James Stewart, 1st Duke of Richmond



James Stewart, 1st Duke of Richmond, 4th Duke of Lennox (6 April 1612 – 30 March 1655) was a Scottish nobleman. He was the eldest son of Esmé Stewart, 3rd Duke of Lennox and his wife Katherine Clifton, 2nd Baroness Clifton.

James Stewart inherited the Dukedom of Lennox on his father's death (30 June 1624) and was invested as a knight of Order of the Garter in 1633.

He married Mary Villiers, daughter of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham on 3 August 1637.

A cousin of Charles I of England, Stewart was a Privy Councillor and key member of Royalist party in the English Civil War. In 1641–42, he served as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. He spent five months in exile in 1643, returning to England to defend the city of Oxford for the king. He died on 30 March 1655 at age 42 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Richmond
The Scottish connection to the earldom of Richmond began in 1613 when Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox, was created Earl of Richmond. He was made Duke of Richmond in 1623, when Cobham Hall and the manor of Cobham, Kent, was granted to him by King James I of England, and became the main residence of the family. Upon his death in February 1624, the Lennox titles descended to his brother Esmé and the Richmond titles became extinct. In 1641 James Stewart was created Duke of Richmond, once again uniting the Scottish and English dukedoms.

James's son Esmé Stewart inherited the Richmond and Lennox titles on James's death, but Esmé died at age 10 in 1660, whereupon both titles descended to Charles Stewart, son of James Stewart's younger brother George Stewart, 9th Seigneur d'Aubigny.