
* William Nisbet (of Dirleton) was a Scottish Freemason. [see No. 11 above] [GM Scotland 1746-47]
He had four children:
Janet Nisbet (c. 1717–?)
Wilhelmina Nisbet (1724–1798)
Jean Nisbet (d. 1790)
Mary Nisbet (c. 1764–?)
23. Charles Bruce, 5th Earl of Elgin and 9th of Kincardine 1761-63
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bruce%2C_5th_Earl_of_Elgin
Charles Bruce, 5th Earl of Elgin and 9th Earl of Kincardine (6 July 1732–14 May 1771) was the son of William Bruce, 8th Earl of
Kincardine.
On 1 June 1759, he married Martha Whyte and they had two children:
William Robert Bruce, 6th Earl of Elgin (1764–1771)
Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin (1766–1841)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bruce%2C_7th_Earl_of_Elgin
Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and 11th Earl of Kincardine (July 20, 1766 - November 14, 1841) was a British nobleman and
diplomat, known for the removal of marble sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens -- popularly known as the Elgin Marbles.
Elgin was the third son of Charles Bruce, 5th Earl of Elgin and succeeded his older brother William, the 6th earl, in 1771 while he
was only five.
Elgin was ambassador to the Ottoman Empire between 1799 and 1803. He had a great enthusiasm for antiquities, and was shocked
by the indifference of the ruling Turks to the worsening condition of the sculptures. His claimed motive in removing them was to
preserve them. In the process of removing the Marbles, he discovered that he was unable to move them out of acropolis without
cutting them out in smaller pieces. Therefore, a considerable damage was made to the marbles. Even at the time, his actions were
controversial. Elgin spent vast amounts of money in having them shipped home to Britain, which he never recouped.
Elgin's time in the Near East had been full of personal misfortune. He had lost his nose during an outbreak of "plague", and this
made him even less appealing to his young wife than he had previously been. On his journey home, through France, the Earl and
some of his companions were taken prisoners of war (war having broken out after they left for home) and were held in detention for
several months. Although they were well-treated, Lady Elgin had to travel home without her husband, and began a liaison with one
of her escorts. On his return to Britain, Elgin, finding that he could not get the British Museum to pay what he was asking for the
marbles, sued his wife's lover for an appropriately high sum. He then remarried (an even younger woman) and went to live on the
Continent. The marbles were put on display and were eventually bought for the nation in 1816.
Broomhall House
His son was:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bruce%2C_8th_Earl_of_Elgin
http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=38446
BRUCE, JAMES, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine, colonial administrator; b. 20 July 1811 in London, England,
second son of Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and 11th Earl of Kincardine, the “saviour” of the “Elgin Marbles,” and of Elizabeth
Oswald; d. 20 Nov. 1863 at Dharmsala, India.
James Bruce, as a younger son until 1840, had to fit himself for work, and the career he actually followed owed much of its
success to his education and to his early preparation for an occupation. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, and
became one of a brilliant group of Eton and Christ Church graduates, many of whom were later associated in politics and the
colonial service.
Bruce studied intensively, so much so that he injured his health and had to forego a double first for a mere first. Nevertheless he
left Oxford not only widely read in classics but having “mastered” on his own, so his brother recorded, the philosophy of Samuel
Taylor Coleridge. The latter, with its stress on the organic nature of society in which the members and interests are dependent on
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