George Mackenzie (lawyer)

This article is about the Scottish lawyer. For other people with this name, see George Mackenzie (disambiguation).
George Mackenzie.

Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh, Knt. (1636/1638–1691), known as Bluidy Mackenzie, was a Scottish lawyer, Lord Advocate, and legal writer.[1]

Early life

Mackenzie, who was born in Dundee, was the son of Sir Simon Mackenzie of Lochslin (died about 1666) and Elizabeth, daughter of the Reverend Peter Bruce, minister of St. Leonard's, and Principal of St. Leonard's Hall in the University of St. Andrews. He was a grandson of Kenneth Mackenzie, 1st Lord Mackenzie of Kintail and a nephew of George Mackenzie, 2nd Earl of Seaforth.[2]

He was educated at the King's College, University of Aberdeen (which he entered in 1650), the University of St Andrews, and the University of Bourges in France.[3]

↑Jump back a section

Career

Mackenzie was elected to the Faculty of Advocates in 1659, and spoke in defence at the trial of Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll in 1661.[4] He acted as justice-depute from 1661 to 1663, a post that involved him in extensive witch trials.[4]

George Mackenzie, by Godfrey Kneller

Mackenzie was knighted, and was a member of the Scottish Parliament for Ross from 1669.[5] In 1677 he became Lord Advocate,[6] and a member of the Privy Council of Scotland.[5]

As Lord Advocate he was the minister responsible for the persecuting policy of Charles II in Scotland against the Presbyterian Covenanters. After the Battle of Bothwell Bridge in 1679 Mackenzie imprisoned 1,200 Covenanters in a field next to Greyfriars Kirkyard.[7] Some were executed, and hundreds died of maltreatment. His treatment of Covenanters gained him the nickname of "Bloody Mackenzie".[6] It has been argued that both he and Claverhouse kept to the letter of the law.[8] It is unclear whether the epithet "Bloody" or "Bluidy" is contemporary; it occurs in The Heart of Midlothian (1818), given to Davie Deans.[9] The language of blood prevails in the published testimony of Marion Harvey, hanged in 1681, who calls her blood onto Mackenzie, ""that excommunicate tyrant, George Mackenzie, the advocate", among others.[10]

Mackenzie mausoleum in Greyfriars, Edinburgh

Mackenzie resigned for a short time in 1686, taking up office again in 1688.[5] He opposed the dethronement of James II, and to escape the consequences he retired from public life.[5]

↑Jump back a section

Last years

Mackenzie retired at the Glorious Revolution to Oxford. In London on 9 March 1690 he dined with William Lloyd and John Evelyn, two literary opponents from the past.[11] He died at Westminster on 8 May 1691 and is buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh, his mausoleum being designed by James Smith.[6]

↑Jump back a section

Works

In private life Mackenzie was a cultivated and learned gentleman with literary tendencies. He published in 1660 Aretina, which has been called the first Scottish novel.[12] He is remembered as the author of various graceful essays.

Mackenzie wrote legal, political, and antiquarian books, including:

  • Institutions of the Law of Scotland (1684);
  • Jus Regium: Or the Just and Solid Foundations of Monarchy in General, and More Especially of the Monarchy of Scotland: Maintain'd Against Buchannan, Naphtali, Dolman, Milton, &c. (1684), a major royalist tract;[13][14]
  • Antiquity of the Royal Line of Scotland (1686);
  • Heraldry; and
  • Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland from the Restoration of Charles II (1821).

Mackenzie took part in the Midlothian trials for witchcraft in 1661, and defended the alleged witch Maevia.[15] He later wrote at length of his experience with witchcraft trials.[16] He did not endorse the sceptical position, but stated that witches were fewer than common belief made out.[17] He attributed confessions to the use of torture.[18]

His Laws and Customs of Scotland in Matters Criminal (1678) was the first textbook of Scottish criminal law.[19] In it Mackenzie defended the use of judicial torture in Scotland as legal. He said it was seldom used.[20] In the aftermath of the Rye House Plot Charles II authorised the use of torture against William Spence, secretary to the Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll, who was moved to Scotland. The Scottish privy council was reluctant, but eventually went beyond Scottish law in torturing Spence.[21] Mackenzie visited William Carstares in prison in London, caught up in the same investigation, to warn him of the consequences of stubborn behaviour under questioning.[20]

