William Craig, Lord Craig
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 ...
LLD (1745–1813) was a Scottish judge and essayist.
Life
He was born in
Glasgow on 6 June 1745, the son of Rev William Craig
DD (1709–1784) minister of St Andrew's Church in
Glasgow.
He studied at both the
University of Edinburgh and the
University of Glasgow and graduated in Glasgow in 1763. He was admitted as an advocate at the
Scottish bar in 1768. In 1784 he discharged the duties of
advocate-depute
The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is the independent public prosecution service for Scotland, and is a Ministerial Department of the Scottish Government. The department is headed by His Majesty's Lord Advocate, who under the S ...
along with
Robert Blair and
Alexander Abercromby; and in 1787 he became sheriff-depute of Ayrshire.
In 1783 he was a founder member 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 ...
.
For most of his life he lived on the west side of George Square in southern Edinburgh (then a new building) but he moved to York Place in the
New Town
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
when it was first built.
[Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1797]
In 1792, on the death of
Lord Hailes, Craig was raised to the bench with the title of Lord Craig, though he had not held a prominent position at the bar. In 1795 he succeeded
Lord Henderland as a legal lord of the
court 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 Cou ...
, a post which he held till 1812. He retained his office in the civil court till his death 8 July 1813.
He died at home, 10 York Place in the
First New Town in
Edinburgh and is buried against the eastmost boundary wall of
Canongate Kirkyard 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.
Craig's cousin,
Robert Burns' muse,
Agnes Maclehose, commonly known as "Clarinda" is buried next to him.
Works
Craig was one of a group of advocates in literary society called the "Tabernacle", who met in a tavern to read essays. On the suggestion of Craig they started a periodical, ''The Mirror'', and they changed into the "Mirror Club".
William Creech published ''The Mirror'', on Tuesdays and Saturdays, the first number appearing on Saturday 23 January 1779, and the 110th and last on 27 May 1780. After
Henry Mackenzie
Henry Mackenzie FRSE (August 1745 – 14 January 1831, born and died in Edinburgh) was a Scottish lawyer, novelist and writer sometimes seen as the Addison of the North. While remembered mostly as an author, his main income came from legal role ...
the contributions of Craig were the most numerous, including a paper on the poems of
Michael Bruce, in No. 36. Craig was also a contributor to the ''Lounger'' (1785–7), published by the same club.
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Craig, William
1745 births
1813 deaths
Scottish lawyers
Craig
Scottish essayists
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
People associated with Edinburgh