The British statesman John Stuart, 3d Earl of Bute (1713-1792), served as prime minister under George III, over whom he exercised an unpopular influence.

John Stuart was born in Edinburgh of aristocratic Scottish parents. His father died when John was 10, and the boy was raised in England under the guardianship of two maternal uncles. In 1737, when he was 24, Bute was elected to the English Parliament as one of the Scottish peers nominated by Lord Islay. Two years later he entered the opposition, thereby severing his connection with his patron and losing his seat at the next election in 1741. He remained excluded from Parliament for the next 20 years.

For 5 years after this setback, Bute lived in retirement on the island of Bute. Though better educated than most English aristocrats--an unsympathetic contemporary described him as having "a great deal of superficial knowledge... upon matters of natural philosophy, mines, fossils, a...