435 



DALRYMPLE, SIR HEW. 



DALRYMPLE, ALEXANDER. 



486 





baronet on the 28th of April 1698, the day previous to his younger 

 brother, Heio Dalrymple of North Berwick, being raised to the like 

 dignity. 



SIR HEW DALRYMPLE, born in 1652, was some time one of the 

 commissaries of Edinburgh, having been appointed to that place on 

 the resignation of his brother James, when the latter was made one of 

 the principal clerks of session. He had also been some time dean of 

 the Faculty of Advocates; and was, on the occasion of his being 

 created a baronet, promoted at once from the outer bar (like the 

 predecessor of his father, Sir George Lockhart, and in more recent 

 times Mr. Blair, the only instances in the history of the court) to the 

 presidency of the Court of Session, which had remained vacant since 

 his father's death in 1695. President Sir Hew Dalrymple collected 

 the deci-ions of the court from his appointment till the 21st of June 

 1720, and continued in the chair till his death, which took place on 

 the 1st of February 1737, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. 



He had a younger son of the same name with himself, Hew Dalrymple, 

 who passed advocate on the ISth of November 1710, and in December 

 1726 was made a lord of session under the titular designation of Lord 

 Drummore. He was also some time afterwards appointed a lord of 

 ry on Erskine of Dun's resignation, and died in the possession 

 of both offices in June 1755, with the character of an acute and learned 

 lawyer, and a very honourable man. By his wife, Anne Horn, heiress 

 of the estates of Horn and Westhall in the county of Aberdeen, ho 

 left a large family, one of whom was David Dalrymple of Westhall, 

 who passed advocite in the beginning of 1743, iu the twenty-third 

 year of his age, and in 1746 was chosen procurator (or advocate) to 

 the Church of Scotland. In 1748 he was also constituted sheriff depute 

 of the shire of Aberdeen, and he continued in both offices till July 

 1777, when he was made a lord of session under the title of Lord 

 Wrsthall. His elder brother assumed his maternal surname of Horn, 

 and marrying Mary, daughter and heiress of Sir James Elphinstone 

 of Logie, assumed the additional surname of Elpbinstone, and had by 

 his wife a son, who on the 16th of June 1828 was created a baronet 

 by the style and title of Sir Robert Dalrymple Horn Elphinstone, Bart., 

 of Horn and Logie Elpbinstone. A younger branch of the same family 

 had a few years before been raised to the like dignity in the person of 

 .Sir lluijk Wlii'f'ird Dalrymple of Highmark, in the county of Wigton, 

 who was created a baronet on the 6th of May 1815. 



The youngest son of the first Viscount Stair was Sir David Dalrymple 

 of Hailcs, Bart., so created on the 8th of May 1700. He passed advocate 

 on the 3rd of November 1688, and in 1709 was appointed lord-advocate 

 of Scotland in the room of Sir James Stewart, who was however re- 

 instated in the office in the year 1711. On Stewart's death Sir David 

 was ngain appointed lord-advocate, and continued till May 1720, when 

 he was succeeded by Robert Dundas of Arniston, who also succeeded 

 him on Ms decease, the following year, in his place of dean of the 

 Faculty of Advocates. Hi* eldest on was Sir James Dalrymple of 

 Hniles, Bart., some time auditor of Exchequer ; and by his wife, Lady 

 Christian Hamilton, daughter of the sixth Earl of Haddington, the 

 fath' r of a numerous family. The eldest of these was the celebrated 

 judge and antiquary, 



SIR DAVID DALBYMFLX, better known by his titular designation 

 of LORD HAILES, was born at Edinburgh on the 2Sth of October 

 1726, and after acquiring the rudiments of his education in his native 

 place, was sent to Eton, where, with a competent degree of learning, 

 he imbibed that classical taste, and partiality for the manners aud 

 customs of England, which distinguished the subsequent periods of 

 his life. From Eton he returned to Edinburgh, whence, after passing 

 through the usual course at the university there, he was sent to 

 Utrecht to study the civil law ; and on his return in 1746 he prepared 

 for the bar, and passed advocate on the 24th of February 1748. After 

 eighteen years of professional life he was raised to the bench of the 

 Court of Session ; and ten years after he was also, on the resignation 

 of Lord C'oalston, to whose only daughter he was married in October 

 1763, appointed a lord of justiciary. As a judge, his accuracy, 

 diligence, and dignity were eminently conspicuous ; but it is on the 

 broader basis of literary merit that his great fame rests. The earliest 

 of his publications appears to have been sacred poems, being a collec- 

 tion of translations and paraphrases from Scripture by various authors, 

 Edinb., 1751. His next was the ' Wisdom of Solomon and the Book 

 of Ecclesiasten,' 1755. The same year he wrote in ' The World ' 

 Noa. 140 and 147, and the next year No. 204, in which year also he 

 published ' Select Discourses,' by John Smith of Cambridge, with a 

 preface and learned notes. The year following, 1767, he republished, 

 with notes, ' A Discourse of the unnatural and vile Conspiracy 

 attempted upon the King by the Earl of Gowry.' In the month of 

 October 1761, two vessels being wrecked on the shore between 

 Dunbar and North Berwick, and pillaged by the country people, Sir 

 David published a sermon from Acts xxviii. 2 "The barbarous 

 people showed us no little kindness." In 1762 he published from the 

 press of Foulis of Glasgow, ' Memorials aud Letters relating to the 

 history of Britain in the reign of James I. of England,' with a 

 preface and notes. From the tame press, in 1765, lie published the 

 ' Works of the ever memorable Mr. John Hailes, of Eton,' in three 

 vol. ; and the same year at Edinburgh the first specimen of a book 

 entitled ' Ano compendious booke of Godly and Spiritual Songs.' 

