William Erskine Lord Kinneder

Lord KINEDDER was born in 1769. He was the oldest surviving son of the Rev. William Erskine, a clergyman of the Episcopal Church of Scotland; who, during a long period of years, exercised his functions at the village of Muthill, in Perthshire, in the centre of a rich and populous neighbourhood. Mr. Erskine was descended from the family of Erskine, of Pittodrie, and was connected by his marriage with Miss Drummond, of the house of Keltie, with many families of respectability in Perthshire. He died at a very advanced age, leaving an orphan family of two sons and a daughter, the eldest of whom is the subject of the present memoir; the second is now on his return from India, where he long filled the distinguished and lucrative station of Member of the Supreme Council of Prince of Wales's Island. The only daughter became the wife, and is now the widow, of the Right Honourable Archibald Colquhoun, of Killermont, who was successively Lord Advocate, and Lord Clerk Register of Scotland.

Lord Kinedder received the more important parts of his education at the University of Glasgow. His tutor was the ingenious but unfortunate Andrew Macdonald, author of “Vimonda, and other Dramatic and Miscellaneous Poetry.” Lord Kinedder possessed many unpublished pieces of this unhappy bard, who afterwards died in London in great poverty. His pupil was much attached to his memory, and used to recite his poetry with much feeling. It is remembered by Lord Kinedder's companions, that he prosecuted his studies in every department with remarkable assiduity and success. The exact sciences, however, never enjoyed much of his favour. He early addicted himself to the pursuit of classical and polite literature. These proved a delightful resource to him through life, and served greatly to lighten the toils of professional labour. Being destined for the bar, by the friends who superintended his education, he enjoyed at Glasgow the advantage of Professor Miller's instructions in general jurisprudence and public law. It is believed he was originally designed for the English bar; at least, he spent some time in chambers in the Temple, where he had, amongst other advantages, that of studying elocution under the celebrated Mr. Walker. These instructions gave the young student the advantage of speaking the English language, with a correctness and elegance which was then little known at the Scottish bar. This natural taste and feeling, with the advantages of Mr. Walker's lessons, joined to a full, sweet, and flexible voice, rendered him a beautiful reader as well as a fine speaker; and he was always willing to contribute his powers to the amusement of the social circle. His studies in the municipal law of his own country were afterwards more fully assisted by the lectures of the eminent Professor Hume, whose retirement from the chair of Scottish law in the University of Edinburgh has lately been the subject of such general regret.

Lord Kinedder was called to the bar in 1790. It is too well known to the junior members of that profession, that to be admitted an advocate, is far from being necessarily the commencement of a professional life. Many young men of learning and talents, and who ultimately attain to the highest eminence, are doomed to pass the best years of their lives in a total vacuity of employment. Lord Kinedder's lot was different. A fortunate accident brought him from the beginning into full employment as an advocate. He had early obtained the notice and friendship of Mr. Robert Mackintosh, an aged and acute lawyer, who at that time was invested with the management of the extensive and complicated affairs of the York Buildings Company. An important law-suit in which the Company was a party, and which engaged in an extra ordinary degree the public attention, was then about to be heard in presence of the whole court. In consequence of in disposition, or some other impediment, the counsel who was to open the case on the part of the Company was under the necessity of returning his brief. Mr. Mackintosh had so much confidence in the talents and judgment of his young friend, that he at once offered him this opportunity of distinguishing himself. Mr. Erskine undertook this perilous duty with the utmost diffidence and hesitation; but he per formed it in a manner which amply justified the opinion of his patron. His opening speech on that occasion is remembered to this day, as one of the most splendid and successful first-appearances that ever had been made in a Scottish court. From that time employment flowed in upon the young lawyer; and during many successive years, he was incessantly engaged in those laborious duties which constitute the employment of the younger members of the Scottish bar.

In 1806, when his brother-in-law, Mr. Colquhoun, was promoted to the dignity of Lord Advocate, Mr. Erskine accepted the office of one of his Advocates Depute. He was then more advanced in practice than gentlemen usually are who are appointed to that office; and having, in the course of his varied employment at the bar, frequently practised in the supreme criminal court, he brought with him to his office a perfect familiarity with criminal practice, and a thorough knowledge of the rules of criminal law, which rendered him eminently useful as a crown lawyer. Even long after he had ceased to hold that office, his knowledge was frequently of much service to his successors. Amid the various subjects of regret, which crowd upon his surviving friends, it is one both to them and to the country, that Lord Kinedder did not live to obtain a seat on the justiciary bench. His acute feelings, his great sense of propriety, and professional acquaintance with criminal jurisprudence, could not have failed to have been there displayed to the utmost advantage.

