James Tod of Deanston and Hope Park WS

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 ...

(c.1795–1858) was a 19th-century Scottish lawyer, antiquary and landowner.

Life

He was born around 1795 the eldest son of James Tod of Hope Park, on the south-east side of the

Meadows A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non-woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or artifici ...

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 ...

. His mother was living as a widow at Hope Park in south Edinburgh in 1813/14. He was apprenticed to David Wemyss WS from around 1811. The office was at 55 George Street in Edinburgh's First New Town. 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 1820. He then set up his own offices at 21 Dublin Street. Around 1830 he acquired the large estate of

Deanston Deanston ( gd, Baile an Deadhain) is a village in the Stirling council area, Scotland, on the south bank of the River Teith east of Doune, in south-west Perthshire. It is a part of the parish of Kilmadock. Etymology The name comes from Walter ...

west of

Stirling Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...

. In 1848 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 proposers was

James David Forbes James David Forbes (1809–1868) was a Scottish physicist and glaciologist who worked extensively on the conduction of heat and seismology. Forbes was a resident of Edinburgh for most of his life, educated at its University and a professor ...

. By 1855 he was living in a huge Georgian townhouse at 55 Great King Street in Edinburgh's Second New Town. He died on 26 March 1858.

Recognition

The name of Hope Park survives in the street-names Hope Park Terrace and Hope Park Crescent.

Artistic Recognition

His photograph (an early

calotype Calotype or talbotype is an early photographic process introduced in 1841 by William Henry Fox Talbot, using paper coated with silver iodide. Paper texture effects in calotype photography limit the ability of this early process to record low co ...

of 1844 by

Hill & Adamson Hill & Adamson was the first photography studio in Scotland, set up by painter David Octavius Hill and engineer Robert Adamson in 1843. During their brief partnership that ended with Adamson's untimely death, Hill & Adamson produced "the first s ...

) is held by the

Scottish National Portrait Gallery The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is an art museum on Queen Street, Edinburgh. The gallery holds the national collections of portraits, all of which are of, but not necessarily by, Scots. It also holds the Scottish National Photography Co ...

Family

In 1830 he married Susan Mercer, daughter of James Mercer of Scotsbank. Her brother Robert Mercer married Elizabeth Scott-Moncrieff (1802-1871), daughter of Very Rev Henry Moncrieff of

Tullibole Castle Tullibole Castle is a 17th-century castle in Crook of Devon Crook of Devon is a village within the parish of Fossoway in Kinross-shire about west of Kinross on the A977 road. Its name derives from the nearly 180-degree turn, from generally ...

near Fossoway.Honest George, by Eileen Stewart

References

1858 deaths Lawyers from Edinburgh 19th-century Scottish landowners Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh {{Scotland-bio-stub