Nisbet Balfour

General Nisbet Balfour (1743, Dunbog—10 October 1823, Dunbog) was a British soldier in the American Revolutionary War and later a Scottish Member of Parliament (MP) in the British Parliament.

He was born in Dunbog, in the county of Fife, Scotland in 1743. Joining the 4th Regiment of Foot as ensign in 1761, he rose to become one of Cornwallis' most trusted officers during the American Revolution. He fought and was severely injured in the Battle of Bunker Hill (Breed's Hill) and also participated in battles in Elizabethtown, Brandywine, and Germantown, and was made Lieutenant-Colonel (of the 23rd Regiment of Foot) in 1778. He accompanied Cornwallis to Charleston where he was sometimes commandant. He was promoted to major general in 1793, Colonel of both the 93rd Foot (1793) (an earlier regiment than the Sutherland Highlanders raised in 1799) and the 39th Foot in 1794 and served in the war with France.

He was elected to Parliament in 1790 as the MP for Wigtown Burghs, sitting until 1796 and again in 1797 for Arundel, sitting until 1802.

He died in October 1823 in Dunbog, Scotland.

Family
Descendants and kin include the Stewarts of St Fort, Fife, Scotland, as well as John Stewart of Urrard, son of Robert Stewart of Fincastle and the Athol Stewarts. Elizabeth Mure of Rowallan. Reference is made in the 1842, 1853, and 1863 editions of Sir Bernard Burke's A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain, Volume 2. In the 1863 edition on page 1437 mentions one William Campbell and states that he assumed the additional surnames of Stewart and Balfour to conform with the terms of the will of his maternal uncle, Lieut. General Nisbet Balfour.