464
mediately sent the patent to Mr. Robert Lauder to
be altered, and Mr. Robert, certainly not having the
fear of what are awfully termed consequences before
his eyes, proceeded to his duty, when the enraged
lady, "with several others of her accomplices, in-
tending by force to have taken the patent from him,
threatened to see his heart's blood if he did not
deliver it presently." Farther, "to fright her hus-
band to comply with her unreasonable and unjust
demands, she threatened that she would starve her-
self if that patent was not taken to her son, and that
she would kill herself if she saw any of the com-
plainers come near the house, and if he did not
absolutely discharge them his presence;" and still
more emphatically, "she tore the clothes off her
body, and the hoods off her head, and sware fearful
oaths, that she would drown herself and her children,
and frequently cursed the complainers, and defamed
and traduced them in all places, and threatened that
she hoped to see them all rooted out, they and their
posterity, off the face of the earth, and her children
would succeed to all."1 A decree appears to have
been obtained against the defenders in the privy-
council; and the patent being reduced in the civil
court, a new destination was obtained, by which Sir
John Lauder succeeded to the family title and estates
on the death of his father in 1692.
Meantime, the Revolution had brought him a
relief from the dangers and difficulties of opposition,
and the hope of preferment and influence. He was
appointed a lord of session, and took his seat with
the title of "Lord Fountainhall," on the 1st Novem-
ber, 1689. On the 27th of January following he
was also nominated a lord of justiciary. In 1692
Sir John Lauder was offered the lucrative and influ-
ential situation of lord-advocate; but the massacre
of Glencoe, an act characteristic of a darker age and
a bloodier people, had just taken place; the luke-
warmness, if not criminality, of the government
formed an impediment, and, to his honour be it
mentioned, he would not accept the proffered situa-
tion except on the condition of being allowed to
prosecute the murderers. At the time when the
Scottish parliament found it necessary to strike a
blow for the property of the nation invested in the
Darien scheme, it was proposed that the parliament
should vote an address to the king, calling on him
to vindicate the honour of Scotland, and protect the
company. The more determined spirits in that ex-
asperated assembly demanded an act as the legiti-
mate procedure of an independent body. Among
these was Lauder. The address was carried by 108
to 84, and a body of those who voted otherwise,
with Hamilton and Lauder at their head, recorded
their dissent.2 He began at this period to show
opposition to the measures of government. Along
with Hamilton he recorded a dissent from the mo-
tion of the high-commissioner, for continuing for
four months the forces over and above the 3000
which constituted the regular establishment.3 He
attended parliament during the tedious discussion
1 Notwithstanding her ferocity, this woman seems to have
managed to be regretted at her death. She is the only person
to whom, from the date (April 18, 1713), we can apply a piece
of doggrel. " In obitum piae ac generosissimae Dominae D.A.
Fountainhall, Elegidium, ad usurn et captum adolescentuli
ejusdem filii Alexandri Lauder, ex industria accommodatum."
It thus elegantly commences:—
"An quia matrona es, generoso stemmate nata
Fatorum rigido numine, sancta cadis."
Or as it is Englished—
"Fallen by the dismal stroke of harsher fate,
Because by birth, but more by virtue, great."
Pamphlets Ad. Lib. M. 4.4.
* Act. Parl. x. 269.                    3 Act. Parl. x. 294.
of the several articles of the union, and we find his
protest frequently recorded, although to one or two
articles, which did not involve the principle of an
incorporating union, he gave his assent. In the
final vote his name is recorded among the noes.
Soon after the union, on the appointment of cir-
cuits, old age interfered with Lord Fountainhall's
performance of all his laborious duties, and after
some unwillingness on the part of royalty to lose so
honest a servant, he resigned his justiciary gown,
and a short time before his death he gave up his
seat in the Court of Session. This good and useful
man died in September, 1722, leaving to his numer-
ous family a considerable fortune, chiefly the fruit
of his own industry. On a character which has
already spoken for itself through all the actions of a
long life, we need not dilate. His high authority
as a rational lawyer is well known to the profession.
His industry was remarkable. His manuscripts, as
extant, fill ten folio and three quarto volumes; and
there is reason to believe, from his references, that
several were lost.
In 1822 was published "Chronological Notes of
Scottish Affairs from 1680 till 1701, being chiefly
taken from the Diary of Lord Fountainhall." Un-
fortunately this volume is not taken from the original
manuscript, but from an abridged compilation by a
Mr. Milne, a writer in Edinburgh; a fierce Jacobite,
who has disturbed the tranquil observations of the
judge with his own fiery additions, apparently judg-
ing that his cause might be well supported by making
an honest adversary tell falsehoods in its favour. A
genuine selection from the historical manuscripts
of Lord Fountainhall, however, was published by the
Bannatyne Club in 1840 and 1848, under the titles
of Historical Observes, and Historical Notices of Scot-
tish Affairs, by which much light is thrown upon the
political events and social condition of the period.
LAUDER, SIR THOMAS DICK, Bart. This
multifarious and distinguished writer was the eldest
son of Sir Andrew Lauder, Bart., of Fountainhall,
Haddingtonshire, and was born in 1784. The family
was originally of Norman extraction, its founder, De
Lavedre, having come from England with Malcolm
Canmore, when the latter drove Macbeth from the
Scottish throne; and from him descended a race
who took part in all the subsequent wars of Scottish
independence, and fought gallantly under the banners
of Wallace, Bruce, and the Douglases. It was
natural that these family recollections should influ-
ence the early studies of Sir Thomas, and inspire
him with that love of chivalry and antiquarian re-
search which he afterwards turned to such good ac-
count. At an early period he entered the army, and
was an officer in the 79th regiment (Cameron High-
landers). Here he continued only a short period;
and on quitting the army he took up his residence
in Morayshire, where he married Miss Gumming,
only child and heiress of George Gumming, Esq. of
Relugas, a beautiful property on the banks of the
Findhorn. From this time till the close of life he
was fully occupied with the civil appointments he
held, and with the pursuits of science and literature,
in which he sustained a high reputation to the end.
The first efforts of Sir Thomas in authorship, so
far as can be ascertained, were in the departments
of natural science; and his diligence in these studies
is well attested by his numerous contributions to the
scientific journals of the day, and especially to the
Annals of Philosophy, edited by the late Thomas
Thomson, professor of chemistry in the university
of Glasgow. To this magazine we find him, in 1815
and the three following years, contributing papers on