Scottish advocate and judge
Robert McQueen, Lord Braxfield
(4 May 1722 ? 30 May 1799) was a
Scottish
advocate
and judge.
Life
[
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]
McQueen was born at Braxfield House near
Lanark
on 4 May 1722, son of John McQueen.
[1]
He studied law at
Edinburgh University
and was admitted to the
Faculty of Advocates
in 1744. In 1759 he was appointed an
Advocate Depute
appearing for the Crown in prosecutions. He often appeared in more than 15 cases per day and earned £1900 in a single year.
[2]
He became a judge in 1776 and took the title Lord Braxfield.
[1]
In 1788 he became
Lord Justice Clerk
, the second most senior judge in Scotland. Explicitly taking the view that "Government in this country is made up of the landed interest, which alone has a right to be represented" he took an active role in the suppression of the
Friends of the People Society
in the trials and sentences passed on
Thomas Muir
and others. To accomplish this he "invented a crime of unconscious sedition".
[3]
A famous quote of his in this respect was "Let them bring me prisoners, and I will find them law."
[4]
[5]
In 1795 he oversaw the trial and imprisonment of
Sir Archibald Gordon Kinloch of Gilmerton
for the murder of his half-brother Sir Francis Kinloch. This rare event saw one man kill another at least in part to inherit his baronetcy.
[6]
He died at home
[7]
in
George Square, Edinburgh
, on 30 May 1799, aged 77, and was buried in the family vault at Lanark on 5 June.
After his death his widow moved from George Square to 97
Princes Street
.
[9]
Braxfield House was later the home of
Robert Owen
and
New Lanark
was built nearby.
[10]
Family
[
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]
He married, firstly, Mary Agnew, daughter of Major James Agnew of the 7th
Dragoon Guards
, and niece of Sir Andrew Agnew of Lochnaw, Wigtownshire, bart. They had four children:
- Robert Dundas, who died on 5 August 1816,
- John, captain in the 28th regiment of foot, who died on 2 February 1837,
- Mary, who married in 1777
Sir William Honyman, Lord Armadale
,
- Katherine, who married John Macdonald, chief of Clanranald, in 1786.
Lord Braxfield married secondly, Elizabeth Ord, daughter of
Robert Ord
,
Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer for Scotland
. They had no further children.
Influence
[
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]
Sir
Henry Raeburn
painted his portrait shortly before his death.
Braxfield has a notoriety in Scotland, due to the harsh way that he dealt with those who appeared before him, most famously in telling a defendant that "Ye're a vera clever chiel, man, but ye wad be nane the waur o' a hanging". In a recent survey of Scottish historians, Braxfield was identified as one of the "vilest villains" in Scotland's history.
[11]
He is thought to be the model for the judge in
Robert Louis Stevenson
's unfinished novel
Weir of Hermiston
.
[12]
Braxfield Row in
New Lanark
is named after his estate.
He was Trustee for the University of Edinburgh and
South Bridge
.
References
[
edit
]
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
public domain
:
Barker, George Fisher Russell (1893). "
Macqueen, Robert
". In
Lee, Sidney
(ed.).
Dictionary of National Biography
. Vol. 35. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
External links
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]