Background
In 1643, he succeeded his father as Lord Melville.
In 1643, he succeeded his father as Lord Melville.
Here Melville became one of the chief Scots supporters of William of Orange. In 1689 William made him sole Secretary of State for Scotland and in 1690 he was created Earl of Melville, Viscount Kirkaldie, and Lord Raith, Monymaill and Balewarie (all in the Peerage of Scotland). Although Melville’s appointment as Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland in 1693 was a political demotion he enjoyed substantial emoluments, the more so after 1696 when he became President of the Privy Council of Scotland at an annual salary of £1,000 sterling.
lieutenant is possible that details of Melville and his son"s lives were used by Sir Walter Scott in this novel Old Mortality to lend authentic sounding biographical detail to the hero Henry Morton.
Later Morton is forced to flee to the Netherlands where (living under his mother"s name of Melville) he becomes one of William of Orange"s supporters, before returning to Britain in the wake of the Glorious Revolution.