Charles Hay, Lord Newton (1747-1811), son of James Hay of Cocklaw, Writer to the Signet, was born in 1747. After the usual preparatory course of education, he passed as an advocate on 24th December, 1768, having just attained his majority; but, unlike most young practitioners, Hay had so thoroughly studied the principles of law that he was frequently heard to declare he was as good a lawyer at that time as he ever was at any later period. He soon became distinguished by his strong, natural abilities, as well as by his extensive knowledge of his profession, which embraced alike the minutest forms of the daily practice of the Court and the highest and most subtle points of jurisprudence. He was promoted by the Fox Administration to the bench on the death of David Smythe of Methven, and took his seat, with the judicial title of Lord Newton, on 7th March, 1806. This appointment was the only one which took place in the Court of Session during what was termed the reign of “The Talents”—a circumstance on which it is said he always professed to set a high value. Newton died unmarried at Powrie, in the county of Forfar, on the 19th of October, 1811.
Hay was, during the whole course of his life, a staunch Whig of the old school. Whilst at the bar his opinions were probably never surpassed for their acuteness, discrimination, and solidity; and as a judge he showed that all this was the result of such a rapid and easy application of the principles of law as appeared more like the effect of tuition than of study and laborious exertion.
Newton possessed an extraordinary fund of good humour, amounting almost to playfulness, and entirely devoid of vanity or affectation. There was a strong dash of eccentricity in his character, but his peculiarities appeared in the company of so many estimable qualities that they only tended to make him more interesting to his friends. He possessed great bodily strength and activity till the latter years of his life, when he became excessively corpulent.
Cockburn calls him “a man famous for law, paunch, whist, claret, and worth,” and adds, “In private life he was known as ‘The Mighty.’ He was a bulky man with short legs, twinkling eyes, and a large purple visage; no speaker, but an excellent legal writer and adviser. Honest, warm-hearted, and considerate, he was always true to his principles and his friends. But these and other good qualities were all apt to be lost sight of in people’s admiration of his drinking. His daily and flowing cup raised him far above the evil days of sobriety on which he had fallen, and made him worthy of having quaffed with the Scandinavian heroes” (“Memorials of his Time,” 1856, p. 223).
Many quaint anecdotes are told of him. On the bench he frequently indulged in a certain degree of lethargy, and on one occasion a young counsel, who was pleading before the Division, confident of a favourable judgment, stopped his argument, remarking to the other judges on the bench, “My Lords, it is unnecessary that I should go on, as Lord Newton is fast asleep.” “Ay, ay,” cried Newton, “you will have proof of that by and by,” when, to the astonishment of the young advocate, after a most luminous review of the case, he gave a very decided and elaborate judgment against him. The following story, says Chambers, was once told of Lord Newton by Dr. Gregory to King George the Third, who laughed at it very heartily. A country client coming to town to see him, when at the bar, upon some business, found on inquiry that the best time for the purpose was at four o’clock, just before Hay sat down to dinner. He accordingly called at the counsel’s house at that hour, but was informed that Mr. Hay was then at dinner, and could not be disturbed. He returned the following day earlier in the afternoon, when to his surprise the servant repeated his former statement. “At dinner!” cried the enraged applicant; “did you not tell me that four was his dinner-hour, and now it wants a quarter of it!” “Yes, sir,” said the servant, “but it is not his this day’s, but his yesterday’s dinner that Mr. Hay is engaged with. So you are rather too early than too late” (“Traditions of Edinburgh,” 1825, vol. ii., pp. 276-277).
It is said that Newton often spent the night in all manner of convivial indulgences—drove home about seven o’clock in the morning—slept two hours—and mounting the bench at the usual time, showed himself perfectly well qualified to perform his duty. His Lordship was also so exceedingly fond of card-playing that it was humorously remarked, “Cards were his profession, and the law only his amusement.”
Newton resided for many years at No. 22 York Place, Edinburgh. His portrait by Raeburn—“just awakened from clandestine slumber on the bench,” as Stevenson describes it—is one of the most popular of that master’s works.
John Clerk, Lord Eldin (1757-1832), the eldest son of John Clerk of Eldin, the author of the well-known “Essay on Naval Tactics,” and his wife, Susannah Adam, the sister of the celebrated architects of that name, was born in April, 1757. He was educated with the view of entering the Indian Civil Service, but, his attention having been turned to the legal profession, he was eventually apprenticed to a Writer to the Signet. After serving his indentures, he practised for a year or two as an accountant. Then, having qualified himself for the bar, he was admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates on 3rd December, 1785.
Clerk speedily rose to distinction in his profession and acquired so extensive a practice that, it is said, at one period of his career he had nearly one-half of the business of the Court upon his hands. On 11th March, 1806, on the resignation of Robert Blair of Avonton, he was appointed Solicitor-General for Scotland, an appointment which he held during the twelve months that the Whig party was in office.
“Had his judgment been equal to his talent,” writes Lord Cockburn, “few powerful men could have stood before him. For he had a strong, working, independent, ready head, which had been improved by various learning, extending beyond his profession into the fields of general literature, and into the arts of painting and sculpture. Honest, warm-hearted, generous, and simple, he was a steady friend, and of the most touching affection in all the domestic relations. The whole family was deeply marked by an hereditary caustic humour, and none of its members more than he” (“Life of Jeffrey,” vol. i., p. 200).