Sir David Dalrymple, Baronet, Lord Hailes (1726-1792), was the eldest son of Sir James Dalrymple, Bart., of Hailes, in the county of Haddington, Auditor of the Exchequer of Scotland, and Lady Christian Hamilton. He was born at Edinburgh on 28th October, 1726, and was descended on both sides from the nobility of the Scottish bar. His grandfather, Sir David Dalrymple, was the youngest son of the first Viscount Stair, Lord President of the Court of Session, and held the office of Lord Advocate for nineteen years. His mother was a daughter of Thomas, sixth Earl of Haddington, the lineal descendant of the first earl, who was Secretary for Scotland from 1612 to 1616, and President of the Court of Session from 1616 till his death in 1637. Dalrymple entered upon his studies at Eton, where he acquired a considerable knowledge of the classics and earned a high character for diligence and good conduct. He next re-visited his native city, and attended the University. From thence he went to Utrecht to study the civil law, returning to Edinburgh at the close of the Rising in 1746. He became a member of the Faculty of Advocates on 23rd February, 1748.
The death of his father two years later put Dalrymple in possession of a sufficient fortune to enable him to indulge his literary tastes; but he did not neglect his professional studies. As an oral pleader he was not successful. A defect in articulation prevented him from speaking fluently, and he was naturally an impartial critic rather than a zealous advocate. Notwithstanding this defect, he practised at the bar with much reputation for eighteen years. A great part of the business of litigation in Scotland at this time was conducted by written pleadings, and he became known as a learned and accurate lawyer.
On 6th March, 1766, Dalrymple was raised to the bench, on the death of George Carre of Nisbet, with the title of Lord Hailes, and on the resignation of George Brown of Coalston he was appointed a Lord of Justiciary on 3rd May, 1776. In the latter capacity he was distinguished for dignity, humanity, and impartiality—qualities at that times by no means characteristic of the criminal bench. The solemnity of his manner in administering oaths and pronouncing sentence specially struck his contemporaries. As a judge in the civil Court he was noted for his critical acumen and unswerving integrity. In knowledge of the history of law he was surpassed by none of his brethren, though among them were Elchies, Kaimes, and Monboddo.
At Edinburgh Lord Hailes lived some time in the Old Mint Close, foot of Todrick’s Wynd; he next had a house in Society, Brown’s Square; and latterly removed to New Street. His general residence was New Hailes, Musselburgh, where he died of apoplexy, the result of sedentary habits, on 29th November, 1792. Dr. “Jupiter” Carlyle, of Inveresk, who knew him well, summed up his character in a funeral sermon, in which he drew a glowing character of one of the most worthy of all the learned men of his time.
High as his memory stands as a judge, Hailes is better known to the world as a scholar and an author. His literary labours extend over a period of thirty-nine years—from the date of his first publication in 1751 till that of his last in 1790. “Lord Hailes was in some respects the very ideal of an historical inquirer. His mind was fair and dispassionate, and he reasoned with excellent logic. You will seldom find a mistake in fact or a conclusion not warranted by the premises in Lord Hailes’ ‘Annals.’ He had some defects, too, and the greatest of them is an unnecessary and repulsive dryness of narrative” (Cosmo Innes’ “Lectures on Scotch Legal Antiquities,” 1872, p. 8). His publications, almost without exception, related to the early antiquities of Christianity, or to the antiquities and history of Scotland, which before his time had been critically examined by scarcely any writer. His most important work is the “Annals of Scotland,” from Malcolm Canmore to Robert I., issued in 1776, and continued in 1779 to the accession of the House of Stuart. A complete catalogue of his numerous works will be found in “Kay’s Portraits” (1877, vol. i., pp. 367-370).
