Marquess of Bute

Marquessate of Bute
Quarterly, first and fourth, or, a fesse chequy azure and argent within a double tressure counterflory gules (for Stuart); second and third, argent a lion rampant azure (for Crichton)
Creation date	27 February 1935
Monarch	King George III
Peerage	Peerage of Great Britain
First holder	John Stuart
Present holder	John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute
Heir apparent	John Crichton-Stuart, Earl of Dumfries
Remainder to	the 1st Marquess's heirs male of the body lawfully begotten
Subsidiary titles	Lord Mount Stuart; Baron Cardiff; Viscount of Kingarth; Viscount Mountjoy; Earl of Bute; Earl of Windsor
Seat(s)	Mount Stuart House
Armorial motto	Avito viret honore ("To flourish in an honourable ancestry")
Currently the Earldom of Dumfries resides with the Marquesses of Bute. However, the Dumfries title can be inherited through the female line through an amendment to its original creation, and the title could be separated from the Marquesses of Bute should heirs presumptive to the titles of Bute and Dumfries, being male and female respectively, inherit.

Marquess of the County of Bute, shortened in general usage to Marquess of Bute, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1796 for John Stuart, 4th Earl of Bute.

John Stuart was the member of a family that descended from John Stewart (born 1360), Sheriff of Bute, a natural son of Robert II of Scotland and his mistress Moira Leitch, married to Janet Sympil and in 1407 to Elizabeth Graham. This John Stewart was granted the lands of Bute, Arran and Cumbrae by his father. He was known as the 'Black Stewart' because of his dark complexion; his brother John Stewart of Dundonald was known as the 'Red Stewart'. The grant of lands was confirmed in 1400 by a charter of Robert III.

About 1385, John Stewart of Bute was granted the hereditary office of Sheriff of Bute by his father Robert II. He died in 1449, aged 89. At about the time of Mary, Queen of Scots, the family adopted the spelling of 'Stuart', which she had used while living in France.James Stuart, seventh in descent from the Black Stewart, was created a Baronet, of Bute, in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia on 28 March 1627. His grandson, the third Baronet, represented Bute in the Parliament of Scotland and was one of the Commissioners that negotiated the Union between Scotland and England. In 1703, he was raised to the Peerage of Scotland as Lord Mount Stuart, Cumra and Inchmarnock, Viscount of Kingarth and Earl of Bute. He was succeeded by his son, the 2nd Earl of Bute and 2nd Lord Mountstuart, Cumra and Inchmarnock, and 4th Baronet. He sat in the House of Lords as a Scottish Representative Peer and served as Lord-Lieutenant of Buteshire. On his early death the titles passed to his son, the third Earl. He was a politician and favourite of George III, and served as Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1762 to 1763. Lord Bute married Mary, daughter of Edward Wortley Montagu and his wife, the writer Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. In 1761 Mary was raised to the Peerage of Great Britain in her own right as Baroness Mount Stuart, of Wortley in the County of York, with remainder to the heirs male of her body by her then husband Lord Bute.