Henry Home, Lord Kames
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Henry Home, Lord Kames (1696–27 December 1782) was a Scottish writer, philosopher and judge who played a major role in Scotland's Agricultural Revolution. A central figure of the
Scottish Enlightenment The Scottish Enlightenment (, ) was the period in 18th- and early-19th-century Scotland characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments. By the eighteenth century, Scotland had a network of parish schools in the Sco ...
, he was a founding member of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh and active in
The Select Society The Select Society, established in 1754 as The St. Giles Society but soon renamed, was an intellectual society in 18th century Edinburgh.Emerson, Roger L. ''The Social Composition of Enlightened Scotland: The Select Society of Edinburgh, 1754–1 ...
. Home acted as patron to some of the most influential thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment, including philosopher
David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist who was best known for his highly influential system of empiricism, philosophical scepticism and metaphysical naturalism. Beg ...
, economist
Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptised 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the field of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as the "father of economics"——— or ...
, writer
James Boswell James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (; 29 October 1740 ( N.S.) – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of the English writer Samuel Johnson, '' Life of Samuel ...
, philosopher
William Cullen William Cullen (; 15 April 17105 February 1790) was a British physician, chemist and agriculturalist from Hamilton, Scotland, who also served as a professor at the Edinburgh Medical School. Cullen was a central figure in the Scottish Enli ...
and naturalist John Walker.


Life

Henry Home was born in 1696 at Kames House, between Eccles and Birgham in
Berwickshire Berwickshire (; ) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in south-eastern Scotland, on the English border. The county takes its name from Berwick-upon-Tweed, its original county town, which was part of Scotland at the ...
. Henry was the son of George Home of Kames, and was homeschooled by Mr Wingate, a private tutor, until the age of 16. In 1712, Home was apprenticed as a lawyer under 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 documen ...
in
Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
, and was called to the Scottish bar as an advocate bar in 1724. He soon acquired reputation by a number of publications on the civil and Scottish law, and was one of the leaders of the
Scottish Enlightenment The Scottish Enlightenment (, ) was the period in 18th- and early-19th-century Scotland characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments. By the eighteenth century, Scotland had a network of parish schools in the Sco ...
. In 1752, he was "raised to the bench", thus acquiring the title of Lord Kames. Kames held an interest in the development and production of
linen Linen () is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant. Linen is very strong and absorbent, and it dries faster than cotton. Because of these properties, linen is comfortable to wear in hot weather and is valued for use in garments. Lin ...
in Scotland. Kames was one of the original proprietors of the British Linen Company, serving as a director of the company from 1754 to 1756. Kames was on the panel of judges in the '' Knight v. Wedderburn'' case which ruled that
slavery Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
was illegal in Scotland. In 1775, he lived in a
townhouse A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of Terraced house, terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type o ...
in
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. David ...
. The house was located the head of the street's east side, facing onto the Canongate. He died of old age, aged 86, and is buried in the Home-Drummond plot at Kincardine-in-Menteith west of
Blair Drummond Blair Drummond is a small rural community northwest of Stirling in the Stirling (council area), Stirling district of Scotland, predominantly located along the A84 road. Lying to the north of the River Forth, the community is within the registrat ...
.


