William Stuart [Steuart]

The Right Honorable General William Steuart [or Stuart] was buried in the vault of the Duke of Buckingham in Henry VII's chapel in Westminster Abbey on 10th June 1726. He has no monument or marker. His coffin plate was exposed in 1867 during an examination of the vaults in this chapel and his plate inscription said: 

General of the Foot and Commander in chief of all her late Majesty's forces in Ireland, Colonel of a regiment of Foot and one of her said Majesty's Privy Council in the aforesaid kingdom: died June the 4th 1726 aged seventy four.

It is said that he was descended from the Steuarts, Earls of Caithness. His first wife was Catherine, Viscountess Grandison. She was the daughter and heir of John Fitzgerald of Waterford in Ireland and her first husband was the Hon. Edward Villiers, eldest son of George, 4th Viscount Grandison. After his death she obtained a royal patent to hold the same title that she would have been entitled to had Edward lived to survive his father ie. Viscountess Grandison. She died 26th December 1725 aged 63 and was buried in the Buckingham vault. Apparently she was said to have been insane for some while prior to her death but the papers of the day described her funeral as one of the most magnificent that had been performed for many years. Her coffin plate reads:

The Right Honble. the Lady Katherine, Viscountess Grandison. Died Decembr ye 26th 1725 aged 63 years.

A fortnight after Catherine's burial William applied to marry Elizabeth daughter of Sir Rowland Alston, very much his junior in age. But he lived for only a few months after this marriage. He left no children by either wife. He left legacies to his brother John, his sister Elizabeth (Dobson) and nephews James, Colonel John and Charles Steuart but an ungrateful nephew, Brigadier General William Steuart, he cut off with a shilling. Also in his will he bequeathed money to endow a school for poor boys in the parish of St George, Hanover Square in London where he lived.