John Hay, 4th Marquess of Tweeddale

English members of the Government rejected the idea that a Jacobite insurrection was at hand. Tweeddale, who was in London in 1745, was also sceptical, and even after he was aware that the Highlanders had left Perth in their march to the south, he wrote to the Lord Advocate, "I flatter myself they have been able to make no great progress", on the day when the Young Pretender entered the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

In February 1746, when the rebellion was still active, a ministerial crisis took place. When the King refused to admit Pitt to the Government, Henry Pelham, the Prime Minister resigned, along with the members of the administration who supported him. When Earl Granville and Tweeddale unsuccessfully attempted to form a Ministry, Pelham returned to office. Granville and Tweeddale were excluded from the reconstructed Government. The office of Secretary of State for Scotland was abolished a second time, and Tweeddale resigned his office of Keeper of the Signet.

Tweeddale was Governor of the Bank of Scotland from 1742 and Lord Justice General in 1761 until his death in London in 1762.

During this period he built or converted a large mansion in Edinburgh between Hyndfords Close and St Marys Wynd: an area noe called Tweedale Court, which had long gardens running down to the Cowgate.

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