Sir David Rae, Lord Eskgrove, 1st Baronet

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

FSA (1724–1804) was a Scottish

advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. Different countries' legal systems use the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based jurisdictions could be a barrister or a solicitor. However, ...

and judge.

Life

He was the son of Agnes, daughter of Sir David Forbes of Newhall and Rev David Rae of

St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...

, an episcopalian minister. Some sources give his mother as Margaret Stewart of Blairhall, daughter of Dugald Stewart, Lord Blairhall. He was educated at the grammar school in Haddington, and then studied law at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

, where he attended the law lectures of

John Erskine of Carnock John Erskine of Carnock (4 November 1695 – 1 March 1768) was a Scottish jurist and professor of Scottish law at the University of Edinburgh. He wrote the ''Principles of the Law of Scotland'' and ''An Institute of the Law of Scotland'', pr ...

. He was admitted a member of the

Faculty of Advocates 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 11 December 1751, and quickly acquired a practice. In 1753 he was retained in an appeal to the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

, which brought him to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, where he became acquainted with

Lord Hardwicke Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, (1 December 16906 March 1764) was an English lawyer and politician who served as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. He was a close confidant of the Duke of Newcastle, Prime Minister between 1754 and 1 ...

and his son

Charles Yorke Charles Yorke Privy Council of the United Kingdom, PC (30 December 172220 January 1770) was briefly Lord Chancellor, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. His father was also Lord Chancellor, and he began his career as a Member of Parliament. ...

. He was appointed one of the commissioners for collecting evidence in the Douglas case, and in that capacity accompanied James Burnett to France in September 1764. He was the leading advocate in the Scottish court of exchequer for many years. In 1773 he was living at Old Assembly Close on 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 ...

in Edinburgh. In 1783 he was a joint 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 ...

. He became a

Lord of Session The senators of the College of Justice are judges of the College of Justice, a set of legal institutions involved in the administration of justice in Scotland. There are three types of senator: Lords of Session (judges of the Court of Session) ...

on 14 November 1782, succeeding

Alexander Boswell, Lord Auchinleck Alexander Boswell, Lord Auchinleck, 8th Laird of Auchinleck (1706–1782) was a judge of the supreme courts of Scotland. He was the father of the author and biographer James Boswell, and grandfather of songwriter Alexander Boswell (songwriter), ...

, and a

Lord of Justiciary The High Court of Justiciary is the supreme criminal court in Scotland. The High Court is both a trial court and a court of appeal. As a trial court, the High Court sits on circuit at Parliament House or in the adjacent former Sheriff Cour ...

on 20 April 1785, taking the judicial title Lord Eskgrove (from a small estate which he possessed near

Inveresk Inveresk (Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic: ''Inbhir Easg'') is a village in East Lothian, Scotland situated to the south of Musselburgh. It has been designated a Conservation area (United Kingdom), conservation area since 1969. It is situated on s ...

), in place of

Robert Bruce, Lord Kennet Robert Bruce of Kennet, Lord Kennet FRSE (24 December 1718 – 8 April 1785) was a Scottish advocate, legal scholar and judge. Life Bruce was born at Kennet House in Clackmannanshire on 24 December 1718, the son of Mary Balfour, daughter of Ro ...

. Rae was one of the judges who tried

William Brodie William Brodie (28 September 1741 – 1 October 1788), often known by his title of Deacon Brodie, was a Scottish cabinet-maker, deacon of a trades guild, and Edinburgh city councillor, who maintained a secret life as a housebreaker, partly fo ...

(died 1788) for robbing the General Excise Office in August 1788, the Rev.

Thomas Fyshe Palmer Thomas Fyshe Palmer (1747–1802) was an English Unitarian minister, political reformer and convict. Early life Palmer was born in Ickwell, Bedfordshire, England, the son of Henry Fyshe who assumed the added name of Palmer because of an inheri ...

for seditious practices in September 1793,

William Skirving William Skirving (c. 1745 – 1796) was one of the five Scottish Martyrs for Liberty. Active in the cause of universal franchise and other reforms inspired by the French Revolution, they were convicted of sedition in 1793–94, and sentenced t ...

and

Maurice Margarot Maurice Margarot (1745–1815) is most notable for being one of the founding members of the London Corresponding Society, a radical society demanding parliamentary reform in the late eighteenth century. Early life Maurice Margarot was the son of ...