Some years before, Mr. Erskine had been appointed Principal Commissary of Glasgow; and he afterwards exchanged the office of Advocate Depute for that of Sheriff of Orkney and Shetland. The remoteness of these districts did not prevent him from performing his duty towards them most faithfully and conscientiously. In fact, he took the deepest interest in the welfare of these islands, and frequently visited them; passing many weeks both in Orkney and in Shetland. He restored a regular system in the administration of justice, which in Orkney at least had begun to be lost sight of. He suggested many local improvements, which were executed under his direction; and through his influence, Lerwick the capital of Shetland, and the important village of Stromness in Orkney, were erected into boroughs; and at present some very important measures, for the improvement of Orkney, are under the consideration of the highest authorities, which his zealous exertions, in the last months of his life, were employed in maturing. For this purpose, and when his official connection with the islands had ceased by his elevation to the bench, he undertook a voyage to Orkney, and with much care and pains, composed a report on the state of the district on certain important particulars, which is now under the consideration of the Court of Exchequer.

They lived in this happy manner till the year 1819, when Mr. Erskine was deprived of this amiable and accomplished woman by a disease which cut her off in the prime of life. It may be easily supposed, that to a person of his extreme sensibility and domestic habits, this was the most severe blow that could have been inflicted. It sunk deeply into his heart, and from that moment his health began to decline. His looks which hitherto had been more juvenile than is usual at his age, became much altered; and the stooping of his shoulders, with a disinclination to active exertions, marked, that his frame had undergone a considerable shock. It was not in his nature to withdraw himself from the society of his friends; but from this period, most of them observed that he only endured the mirth to which he had formerly often contributed, and which he had always enjoyed. From this time, too, he became in different to the labours of his profession, and more desirous to bestow his attention chiefly on the education of his family, and on his literary studies. His wife had brought him nine children, of whom six are still alive.

In January last, upon the resignation of his friend, Lord Balmuto, Mr. Erskine was appointed a senator of the College of Justice, and, as junior judge, permanent Lord Ordinary on the Bills. The duties of that office performed during winter session, and the following summer session, in a manner which served to shew to the court and public how much they have lost by his premature death. As Judge in the Bill-Chamber, he allowed parties to have access to him at all times; and when their case appeared of an urgent kind, he never failed, at the sacrifice of whatever personal convenience, to give them dispatch. Sitting as a judge in the outer-house, his conduct was distinguished by the most perfect urbanity to the lawyers and practitioners, and by the closest attention to the pleadings.

His friends hoped for some time, that a sense of having attained a sphere of dignified duties corresponding to his age and professional standing, might awaken Lord Kinedder to happier views, as it certainly stimulated him to more active exertions. But the gratification arising from preferment was alloyed by the recollection that he “ was solitary,” and could not impart it ; and warned doubtless by the mysterious intimations for which medical men have neither name nor cure, he expressed repeatedly his conviction that his life would be shortly closed.

At the end of the session some of his friends observed his health appeared to be impaired; though his symptoms were of little importance. He went for a few days to his residence in the country. During his absence a report was propagated with which the public of Edinburgh are but too familiar, in which, though with no hostility to him, (for it seems to have been invented substantively to injure another party) his name was most strangely implicated. A brief investigation traced it to its source, and completely, established its utter falsehood. But Lord Kinedder’s nice and delicate sense of purity of his judicial character, and his dread is that his name might be involved in legal discussions, continually haunted his mind; and cooperating with previous illness, overwhelmed a constitution not originally robust. On Saturday, the 11th of August, he was seized with a nervous fever, which in three days deprived his family of the most affectionate of parents, and society one of its brightest ornaments. He died at the age of fifty-three.

Of Lord Kinedder’s character as a man, the leading features were, high sense of honour; an inflexible integrity; and a feeling, sometimes carried to excess, if that be possible of scorn and contempt for whatever was mean or base. With these stronger qualities of intellect, were almost feminine; and a mind so alive to the impulse of feeling, that perhaps there never lived a man (of all the qualities that dignify mankind) so easily moved to smiles or tears. The latter were excited not merely by melancholy and affecting misfortunes, but by the narration of actions of high virtue or generosity, and even by the grand or beautiful scenes of external nature. While a party of his friends were vying with each other to express their admiration of the exquisitely beautiful spar-cane in the Isle of Skye, he was observed to sit down apart, and shed tears of rapture. Many live to attest the constancy of his friendships; and it is melancholy to reflect, that he who in some measure fell a victim to a most unfounded calumny, was the slowest to give ear to scandal of any sort, and the readiest and boldest vindicator, when it affected the character of an absent friend. The intimacies he formed when he first came to the bar generally continued unbroken till death; and the circle of these friends comprehends almost every one of those names which are now so distinguished in the jurisprudence and literature of Scotland. It is well known, that during the greater part of his life the warmest and most confidential attachment subsisted between him and an author, whom universal suffrage has long placed high in British literature. The beautiful verses addressed to him by Sir Walter Scott, as a preface to one of his cantos of Marmion, are a pleasing illustration of the footing upon which these excellent persons so long lived with each other. Forgiveness of injuries was another distinguishing trait of Lord Kinedder's character; he hardly ever was known to harbour resentment, even for an hour; and although bred to a profession which does not lead to favourable impressions of mankind, it must be recorded among his merits or his foibles, that he was but too partial to the merits of his friends, and too unwilling (in a worldly point of view) to investigate and condemn the motives of those who acted towards him unkindly. It may also be mentioned, that though sincerely attached to the principles of Mr. Pitt, the subject of the present notice entertained none of that bitterness of spirit which enters so frequently into political differences. On the contrary, among Lord Kinedder's most intimate friends, several are to be numbered who entertained very different views of national policy, without their mutual regard experiencing either coldness or interruption. The last peculiarity which we shall mention, is an extraordinary degree of shyness and diffidence in all that concerned his own interest. Though a member of a profession whose honours and rewards are generally disposed of by influence, Lord Kinnedder was never known to ask a favour for himself. It was otherwise when he had to solicit for a friend; then he was the most importunate and persevering of suitors.

