L A U 



604' 



L A U 



some good houses, but it has no public buildings de- 

 serving of notice, and no trade. Close by the town, on 

 the banks of the Leader, stands Thirlestane Castle, or 

 Lander Fort, a handsome building, which was erected 

 by Edward I. of England, and is now one of the seats 

 of the Earl of Lauderdale. Lauder unites with Jed- 

 burgh, Haddington, Dunbar, and North Berwick, in 

 sending a member to parliament. The population of 

 the town and parish in 1811 was 336 houses, and 1742 

 inhabitants. 



LAUUER, SIR JOHN, Lord Fountainhall, was born 

 at Edinburgh in 1616, of the family of Lauder of Lau- 

 der Tower, of which he afterwards became the repre- 

 sentative. He was the eldest son of John Lauder of 

 Newington, merchant, and bailie of Edinburgh. Ha- 

 ving early displayed a predilection for the bar, he went 

 abroad to finish his education at Leyden, and, after vi- 

 siting Paris, he returned to his* native country to pre- 

 pare himself for the profession he had chosen, and 

 passed advocate in 1668. There is reason to be- 

 lieve, that his talents as a pleader were of no mean 

 character, and that his practice soon became consider- 

 able, for he seems to have appeared in causes of im- 

 portance not long after he had put on the gown. He 

 was one of those fifty advocates, who, disgusted with 

 the partiality of the judges at that time composing the 

 court of session, and more particularly with their arbi- 

 trary endeavours to crush appeals from their sentences 

 to the king and parliament, were so spirited as to desert 

 the court in a body, in February, 1678 ; and who were, 

 in consequence of this determined step, deprived of the 

 power of exercising the functions of their profession. 

 He was afterwards restored, along with his companions, 

 in January, 1 679. Soon after this he had the honour 

 of knighthood conferred upon him. Upon the occasion 

 of Argyle's trial for the alleged treasonable interpreta- 

 tion of the test, in 1681, Lauder, with seven others of 

 his brethren who formed the earl's counsel, had near- 

 ly been subjected to imprisonment by the tyrannical 

 Scotch administration of the time, for having, merely 

 as an ordinary piece of duty to their client, signed a fa- 

 vourable opinion as to the meaning of his expressions. 



In 1685, he was returned to the Scotch parliament 

 as member for East Lothian, in which county his fa- 

 ther had purchased the estate of Fountainhall ; and he 

 represented that shire for twenty-two years. When 

 James II. made his attempt, in 1686, to pave the way 

 for the introduction of popery, by endeavouring to pro- 

 cure from his Scottish parliament the repeal of all pe- 

 nal laws and tests relating to religion, Sir John Lauder 

 made a vigorous stand in the house against the royal 

 party, and seems to have materially contributed to their 

 defeat, in regard to the chief object of their manoeuvres. 

 He was created a lord of session, under the title of 

 Lord Fountainhall, by King William and Queen Mary, 

 in 1689. In the same year he had a pension of 100 

 Sterling granted to him; and, in 1690, he was made 

 one of the lords of justiciary. 



His father, when in his dotage, having married for 

 his third wife Margaret Ramsay of Idington, a design- 

 ing woman, she had succeeded in persuading him to 

 apply for a baronet's patent from James II. which she 

 had also managed, by her clandestine intrigues, and 

 without her husband's knowledge, to get constructed 

 in such a manner as to make the title descend to his 



son by her, instead of to his proper heir. Lord Foun- Launcest 

 tainhall, however, raised an action of reduction, and 

 obtained its annihilation ; wid another", running in the 

 proper line, being granted by William <jnd Mary, he 

 soon afterwards succeeded to it. At that period, the 

 office of lord advocate was frequently held in conjunc- 

 tion with a seat on the bench. This situation was of- 

 fered to Fountainhall in 16<)2, and was refused by him, 

 because he was denied permission to prosecute the inhu- 

 man perpetrators of the diabolical massacre of Glenco. 



He was twice married ; first, to Janet, daughter of 

 Sir Andrew Ramsay, Lord Abbotshall and, secondly, 

 to a daughter of Anderson of Balram ; and he had a 

 numerous family by both these connections, Regular 

 circuits having been established in 1707, Fountainhall, 

 who by that time found himself too infirm to be equal 

 to the fatigue of this additional duty, resigned his jus- 

 ticiary gown to Queen Anne, though pressed by her 

 majesty to continue to hold it ; and a little time before 

 his death, he also resigned his seat as a lord of session. 

 In resigning these offices, he also gave up the salaries 

 appended to them. He died in September 1722. 



Lord Fountainhall was most particularly remarkable 

 for his uncommon industry and unwearied assiduity, 

 and for his devotion to his profession, and accuracy in 

 recording its doctrines and precedents. Besides -his 

 occupation in the arduous duties of a lawyer and of a 

 judge, he devoted much time to writing. Those MSS. 

 which exist in his hand, are but a very small por- 

 tion of those left at his death, as is manifest from the 

 frequent references he makes to numerous volumes, by 

 a variety of different letters and figures. The children 

 of his second marriage being his executors, were too 

 young to know the value of these writings, which was 

 probably the cause of their being lost. Eight folios 

 and three quartos now remain, said to have been ori- 

 ginally rescued from a tobacconist's shop, but which 

 fortunately came at last into the Library of the Faculty 

 of Advocates, who, in 1759, published from them the 

 two printed folio volumes entitled, Decisions of the Court 

 of Session from June 6, 1678, to July SO, 17 12, containing 

 a/so the Transactions of the Privy Council, of the Cri- 

 minal Court, and Court of Exchequer, and interspersed 

 with many Historical Facts, and oilier curious Anecdotes. 

 There still remains much unpublished matter, of a his- 

 torical nature, scattered through these MSS. which, it 

 it^ hoped, may, at some period be arranged and submit- 

 ted to the press, as they display considerable observa- 

 tion, and afford much information regarding the politi- 

 cal characters and transactions, as well as the manners 

 of these interesting times. 



LAUNCESTON. See NEWPORT. 



LAUSANNE, the Lausonium of the ancients, is a 

 city of Switzerland, and the capital of the Canton de 

 Vaud. It is built on three hills, and in the adjoining 

 vallies, and is situated 432 feet above the lake of Ge- 

 neva, from which it is distant about two miles. One 

 of the principal public buildings in Lausanne, is the 

 cathedral. It is a large Gothic building, situated in 

 the highest part of the town, and has a lofty square 

 tower, terminating in a small pyramid, with lesser py- 

 ramids at each angle. The portal, or entrance on the 

 south side, contains many finely sculptured figures. 

 The interior of the church is very fine. The south 

 window in the transept is circular, and filled with 



If you will not learne of God nor good men 



in St. Paul's church, London, 1548. 



