John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute, KT, FRS (10 August 1793 – 18 March 1848), styled Lord Mount Stuart between 1794 and 1814, was a wealthy Scottish aristocrat and industrialist in Georgian and early Victorian Britain.

Having inherited large estates across Britain, he married his first wife, Lady Maria North, in 1818, and together they lived a relatively secluded life in Mount Stuart House in Scotland, one of Bute's four seats.

Early on, Bute realised the vast wealth that lay in the South Wales coalfields and set about commercially exploiting them through local ironmasters and colliers.

He constructed the Cardiff Docks, a major project which, despite running heavily over budget, enabled further exports of iron and coal and magnified the value of his lands in Glamorganshire.

When violence broke out in the Merthyr Rising of 1831, Bute led the government response from Cardiff Castle, despatching military forces, deploying spies and keeping Whitehall informed throughout.

[4] He developed an eye condition during this period and became partially blind, leaving him unable to travel without assistance or to tolerate bright lights, and finding it difficult to read or write.

[10][nb 2] The historian John Davies describes Bute as "dour, remote and overbearing on first acquaintance" but with a "sense of responsibility, considerable imagination and an enormous capacity for hard work".

[17] As a result of the original marriage agreement, Bute continued to draw the incomes from his late wife's property for the remainder of his life, even though officially the estates would ultimately pass to Maria's sister, Lady Susan, on his own death.

[33] Despite this, Bute retained the final authority over even quite minor issues on the estates, including making decisions on the buttons to be used on local school uniforms or the reuse of a broken flag pole, for example, which could result in considerable delays as letters were sent between South Wales and Scotland.

[34] As the complexity of the Glamorgan estates grew, more officials were appointed to help manage the docks, farms and mineral interests, but these all reported separately to Bute, putting increasing pressure on the marquess.

[48] None of the contracts offered by Bute allowed the lessee to buy the freehold or automatically renew the lease at the end of this term, which ultimately resulted in substantial political difficulties for the third and fourth marquesses when there was a storm of complaints in the late 19th and early 20th century.

[50] Bute then began to approve the designs for new buildings personally, laying out some grand streets in the centre of Cardiff and retaining open areas for eventual use as parks.

The idea was first put forward to Bute by one of his staff in 1822, who suggested that, with the right investment, Cardiff could be transformed into a major port for exporting coal and iron.

The new port would then deliver a direct return to Bute from shipping rates, improve the value of his lands in Cardiff itself and increase the value of the royalties he could charge on his coal fields.

[64] To make matters worse, when they first opened the docks did not receive the traffic he had expected, particularly from the larger ships; Bute put this down to a coalition of ironmasters and others intent on ruining him.

[65] Bute responded by putting commercial pressure on shipping companies to abandon the Glamorganshire Canal and using his feudal rights to force shippers to move their wharfs to his docks.

[68][nb 6] Successive marquesses would find themselves under huge pressure to continue investing and expanding in the docks and subsequent phases of construction over the coming decades.

[75] In addition to his personal role in Parliament, Bute sought to control the votes of members of the House of Commons, primarily to ensure the passage of legislation affecting his business interests.

[80] In the aftermath of the reforms, Bute secretly sponsored the creation of the conservative newspaper the Glamorgan Monmouth and Brecon Gazette and Merthyr Guardian, to increase support across the county, and underwrote its losses for many years.

[88] He also had political differences, seeing himself as a benevolent feudal lord in South Wales, and perceiving the local iron-masters as arrogant, power-hungry individuals, abusing their economic power towards communities and workers.

[95] In 1817, John Wood died in the midst of a financial scandal, and Bute decided to appoint two of his rivals to the posts of Constable and Cardiff's Town Clerk.

[104] In South Wales, several of the major ironmasters were associated with these movements, promoting reform under the Whig administration voted into power between April and June 1831.

[105] With a reform bill looking likely, tensions grew between the different political factions in Glamorganshire and how the potential new parliamentary seats should be shared out, especially between Bute and his conservative allies, Crawshay and Guest.

[112] The messages from Merthyr Tydfil reached Bute that afternoon, who began to assemble the Eastern and Central Yeomanry, Militia and transport ready for deployment.

[117] On the morning of 3 May, the 93rd Foot reached the Castle Inn, where the magistrates had been joined by the established figures of the town, deputised as constables, including the High Sheriff and most of the ironmasters.

[116][122] The men in the Castle Inn retreated to Penydarren House, who were joined by the initial reinforcements from the Yeomanry, bringing the establishment's numbers to around 300,[116] not all of them were armed and able to fight.

[125] Bute mobilised military pensioners, and used them to start to bring Penydarren House additional weaponry from Cardiff; he was advised to be careful, however, in case the shipments fell into the hands of the insurgency.

Chartism became prominent in the region in the late 1830s, again causing Bute considerable worries in 1839 and leading to him encouraging the mobilisation of military forces to deal with the threat.

[132] Bute began to advocate the creation of a police force to suppress the problems in the northern valleys, for once allying himself with the local ironmasters to overcome rural opposition to the scheme.

[137] The national press gave his death little coverage, but the local Daily Chronicle noted Bute's unusual achievement in building up the industrial base of his South Wales estates, and particularly praised his role in constructing the Cardiff Docks.