for sedition in January 1794,

Joseph Gerrald Joseph Gerrald (9 February 1763 – 16 March 1796) was a political reformer, one of the "Scottish Martyrs". He worked with the London Corresponding Society and the Society for Constitutional Information and also wrote an influential letter, ''A ...

for sedition in March 1794, and

Robert Watt Robert Douglas Watt, (born 1945) is a former Canadian museum curator and officer of arms who served as the first Chief Herald of Canada. He was appointed at the foundation of the Canadian Heraldic Authority in 1988, and he was succeeded by Cla ...

and David Downie for

high treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

in September 1794. In January 1798 he oversaw the trial of

George Mealmaker George Mealmaker (10 February 1768 – 30 March 1808) was a Scottish radical organiser and writer, born in Dundee, Scotland. Like his father before him he was a weaver by trade. Liberty In the 1780s Mealmaker, along with Thomas Fyshe Palmer ...

and other radicals. He was appointed

Lord Justice Clerk The Lord Justice Clerk is the second most senior judge in Scotland, after the Lord President of the Court of Session. Originally ''clericus justiciarie'' or Clerk to the Court of Justiciary, the counterpart in the criminal courts of the Lord ...

on 1 June 1799, in place of

Robert Macqueen, Lord Braxfield Robert McQueen, Lord Braxfield (4 May 1722 – 30 May 1799) was a Scottish advocate and judge. Life McQueen was born at Braxfield House near Lanark on 4 May 1722, son of John McQueen. He studied law at Edinburgh University and was admitted t ...

, holding office until his death. At this time he was living at 10 St John Street off the

Canongate The Canongate is a street and associated district in central Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. The street forms the main eastern length of the Royal Mile while the district is the main eastern section of Edinburgh's Old Town. It began ...

in Edinburgh. He was created a baronet on 27 June 1804. He died at his country residence, Eskgrove in

on 23 October the same year, and was interred in Inveresk Kirkyard. He has a modest stone on the south side of the church itself (St. Michael's) just to the left hand side of the south door. His wife and children are buried with him. This includes his son,

Sir William Rae, 3rd Baronet Sir William Rae, 3rd Baronet (14 April 1769 – 19 October 1842), was a Scottish politician and lawyer. Life He was born at Old Assembly Close off the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, son of Margaret Stewart, youngest daughter of John Stewart of Bla ...

, Lord Advocate of Scotland, here reduced to a simple name within a list on the stone.

Reputation

Rae is remembered by Lord Henry Cockburn in his book ''Memorials of His Time'' (published posthumously in 1856), as a "considerable lawyer" who became a deplorable judge, and Cockburn concludes "a more ludicrous personage could not exist".

Works

With John Campbell and others,

William Nairne, Lord Dunsinane Sir William Nairne, Lord Dunsinane, 5th Baronet of Nairne (c. 1731–1811) was a Scottish advocate and judge, and the uncle of Katherine Ogilvie. The title of Lord Dunsinane was taken from Dunsinane Hill, a ruined fort near Collace, Perthshire, ...

, according to his DNB article Rae collected the ''Decisions of the Court of Session from the end of the year 1756 to the end of the year 1760'', Edinburgh, 1765.

Family

On 14 October 1761 he married Margaret Stewart (died 1770), youngest daughter of John Stewart of Blairhall,

Perthshire Perthshire (locally: ; gd, Siorrachd Pheairt), officially the County of Perth, is a historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, ...

, by whom he had two sons and one daughter: *David, who succeeded as the second baronet, but died without male issue on 22 May 1815. David married Helen Colt and had five daughters: Helen, Margaret, Mary and Grace and Eliza Colt Rae his youngest daughter who died at Edinburgh in 1872 (reference from the memorial stone) *

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

(1769–1842) called to the bar in 1791, Office of Lord Advocate of Scotland from 1827 to 1830 (presiding judge at the trial of Burke & Hare on 24 December 1828 in Edinburgh); then MP for Anstruther burghs between 1819 and 1826, then as MP for Buteshire in 1830. Between 1831 and 1832 he was M.P for Portarlington, then returned to Buteshire as MP between 1833 and 1842. He died at St Catherine's House (Liberton, Edinburgh) in 1842. and *Margaret, who married, on 3 January 1804, Captain Thomas Phipps Howard of the 23rd Light Dragoons.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rae, David 1724 births 1804 deaths Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom Eskgrove Members of the Faculty of Advocates Founder Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Edinburgh