George Hay, Earl of Gifford

Lord Gifford was born at Yester House, the eldest son of the 8th Marquess of Tweeddale. He was educated at Trinity College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge,^[2] where he was president of the University Pitt Club.^[3] In 1850, he was a Captain in the East Lothian Yeomanry Cavalry and became Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for War (The Duke of Newcastle) in 1854. A year later, he entered Parliament as MP for Totnes (a seat he held until his death).

In 1861, Lord Gifford was involved in an accident whilst rescuing a workman about to be crushed by a tree the latter was cutting down in the grounds of Yester Castle. Because of the accident, the Dowager Baroness Dufferin and Claneboye (a close friend of his who previously refused his proposals) agreed to marry Lord Gifford and they did so at Dufferin Lodge, Highgate on 13 October 1862.

After sixteen months of suffering as a result of the accident, Lord Gifford died on 22 December 1862 at Dufferin Lodge.^[4] He was buried at St James the Great, Friern Barnet.^[5] As he and his wife did not have any children, his brother, Lord Arthur Hay became the heir to their father's titles and estate.

• Burke's Peerage & Gentry Archived 14 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine
• Electric Scotland - The Hays of Tweeddale
• Worldroots

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by George Hay, Earl of Gifford