Robert Saunders Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville
Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville KT PC FRS (14 March 1771 – 10 June 1851) was a British statesman, the son of Henry Dundas, the 1st Viscount. Dundas was the Member of Parliament for Hastings in 1794, Rye in 1796 and Midlothian in 1801. He was also Keeper of the Signet for Scotland from 1800. He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1807, a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1817, a Knight of the Thistle in 1821, and was Chancellor of the University of St Andrews from 1814. Melville filled various political offices and was First Lord of the Admiralty from 1812 to 1827, and from 1828 to 1830; his eldest son inherited his title.
He was born in Edinburgh on 14 March 1771, the only son of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, and Elizabeth (1751–1843). Educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh, he went in 1786 with his tutor John Bruce on a continental tour and enrolled at Göttingen University. He studied afterwards at Edinburgh University and at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and was admitted at Lincoln's Inn in 1788. After a successful attempt at law he became his father's private secretary from 1794, though he was brought in as MP for Hastings in 1794, and then Rye in 1796. The same year, on 29 August, he married an heiress, Anne Saunders (died 10 Sept 1841), and took her name beside his own. They had four sons and two daughters; their eldest son, Henry Dundas, later third Viscount Melville, became an army officer while their second son, Richard Saunders Dundas, became First Naval Lord.
...
Wikipedia