In 1700, he obtained a letter from the king to sit and vote in the Scots parliament in place of the lord high treasurer.

George Lockhart, who was his son-in-law, stated that when he himself proposed to bring in a bill for resuming the bishops' revenues in Scotland, and applying them to the episcopal clergy there, Eglinton gave his support to the measure, and assured Queen Anne that Presbyterians would not actively oppose it.

[3] This is corroborated by Wodrow, who asserts that Lockhart, either in the House of Peers or in the privy council, proposed 'that as we are one in civil we should be one in church matters'.

[2] In the early 18th century is town residence stood at the head of Old Stamp Office Close on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.

Nevertheless, during the crisis he raised and disciplined the Ayrshire fencibles, with which, on 22 August, he joined the Earls of Kilmarnock and Glasgow and Lord Semple at Irvine in support of the government.