 The year following he published ' Memorials and Letters relating to 



the history of Britain in the reign of Charles I.,' from the originals 

 collected by Wodrow; an 'Account of the Preservation of Charles 

 II. after the battle of Worcester,' drawn up by himself; and the 

 'Secret Correspondence between Sir Robert Cecil and James VI.' 

 The next year he published a catalogue of the lords of session from 



the arguments for the high antiquity of the Regiam Majestatem, and 

 an inquiry into the authenticity of the Leges Malcolmi ;' 'Historical 

 Memoirs concerning the provincial councils of the Scottish clergy, 

 from the earlist account to the tera of the Reformation ; ' and third, 

 ' Canons of the Church of Scotland, drawn up in the provincial coun- 

 cils held at Perth in the years 1242 and 1269.' And in 1770 he pub- 

 lished some ancient Scottish poems from manuscripts, with a number of 

 curious notes and a glossary. His next performance was the additional 

 case of Elizabeth, claiming the title of Countess of Sutherland : a 

 singularly able paper, which was subscribed by Alexander Wedderburn, 

 afterwards Lord Chancellor of England, and Sir Adam Ferguson, but 

 well known to be the work of Lord Hailes. In 1773 Sir David 

 published ' Remarks ou the History of Scotland ; ' and in 1776, 'Letters 

 from Hubert Languet to Sir Philip Sydney.' This last year also he 

 published his ' Annals of Scotland, from the time of Malcolm Canmore 

 to King Robert I.;' 'Tables of the succession of the Scots Kings' 

 during the same period ; and in 1779 his ' Annals of Scotland, from 

 the accession of Bruce to the accession of the House of Stuart.' 

 In the above year, 1776, he published another work of much 

 erudition; namely, 'An account of the Martyrs of Smyrna aud 

 Lyons in the second century,' with notes. This was intended as the 

 first volume of ' Remains of Christian Antiquity ; ' the second volume 

 of that work appeared in 1778, aud the third in 1780. The next 

 year he published ' Octavius,' a dialogue by Marcus Miuucius Felix, 

 with notes and illustrations ; and the year following, the treatise by 

 Lactantius of the manner in which the persecutors died, illustrated 

 in like manner by various notes. In 1783 appeared his 'Disquisitions 

 concerning the Antiquity of the Christian Church ; ' and in 1786, ' An 

 inquiry iuto the secondary causes which Mr. Gibbon has assigned for 

 the rapid growth of Christianity.' After this followed some biogra- 

 phical sketches, in separate works and at different times, but all 

 intended as a specimen of a Biographia Scotica. In 1788 he published 

 from manuscripts the opinions of Sarah, duuhess of Marlborough ; aud 

 in 1790 a translation of the address of Q. Septim. Tertullus to Scapula 

 Tertullus, proconsul of Africa, with notes, to illustrate the state of 

 the church in early times. This was the last work which Lord Huiles 

 lived to publish. On the 29th of November 1792 he expired, in ihe 

 sixty-sixth year of his age, the baronetcy, for want of male issue, 

 descending to his nephew Jama, eldest sou of John Dalrymple, Esq., 

 some time lord provost of Edinburgh, who was brother of Sir David, 

 aud also brother of 



ALEXANDER DALRYMPLE, the hydrographer. He was born at New 

 Hailes, the seat of hia father, Sir James Dalrymple, Bart., on the 

 24th of July 1737, and was the seventh son of a family of sixteen 

 children, all of whom he survived. His scholastic education was very 

 limited, partly from the troubles of the times, and partly from the 

 early death of his father ; and when scarce sixteen years of age he 

 went abroad as a writer in the East India Company's service. Owing 

 to his deficiency in the ordinary branches of learning, he was, on his 

 arrival in India, placed under the storekeeper ; but at length, through 

 the kindness of friends, he was removed to the secretary's office, Lord 

 Pigot himself giving him some lessons in writing, aud Mr. Urme, tho 

 historian, instruction, in accounts. In the records of the secretary's 

 office he found certain papers on the subject of a commerce with tho 

 Eastern Archipelago ; and so interested iu the subject did he become, 

 that, contrary to Lord Pigot's advice, he refused the secretaryship, and 

 determined on a voyage among the eastern islands. He now also made 

 himself master of the Spanish language by his own efforts, as he had 

 a short time before done in regard to the French. In the course of 

 the voyage he concluded a commercial treaty with the sultau of 

 Sooloo ; but not long afterwards the political affairs of that place were 

 altogether changed, and no beneficial effects resulted from the enter- 

 prise. He subsequently returned to Sooloo, and re-established a 

 friendly understanding between the inhabitants aud the company ; 

 but unfavourable circumstances again intervened to prevent the 

 results which were anticipated, and bis exertions in England, whither 

 he afterwards came on the same matter, were equally unfortunate. 

 In 1769 the court of directors voted him SOOOi for hia past services, 

 equivalent to the "emoluments of secretary at Madras, which he had 

 relinquished in 1769 to proceed on the eastern voyage. From the 

 time of his return to England in 1765, he employed himself in collect- 

 ing materials for a full exposition of the importance of the Eastern 

 islands and South Seas; and the court of directors, satisfied of the 

 important information he possessed, employed him to draw up several 

 charts of the Eastern seas, which were published under their 

 authority. On Lord Pigot's appointment to be governor of Fort St. 

 George in 1775, Dalrymple was reinstated in the service of tho East 

 India Company, and went out to Madras as a member of council and 

 one of the committee of circuit; but in 1777 he was recalled with 

 others, under a resolution of the general court, to have their conduct 



