Dalrymple, James
1619-1695
James Dalrymple studied at the University of Glasgow and was a signatory of the National Covenant. From 1641-47 he was Regent of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts at Glasgow, before being called to the Bar as an advocate in 1648. During Cromwell's occupation he served as one of the commissioners for the administration of justice (basically a judge) and, after the Restoration in 1660, as a Lord of Session. He became Lord President in 1671 but resigned in 1681 due to his refusal to take the Test Oath. This oath established in law the supremacy of the king over the church. This was unacceptable to James and went against all his religious and political convictions. As the political climate changed James felt it expedient to remove to Leiden in the Netherlands. After the 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688-9, when William of Orange was invited to take the British throne, James was re-appointed Lord President. He replaced the murdered George Lockhart. In 1690 he was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Stair. Stair was the family seat in Kyle, Ayrshire. Viscount Stair's Institutions of the Law of Scotland (1681) was one of the first attempts to codify Scots law and remains one of the most important legal publications. James is buried in the high kirk of St Giles. The language of the testament is interesting. It reveals James religious convictions, trusting in God for 'pardoun of all my sines and acceptance of my persoune in the Covnenant of his grace'.
Further reading: A.J.G Mackay, Memoir of Sir James Dalrymple, First Viscount Stair (1873)
D.M. Walker (ed.), Stair Tercentenary Studies, Stair Society vol 33 (1981)
K. Luig, "The institutes of national law in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries", (1972) 17 Juridical Review 193
D.M. Walker, The Scottish Jurists (1985), ch. 8
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