Soldier and politician. Although born in Scotland, Maule was taken to the Netherlands by his Jacobite father Henry, and uncle James, the 4th Earl Panmure, when they fled following the Battle of Sheriffmuir (1715). Educated at Leyden, then the Scots College, Paris, he returned to Scotland in 1727 to take a commission in the army. Maule rose to the rank of Colonel by the time he fought against the Franco-Bavarian army at the Battles of Dettingen (1743) and Fontenoy (1745), during the War of Austrian Succession (1740-8). Interestingly, the French encouraged the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion, led by Bonnie Prince Charlie, to divert the British from the campaign in Europe. By 1770, Maule was a General and he served as honorary Colonel-in-Chief of the 2nd Dragoons from 1770 until his death.
Between 1735 and 1782, Maule served as Member of Parliament for Forfarshire (now Angus). He was created the Earl of Panmure of Forth and Viscount Maule of Whitechurch (in the Peerage of Ireland) in 1743. In 1764, he paid nearly £50,000 for the Panmure Estates, when they were auctioned in Edinburgh. These had been confiscated by the government following his Uncle's flight to the continent.
Maule never married and with no successors, his titles became extinct on his death. His estates were left in trust to his cousin George, 8th. Earl of Dalhousie, with remainder to George's second son William who took the name Maule when he inherited.
