David Cathcart, Lord Alloway (1764–1829) was a Scottish lord of session.

Life

He was born in

Ayr Ayr (; sco, Ayr; gd, Inbhir Àir, "Mouth of the River Ayr") is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. It is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire council area and the historic county town of Ayrshire. With a population ...

in January 1764, the son of Edward Cathcart of Greenfield,

Ayrshire Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...

, and passed advocate at the

Scottish bar The Faculty of Advocates is an independent body of lawyers who have been admitted to practise as advocates before the courts of Scotland, especially the Court of Session and the High Court of Justiciary. The Faculty of Advocates is a constitu ...

on 16 July 1785. He was promoted to the bench as an ordinary lord of session on 8 June 1813, on the resignation of Sir William Honyman, assuming the title of Lord Alloway. On the resignation of Lord Hermand, in 1826, he was also appointed a lord of justiciary. Cathcart died at his seat, Blairston, near

, on 27 April 1829. He is buried in the ruins of

Alloway Kirk The Alloway Auld Kirk, which dates back to the 16th Century, is a ruin in Alloway, South Ayrshire, Scotland, celebrated as the scene of the witches' dance in the poem " Tam o' Shanter" by Robert Burns. Robert Burns William Burnes, father of the ...

Family

His wife was Mary Muir. Their son, Elias Cathcart of Auchindrane (d.1877), was also an advocate and briefly (1826–39) a Fellow 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 ...

. His children David Cathcart WS (1798-1867), Agnes and Mary are buried in "Lords Row" in

Dean Cemetery The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and on ...

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 ...

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Cathcart, David 1763 births 1829 deaths Members of the Faculty of Advocates

Alloway Alloway ( gd, Allmhaigh, ) is a village in South Ayrshire, Scotland, located on the River Doon. It is best known as the birthplace of Robert Burns and the setting for his poem "Tam o' Shanter". Tobias Bachope, the mason responsible for the cons ...

People from Ayr