Erskine Douglas Sandford

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 ...

(31 July 1793–4 September 1861) was a 19th-century Scottish advocate and legal author.

Life

He was born at 22 South Frederick 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 Stree ...

, then a new house, on 31 July 1793 the son of Helen Frances Catherine Douglas and her husband, Bishop Daniel Sandford. After studying law he passed the Scottish bar as an advocate in 1816. In 1828 he was elected 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 proposer being George Augustus Borthwick. At this time he was living with his family at 25 Heriot Row. In 1828 he was involved in the trial of William Burke and Helen McDougal for the

Burke and Hare Murders The Burke and Hare murders were a series of sixteen killings committed over a period of about ten months in 1828 in Edinburgh, Scotland. They were undertaken by William Burke and William Hare, who sold the corpses to Robert Knox for dissection ...

. When travelling on a mailcoach in 1829, he realised that one of his fellow passengers was in fact a disguised William Hare (who had been granted immunity from prosecution). This was one of the last reliable sightings of Hare, whose eventual fate is unknown. In 1833 he replaced Adam Urquhart as

Sheriff of Wigtown The Sheriff of Wigtown was historically the office responsible for enforcing law and order in Wigtown, Scotland and bringing criminals to justice. Prior to 1748 most sheriffdoms were held on a hereditary basis. From that date, following the Jacobit ...

. In 1837 he is listed as one of the few contributors to the Scottish Episcopal Fund, a fund begun in 1806 to establish the Scottish Episcopalian Church. He lived his later life at 11 Randolph Crescent on the edge of the

Moray Estate The Moray Estate in Edinburgh was an exclusive early 19th century building venture attaching the west side of Edinburgh's New Town. Built on an awkward and steeply sloping site, it has been described as a masterpiece of urban planning. Back ...

in western Edinburgh. He died at

Alvechurch Alvechurch ( ) is a large village and civil parish in the Bromsgrove district in northeast Worcestershire, England, in the valley of the River Arrow. The Lickey Hills Country Park is 2.5 miles (4 km) to the northwest. It is south of Bir ...

Rectory on 4 September 1861.

Family

His uncles were Daniel Keyte Sandford and

Francis Sandford, 1st Baron Sandford Francis Richard John Sandford, 1st Baron Sandford, (14 May 1824 – 31 December 1893), known as Sir Francis Sandford between 1863 and 1891, was a British civil servant. He was Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Committee of Council on Ed ...

. In 1829 he married Joanna Grace Graham (d.1890). They had two daughters and three sons. He was uncle to

Daniel Sandford (Bishop of Tasmania) Daniel Fox Sandford, (25 July 1831 – 20 August 1906) was the Anglican Bishop of Tasmania from 1883 until 1889. Life He was born in Glasgow on 25 July 1831 the son of Professor (later Sir) Daniel Kyte Sandford, professor of Greek at Glasgow ...

Publications

*''A Treatise on the History and Law of Entails in Scotland'' *''A Treatise on the Law of Heritable Succession in Scotland''

References

1793 births 1861 deaths Lawyers from Edinburgh Scottish lawyers Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Scottish legal writers {{Scotland-bio-stub