Robert Cullen, Lord Cullen

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 ...

(22 September 1742 – 28 November 1810) was a Scottish judge. Friends knew him as Bob Cullen. He played a key role, along with his father

William Cullen William Cullen FRS FRSE FRCPE FPSG (; 15 April 17105 February 1790) was a Scottish physician, chemist and agriculturalist, and professor at the Edinburgh Medical School. Cullen was a central figure in the Scottish Enlightenment: He was Dav ...

, in obtaining a

royal charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, bu ...

for the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, resulting in the formation 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 ...

in 1783.

Life

Burial enclosure of William and Robert Cullen - geograph

Born on 22 September 1742, in

Hamilton, Scotland Hamilton ( sco, Hamiltoun; gd, Baile Hamaltan ) is a large town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It serves as the main administrative centre of the South Lanarkshire council area. It sits south-east of Glasgow, south-west of Edinburgh and nort ...

, the son of Anne Johnstone (d.1786) and eminent physician and chemist

, the family moved to live in the old mint in Edinburgh when his father received a position at the university. His brother was the physician Henry Cullen. The family lived at South Grays Close on 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 ...

, home of the old Scottish Mint. Robert was educated at the

High School A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

and then 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 ...

. He was admitted to 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 ...

in December 1764, and served as a

Senator of the College of Justice 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); ...

(1796-9) in place of

James Erskine, Lord Alva James Erskine, Lord Barjarg and Alva (20 June 1722 – 13 May 1796) was an 18th-century Scottish lawyer who rose to be a Senator of the College of Justice. For convenience his name was usually contracted to James Erskine, Lord Alva. Life He ...

, and as

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 ...

(1799–1810) in place of Lord Swinton. In 1783 he was a joint founder of the

. He lived his final years at Argyll Square in south Edinburgh and died on 28 November 1810 and was buried alongside his father in Kirknewton churchyard, south-west of Edinburgh.

Family

In later life he was married to Mary Russell, one of his servants. They had no children. She remarried after Cullen's death and died in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

in 1818.

Literary works

Cullen contributed to both the "Mirror" and "Lounger" magazines.Kay's Originals vol.2 p.336

References

1742 births 1810 deaths 18th-century Scottish people 19th-century Scottish people Senators of the College of Justice Members of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh Founder Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Lawyers from Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Cullen {{Scotland-law-bio-stub