[1] The eldest son of James Drummond, 3rd Earl of Perth by his spouse Lady Anne, daughter of George Gordon, 2nd Marquess of Huntly, he was educated at the University of St Andrews, and succeeded his father on 2 June 1675, and was served heir to him on 1 October.

Perth and his brother suggested to James II that the Scottish Parliament would approve a repeal of the Test Act and penal laws against Catholics and Protestant dissenters, but this was later proved untrue.

[1] When James retreated from Salisbury before William of Orange, the people of Edinburgh, in the absence of the troops whom Perth had disbanded, rose against him.

He joined the exiled King at St Germain, by whom he was, on 19 August 1696, appointed Governor to the young Prince of Wales, and by whose testamentary directions he was, before 17 October 1701, created by King James III and VIII, Duke of Perth, Marquess of Drummond, Earl of Stobhall, Viscount Cargill, and Baron Concraig, all proclaimed as in the Peerage of Scotland (but in reality in the Jacobite peerage), with remainder to his heirs-male whatsoever.

The Duke of Perth married: He died at St Germain, was interred in the Scots Chapel, Paris, and was succeeded by his son and heir by his first wife: