A felicitous parody of Eskgrove’s judicial manner is contained in the well-known “Advising” in the Diamond Beetle case (“Court of Session Garland,” 1839, pp. 75-77). Notwithstanding, however, his many eccentricities, he was a man of the highest integrity of character, and “cunning in old Scots law.”
John Campbell, Lord Stonefield (died 1801), son of Archibald Campbell of Stonefield, advocate, was admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates on 9th January, 1748. He was subsequently appointed Sheriff of Argyll, an office which he long filled with the highest credit. On the death of Charles Erskine of Tinwald he was elevated to the bench, and took his seat, with the judicial title of Lord Stonefield, on 16th June, 1763. On the resignation of Francis Garden of Gardenstone, he was also nominated a Lord of Justiciary on 1st March, 1787. He resigned the latter appointment in the year 1792, but retained his seat on the bench till his death, which occurred at his residence in George Square, Edinburgh, on the 19th of June, 1801, after having been for thirty-nine years a judge of the Supreme Court.
It is somewhat remarkable that Stonefield and his two immediate predecessors occupied the same seat on the bench for a period of ninety years, Lord Royston having been appointed a judge in 1710, and Lord Tinwald in 1744.
Stonefield resided at one time in Elphinston’s Court, and latterly at No. 33 George Square, Edinburgh. Of his professional history no record has been preserved. As a scholar his attainments were considerable, and as a judge his decisions were marked by conciseness of expression and soundness of judgment. He was a zealous and liberal supporter of every scheme tending to promote the welfare and improvement of his native country.
By his wife, Lady Grace Stuart, daughter of James, second Earl of Bute, and sister of the Prime Minister, John (the third earl). Stonefield had seven sons, all of whom predeceased him. The second of these was Lieutenant-Colonel John Campbell, whose memorable defence of Mangalore, from May, 1783, to January, 1784, arrested the victorious career of Tippoo Sultan, and shed a lustre over the close of that calamitous war.
John Swinton, Lord Swinton (died 1799), son of John Swinton of Swinton, Berwickshire, advocate, by his wife Mary, daughter of Samuel Semple, minister of Liberton. He was admitted advocate on 20th December, 1743, and appointed Sheriff-depute of Perthshire in June, 1754. In April, 1766, he became solicitor for renewal of leases of the Bishops’ tithes, and solicitor and advocate to the Commissioners for Plantation of Kirks in Scotland, in place of James Montgomery, promoted to be Lord Advocate. He was elevated to the bench, with the title of Lord Swinton, on 21st December, 1782, on the death of Alexander Lockhart of Covington, and, on the promotion of Robert Macqueen of Braxfield in 1788, was also made a Lord of Justiciary. He retained both appointments till his death.
He died at his residence, Dean House, Edinburgh, on 5th January, 1799. Swinton married Margaret, daughter of John Mitchelson of Middleton, by whom he had six sons and seven daughters.
Swinton was the author of the following works:—(1) “Abridgment of the Public Statutes Relative to Scotland, &c., from the Union to the 27th of George II.,” 2 vols., 1755; “to the 29th of George III.,” 3 vols., 1788-90. (2) “Free Disquisition Concerning the Law of Entails in Scotland,” 1765. (3) “Proposal for Uniformity of Weights and Measures in Scotland,” 1779. (4) “Considerations Concerning a Proposal for Dividing the Court of Session into Classes or Chambers, and for Limiting Litigation in Small Causes, and for the Revival of Jury Trial in certain Civil Actions,” 1789.
Lord Cockburn, in his “Memorials of his Time” (1856, pp. 112-113), remarks—“These improvements have since taken place but they were mere visions in his time, and his anticipation or them, in which, so far as I ever heard, he had no associate, is very honourable to his thoughtfulness and judgment.” Cockburn also observes of Swinton—“He was a very excellent person; dull, mild, solid, and plodding; and in his person large and heavy. It is only a subsequent age that has discovered his having possessed a degree of sagacity for which he did not get credit while he lived. Notwithstanding the utter dissimilarity of the two men, there was a great friendship between him and Henry Erskine which it is to the honour of Swinton’s ponderous placidity that Erskine’s endless jokes upon him never disturbed.”
Sir Ilay Campbell, Baronet, Lord Succoth (1734-1823), was born on 23rd August, 1734. He was the eldest son of Archibald Campbell of Succoth, W.S., by his wife, Helen, only daughter of John Wallace of Ellerslie, Renfrewshire, and was admitted an advocate on 11th January, 1757. He soon obtained an extensive practice at the bar, and was one of the counsel for the appellant in the Douglas cause. During his last fifteen years at the bar his practice had become so great that there was scarcely any case of importance in which he was not engaged or consulted. In 1783 he was appointed Solicitor-General, in succession to Alexander Murray of Henderland, who was raised to the bench on 6th March of that year, but upon the accession of the Coalition Ministry he was dismissed, and Alexander Wight appointed in his place. Upon the fall of the Ministry he succeeded the Hon. Henry Erskine as Lord Advocate, and in the month of April, 1784, was elected to represent the Glasgow District of Burghs in Parliament, where he took an active share in all the important transactions of the time. The University of Glasgow conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Laws in 1784, and from 1790 to 1801 he held the office of Lord Rector.