His professional learning was rather extensive than profound; but if he did not carry with him on all occasions, that minute acquaintance with the fontes juris, and with the authorities of municipal law which so eminently distinguished some of his brethren; no one knew better where to find whateverin formation was wanting on the law of a case, or when found, was better able to apply it powerfully and effectively.

The task of preparing written pleadings, was, after a few years' laborious practice, always irksome to him; but his papers rarely bore the marks of the distaste with which were prepared. They generally consisted of a clear and concise statement of the facts, in which nothing was omitted which bore upon the issue, while circumstances which appeared to him superfluous, were unsparingly rejected. His argument was clearly, concisely, and often elegantly stated, and his authorities, in cases of law, were always apt and weighty. His own inclination, however, led him to prefer the other branch of his profession, that of viva voce pleading. As a debater, his elocution was just and correct; his diction was fluent and copious, often vehement, often eloquent. In cases which particularly affected his own feelings, he has seldom been excelled in pathetic and vigorous declamation. His address to the jury on behalf of Dr. Cahill, tried in 1812 for killing a brother officer in a duel, will long be remembered as a striking specimen of forensic eloquence.

It has already been mentioned, that from the period of his academical education, he devoted himself to the cultivation of classical and polite literature. To these pursuits he constantly returned, as often as the vacations of the Court, or other occasional intervals of leisure afforded him opportunities. Although he never appeared before the world as an author, yet his literary character it not underserving of a separate notice. The value of his opinions upon literary subjects, was duly appreciated by those distinguished friends who have added so much lustre to the literary reputation of Edinburgh. His critical judgements were sometimes fastidious, but always correct; his taste was refined by constant exercise in the study of the best antient and modern authors; and if he could have overcome his constitutional diffidence, and his extreme dislike for subjecting himself to the annoyance of invidious criticism, he might have taken his place as an original author with the most eminent of his literary friends.

With the Muses he was no unacquainted; a very brief specimen of his powers as a poet has found its way to the press, and may serve to shew what he might have accomplished in poetry, had his leisure and inclination permitted. This is, his “ Additional Stanzas to Collin’s Ode on the Superstitions of the Highlands,” which has been pronounced by high authority to be altogether worthy of the beautiful though imperfect poem to which they have been attached. While the authorship of the “Bridal of Triermain” remained a secret, Mr. Erskine enjoyed the almost undivided reputation of its author: that secret has been long disclosed. His connexion with the work consisted, it is believed, in contributing the preface, and writing the observations upon it in the Quarterly Review.

Lord Kinedder was a person of middle stature, and well, though not strongly, made. His complexion was fair with light eyes, and uncommonly pleasing features, which expressed at once the vivacity of talent and the kindliness of affection. In general society he was rather reserved and silent, but in more select circles, few brought so much to be enjoyed, none came more willing to be delighted. As his own manners were uncommonly correct, he was almost fastidiously intolerant of the slightest breach of propriety in others, and would not allow even the ignorance or inexperience of the party offending to be a sufficient excuse for the least indecorum.

But no person could be entirely acquainted with the character of Lord Kinedder, who had not frequently seen him in the bosom of his family. It was in that sanctuary of the heart, that his amiable qualities were indeed most conspicuous. It was his happy lot that the partner of his affections possessed tastes, and feelings, and talents exactly congenial with his own, and it was delightful for those who habitually enjoyed their domestic society, to see them at one time indulging in those intellectual gratifications which were so dear to both, and at another devoting themselves to the moral education of a young promising family. She, alas! was too soon taken from him; but to this bereavement, after the agonies of sorrow had passed away, only bound him more closely to his children. From that time he felt little happiness except in their society, and the reverential and affectionate fondness with which they listened to his counsels, always appeared to bestow as much of enjoyment upon the fond father as human nature is capable of receiving.

The preceding memoir was chiefly drawn up by his friend Mr. Hay Donaldson, writer to the signet, and it is a remarkable and affecting incident, that in the course of a few weeks from the time of Lord Kinedder’s death, this worthy individual followed his friend to the grave; it is also remarkable that both had, a short time previous to their dissolution, attained situations of the highest importance, but which neither were destined long to fill.

(Hay Donaldson 1822, Sketch of the Life and Character of the late Lord Kinedder)