Sir David Rae, Baronet, Lord Eskgrove (1729-1804), son of the Reverend David Rae, of St. Andrews, an Episcopalian clergyman, by his wife, Agnes, daughter of Sir David Forbes of Newhall, was born in 1729. He was educated at the Grammar School of Haddington, and at the University of Edinburgh, where he attended the law lectures of Professor John Erskine (1695-1768). He was admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates on 11th December, 1751, and quickly acquired a considerable practice. When the celebrated Douglas cause was before the Court he was appointed one of the Commissioners for collecting evidence, and in that capacity accompanied James Burnett (afterwards Lord Monboddo) and Francis Garden (afterwards Lord Gardenstone) to France in September, 1764, for the purpose of investigating the proceedings which had been carried on in Paris relative to the case.
After thirty years of honourable and successful practice at the bar Rae was, on the death of Alexander Boswell of Auchinleck, promoted to the bench on 14th November, 1782, and assumed the title of Lord Eskgrove, from the name of a small estate which he possessed near Inveresk. On 20th April, 1785, he was appointed a Lord of Justiciary, in succession to Robert Bruce of Kennet. He was one of the judges before whom Margarot, Skirving, and Gerald, the Reformers of 1793-4, were tried. He also assisted at the trials of the Rev. Thomas Fysche Palmer for sedition in 1793, and of Robert Watt and David Downie for high treason in 1794.
On the death of Lord Braxfield, Eskgrove was promoted to be Lord Justice-Clerk on 1st June, 1799, in which office he maintained the high character he had earned while at the bar. Henry Cockburn says of him, “Eskgrove was a very considerable lawyer; in mere knowledge probably Braxfield’s superior. But he had nothing of Braxfield’s grasp or reasoning, and in everything requiring force or soundness of head he was a mere child compared with that practical Hercules” (“Memorials of his Time,” 1856, p. 118). He was created a baronet on 27th June, 1804; died at Eskgrove on 23rd October following, in the eightieth year of his age; and was buried in Inveresk churchyard. He married, on 14th October, 1761, Margaret, daughter of John Stuart of Blairhall, Perthshire, by whom he had two sons. Eskgrove resided for many years in No. 8 St. John Street, Edinburgh.
“A more ludicrous personage,” says Cockburn, “could not exist. To be able to give an anecdote of Eskgrove, with a proper imitation of his voice and manner, was a sort of fortune in society. Scott in those days was famous for this particularly. Yet never once did he do or say anything which had the slightest claim to be remembered for any intrinsic merit. The value of all his words and actions consisted in their absurdity” (“Memorials,” pp. 118-119). In the trial of Glengarry for murder in a duel, a lady of great beauty was called as a witness. She came into Court veiled, but before administering the oath Eskgrove gave her this exposition of her duty—“Young woman! you will now consider yourself as in the presence of Almighty God and of this High Court. Lift up your veil, throw off all modesty, and look me in the face” (ib. p. 122). Cockburn also narrates that, having to condemn certain prisoners who had broken into the house of Luss and assaulted and robbed the inmates, Eskgrove first, as was his almost constant practice, explained the nature of the various crimes, assault, robbery, and hamesucken—of which last he gave them the etymology; he next reminded them that they had attacked the house and the persons within it, and robbed them, and then came to his climax—“All this you did, and God preserve us! joost when they were sitten doon tae their denner!” (ib. pp. 124-125). Cockburn tells many other anecdotes of him, too numerous for quotation here; but it would be difficult to omit the following:—On condemning a tailor to death for stabbing a soldier, the learned judge aggravated the offence thus—“And not only did you murder him, whereby he was bereaved of his life, but you did thrust, or push, or pierce, or project, or propel, the lethal weapon through the bellyband of his regimental breeches, which were His Majesty’s!” (ib. p. 122).
Lockhart states that, in Scott’s young days at the bar, he was counsel for the appellant in a case before Eskgrove concerning a cow which his client had sold as sound. In opening his case Scott stoutly maintained the healthiness of the animal, which, he said, had merely a cough. “Stop there,” quoth the judge; “I have had plenty healthy kye in my time, but I never heard o’ ane o’ them coughin’. A coughin’ cow! that will never do—sustain the Sheriff’s judgment, and decern!” (“Life of Scott,” 1839, vol. i., p. 299).