Lord Kelvin's Keith medal in the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow

Sir Alexander Keith of Dunnottar and Ravelston (1736–1819) was an 18th and 19th century Scottish landowner, lawyer and reformer. A co-founder of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

, its

Keith Medal The Keith Medal was a prize awarded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy, for a scientific paper published in the society's scientific journals, preference being given to a paper containing a discovery, either in mathema ...

is named in his honour.

Life

He was born on 30 September 1736. He was the eldest son of Johanna (née Swinton) and Alexander Keith of Ravelston and Dunnottar (1705-1792), Depute Clerk of Session. The family owned both

Dunnottar Castle Dunnottar Castle ( gd, Dùn Fhoithear, "fort on the shelving slope") is a ruined medieval fortress located upon a rocky headland on the north-eastern coast of Scotland, about south of Stonehaven. The surviving buildings are largely of the 1 ...

in northern Scotland and

Ravelston Ravelston is an affluent area of Edinburgh, Scotland, to the west of the city centre, the east of Corstorphine and Clermiston, the north of Murrayfield, West End and Roseburn and to the south of Queensferry Road (the A90). Ravelston is often ...

House, just west of

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

(fragments of which survive and are called Old Ravelston House). His grandfather, also Alexander Keith, had acquired the latter estate from John Foulis of Ravelston via Archibald Primrose of Dunipace in 1726. The Dunnotar estate was purchased in 1766. He was apprenticed as a lawyer in

, first to Hew Crawford then to John MacKenzie, the latter having offices at Horse Wynd off the

Royal Mile The Royal Mile () is a succession of streets forming the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. The term was first used descriptively in W. M. Gilbert's ''Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century'' (1901), des ...

.Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1773 He qualified as a

Writer to the Signet The Society of Writers to His Majesty's Signet is a private society of Scottish solicitors, dating back to 1594 and part of the College of Justice. Writers to the Signet originally had special privileges in relation to the drawing up of document ...

in 1763 then became

Clerk to the Signet A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service ...

. In 1783 he was a founding fellow of the

. He served as the Society's first treasurer and continued this role until 1798. Around 1790 Alexander Keith of Dunnottar built a new mansionhouse at Ravelston in the Adam-style. His offices were at 43 Queen Street in

Edinburgh's New Town The New Town is a central area of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It was built in stages between 1767 and around 1850, and retains much of its original neo-classical and Georgian period architecture. Its best known street is Princes Street ...

.Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1818 He died at

on 26 February 1819 and is buried in St Clement's Churchyard in

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

. A family memorial also exists on the west gable of

Greyfriars Kirk Greyfriars Kirk ( gd, Eaglais nam Manach Liath) is a parish church of the Church of Scotland, located in the Old Town of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is surrounded by Greyfriars Kirkyard. Greyfriars traces its origin to the south-west parish of Edi ...

in Edinburgh. Following his death he left £600 to the

to establish the

, awarded every two years to a prominent mathematician or scientist within the Society.

Family

He was married to Christian Forbes. Their eldest son was also Sir Alexander Keith of Dunnottar (1768-1832) was knighted a baronet during the visit of

George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

to Scotland in 1822. He is buried in

Greyfriars Kirkyard Greyfriars Kirkyard is the graveyard surrounding Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located at the southern edge of the Old Town, adjacent to George Heriot's School. Burials have been taking place since the late 16th century, and a num ...

References

1819 deaths Lawyers from Edinburgh 18th-century Scottish landowners Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 19th-century Scottish landowners {{Scotland-bio-stub