Dundas was one of the few individuals who were spoken favourably of by the Rev. William Auriol Hay Drummond in his “Town Eclogue” (Edinburgh, 1804)—
“Let justice veil her venerable head,
When dulness sits aloft in robes of red!
Though with delight we upright Cockburn see,
With courteous Cullen, deep-read Woodhouselee;
In the Chief Baron’s bland, ingenuous face,
Read all the worth and talent of his race.”
Lord Cockburn, who knew him well, gives an interesting account of Dundas in his “Memorials of his Time” (1856, pp. 156-159).
William Tait, advocate (died 1800), was the second son of Alexander Tait, one of the principal Clerks of Session, who is referred to in “The Court of Session Garland” (1839, p. 50). He was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn on 4th June, 1777, and became a member of the Faculty of Advocates on 19th February, 1780. He acted as Sheriff-depute of Stirling and Clackmannan from 1790 to 1797, and was member of Parliament for the Stirling District of Burghs from 3rd May, 1797, to 24th February, 1800. He died at Exeter on 7th January, 1800.
James Wolfe Murray, Lord Cringletie (1759-1836), was the second son of Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Murray of Cringletie, who had the honour to command the Grenadiers at the sieges of Louisburg and Quebec, and who died at Martinique in 1762. He was born on 5th January, 1719, and was named after General Wolfe, whose godson he was. He became a member of the Faculty of Advocates on 7th December, 1782, and was subsequently appointed Judge-Admiral. He was elevated to the bench on the death of Lord Meadowbank, and took his seat on 16th November, 1816, with the judicial title of Lord Cringletie, which he assumed from the family estate in Peeblesshire. He was also appointed one of the Commissioners of the Jury Court on 12th November, 1825. He resigned his judicial offices in 1834, and died on 29th May, 1836, in the seventy-eighth year of his age.
Murray married, on 7th April, 1807, Isabella Katherine, only daughter of James Charles Edward Stuart Strange, H.E.I.C.S., a godson of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, by whom he had four sons and nine daughters. He resided at one time in No. 17 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh.
References are made to Cringletie by Sir Walter Scott in his “Journal” (1891, pp. 322, 546); and an entertaining jeu d’esprit entitled “Notes by Lord Cringletie of the Trial, Douglas against Russell,” will be found in “Appendix to the Court of Session Garland” (1839, pp. 7-14).
Henry Erskine (1746-1817), second son of Henry David tenth Earl of Buchan, by his wife, Agnes, daughter of Sir James Steuart of Goodtrees, Bart., and brother of the celebrated Thomas Erskine, Lord Chancellor, was born in South Gray’s Close, Edinburgh, on 1st November, 1746. After receiving some preliminary instruction at St. Andrews, he matriculated as a student of the United College of St. Salvator and St. Leonard on 20th February, 1760. In 1763 he proceeded to Glasgow University, and subsequently went to Edinburgh University, where, in 1766, he attended the classes of Professors Wallace, Hugh Blair, and Adam Ferguson. He was admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates on 20th February, 1768. He had previously prepared himself for extempore speaking by attending the Forum Debating Society established in Edinburgh, in which he gave promise of that eminence as a pleader which he afterwards attained. His brilliant talents soon placed him at the head of his profession; and his legal services were as much at the command of the poor as of the wealthy. It was said of him that “no poor man wanted a friend while Harry Erskine lived.”
In August, 1783, Erskine was appointed Lord Advocate in the Coalition Ministry, in succession to Henry Dundas (afterwards Lord Melville). He held office only for a very short period in consequence of a sudden change of Ministry in December, 1783. Anticipating this, Dundas offered, on the day of his appointment, to lend him his own silk gown, suggesting it was hardly worthwhile buying a new one; Erskine replied that no doubt Dundas’s gown was made to fit any party, but that, however short his term of office might be, he declined to put on the abandoned habits of his predecessor. He was succeeded by Ilay Campbell (afterwards Lord President of the Court of Session).
On 24th December, 1785, Dundas having resigned the post of Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, Erskine was elected in his place by a decided majority, in spite of the influence of the Government, which was exerted against him. Lord Cockburn remarks, “His political opinions were those of the Whigs; but a conspicuous and inflexible adherence to their creed was combined with so much gentleness that it scarcely impaired his popularity. Even the old judges, in spite of their abhorrence of his party, smiled upon him; and the eyes of such juries as we then had, in the management of which he was agreeably despotic, brightened as he entered” (“Life of Lord Jeffrey,” 1852, vol. i., p. 93).