Writings

Home wrote much about the importance of property to society. In his ''Essay Upon Several Subjects Concerning British Antiquities'', written just after the
Jacobite rising of 1745 The Jacobite rising of 1745 was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the Monarchy of Great Britain, British throne for his father, James Francis Edward Stuart. It took place during the War of the Austrian Succession, when the bulk of t ...
, he showed that the
politics of Scotland The politics of Scotland () operate within the constitution of the United Kingdom, of which Scotland is a Constituent countries of the United Kingdom, country. Scotland is a democracy, being represented in both the Scottish Parliament and the ...
were based not on loyalty to Kings, as the Jacobites had said, but on the royal land grants that lay at the base of feudalism, the system whereby the sovereign maintained "an immediate hold of the persons and property of his subjects". In ''Historical Law Tracts'' Home described a four-stage model of social evolution that became "a way of organizing the history of Western civilization". The first stage was that of the
hunter-gatherer A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...
, wherein families avoided each other as competitors for the same food. The second was that of the
herder A herder is a pastoralism, pastoral worker responsible for the care and management of a herd or flock of domestic animals, usually on extensive management, open pasture. It is particularly associated with nomadic pastoralism, nomadic or transhuma ...
of domestic animals, which encouraged the formation of larger groups but did not result in what Home considered a true society. No laws were needed at these early stages except those given by the head of the family, clan, or tribe.
Agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
was the third stage, wherein new occupations such as "plowman, carpenter, blacksmith, stonemason" made "the industry of individuals profitable to others as well as to themselves", and a new complexity of relationships, rights, and obligations required laws and law enforcers. A fourth stage evolved with the development of market towns and seaports, "commercial society", bringing yet more laws and complexity but also providing more benefit. Lord Kames could see these stages within Scotland itself, with the pastoral Highlands, the agricultural Lowlands, the "polite" commercial towns of Glasgow and Edinburgh, and in the Western Isles a remaining culture of rude huts where fishermen and gatherers of seaweed eked out their subsistence living. Home was a polygenist, he believed God had created different races on earth in separate regions. In his book ''Sketches of the History of Man'', in 1774, Home claimed that the environment, climate, or state of society could not account for racial differences, so that the races must have come from distinct, separate stocks. The above studies created the genre of the story of civilization and defined the fields of
anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...
and
sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...
and therefore the modern study of history for two hundred years. In the popular book ''Elements of Criticism'' (1762) Home interrogated the notion of fixed or arbitrary rules of literary composition, and endeavoured to establish a new theory based on the principles of human nature. The late eighteenth-century tradition of sentimental writing was associated with his notion that "the genuine rules of criticism are all of them derived from the human heart." Neil Rhodes has argued that Lord Kames played a significant role in the development of English as an academic discipline in the Scottish Universities.


Family

He was married to Agatha Drummond of
Blair Drummond Blair Drummond is a small rural community northwest of Stirling in the Stirling (council area), Stirling district of Scotland, predominantly located along the A84 road. Lying to the north of the River Forth, the community is within the registrat ...
. Their children included George Drummond-Home.


Major works

*''Remarkable Decisions of the Court of Session 1706 to 1728'' (1728) *''Essays upon Several Subjects in Law'' (1732) *''Decisions of the Court of Session from its First Institution to the Year 1740'' (1740) *''Essay Upon Several Subjects Concerning British Antiquities'' (1747) *''Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion'' (1751) He advocates the doctrine of philosophical necessity. *''The Statute Law of Scotland'' (1757) *''Historical Law-Tracts'' (1758) *''The Principles of Equity'' (1760) *''Introduction to the Art of Thinking'' (1761) *''Elements of Criticism'' (1762) Published by two Scottish booksellers, Andrew Millar and Alexander Kincaid. *''Remarkable Decisions of the Court of Session from 1730 to 1752'' (1766) *''Gentleman Farmer'' (1772) *''Sketches of the History of Man'' (1773) *''Elucidations Respecting the Common and Statute Law of Scotland'' (1777) *''Loose Hints upon Education'' (1781)


See also

* George Anderson (minister)


Literature

* * * * * * * * * * *


References

*


External links

*
Henry Home, Lord Kames
at James Boswell – a Guide {{DEFAULTSORT:Home, Henry, Lord Kames 1696 births 1782 deaths 18th-century Scottish philosophers 18th-century Scottish historians People from Berwickshire Members of the Faculty of Advocates Enlightenment philosophers Members of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh Scottish rhetoricians People of the Scottish Enlightenment Kames Scottish legal writers Scottish agronomists Scottish literary critics Scottish anthropologists Scottish sociologists Alumni of the University of Edinburgh