Other works were:[22]

  • Religio Stoici (1663);
  • A Moral Essay preferring Solitude to Public Employment (1665);
  • Moral Gallantry (1667); and
  • The Moral History of Frugality (1691).
↑Jump back a section

Legacy

Mackenzie was the founder of the Advocates Library in Edinburgh. His inaugural oration there is dated 15 March 1689, so just before his departure south; but the evidence is that the oration was written some years before, and the library itself was operational from the early 1680s.[23] The initiative followed Mackenzie's appointment as Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, in 1682.[24]

↑Jump back a section

Family

In 1662 Mackenzie married Elizabeth, daughter of John Dickson of Hartree, one of the Senators of the College of Justice.[4] They had:[25]

  • John (died young)
  • Simon (died young)
  • George (died young)
  • Agnes, who married James Stuart, later 1st Earl of Bute
  • Elizabeth, who married first Sir Archibald Cockburn of Langton and secondly the Hon Sir James Mackenzie of Royston, Bt.

His first wife died not later than 1667-1668 and in 1670 he married secondly Margaret, daughter of Haliburton of Pitcur.[26] They had a son and two daughters:[25]

  • George, who married but died, without male issue, before his father
  • Anne, who married Sir William Dick of Prestonfield
  • Elizabeth, who married Sir John Stuart of Grandtully
↑Jump back a section

Alleged paranormal activities

Since 1999, when a homeless person broke into Mackenzie's stone coffin for the night, Greyfriars Churchyard has been the epicentre of an escalation of unexplained events linked to the ghost of Mackenzie; known colloquially as the Mackenzie Poltergeist. The Mackenzie Poltergeist has been called the most well-documented paranormal phenomenon in the world.[27] Even before 1999, there had been reports of unusual disturbances in the graveyard. Between 1990 and 2006 there were 350 reported attacks and 170 reports of people collapsing.[28] Visitors reported being cut, bruised, bitten, scratched and most commonly blacking out. Some complained later of bruises, scratches and gouge-marks on their bodies. Most attacks and feelings of unease occurred in MacKenzie's Black Mausoleum and the Covenantors Prison. In 2000, an exorcist, Colin Grant was summoned to the graveyard to perform an exorcism ceremony; he was said to have picked up "evil forces" and claimed that the forces were too overpowering and feared that they could kill him. A few weeks later, he died suddenly of a heart attack.[27]Edinburgh City Council closed off that part of the cemetery until an Edinburgh-based historian and author, Jan Andrew Henderson, persuaded the council to allow controlled visits to that part of the churchyard and in turn this developed into a nocturnal guided tour, which became a local attraction. Greyfriars Churchyard and, in particular, MacKenzie's Poltergeist, have been featured on paranormal TV programmes, including Fox's Scariest Places on Earth, and ITV's Extreme Ghost Stories.

↑Jump back a section

References

↑Jump back a section

Notes

  1. ^ The exact year of his birth is uncertain: his biography in the Dictionary of National Biography identifies the year as 1636, as does the biography published in the folio edition of his works (1716-1722), but he himself in his own work, The Religious Stoic, declared in 1663 that he was not yet 25 (Lang 1909, p. 22). "[He was born] either in 1636, as most sources assert, or in 1638, as his own works suggest" (Jackson 2007).
  2. ^ Lang 1909, p. 21.
  3. ^ Lang 1909, p. 25.
  4. ^ a b c (Jackson 2007)
  5. ^ a b c d Lee 1903, p. 817.
  6. ^ a b c Cousin 1910.
  7. ^ The field was later incorporated into Greyfriars Kirkyard and that section is known as the "Covenanters' Prison" (Scottish Covenanter Memorials Association)
  8. ^ Bruce Lenman; J Mackie (28 February 1991). A History of Scotland. Penguin Books Limited. p. 315. ISBN 978-0-14-192756-5. Retrieved 26 February 2013. 
  9. ^ Andrew Lang (1 November 2005). Sir George MacKenzie: King's Advocate, of Rosehaugh, His Life and Times 1636(?)-1691. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. p. 2. ISBN 978-1-58477-616-1. Retrieved 26 February 2013. 
  10. ^ A cloud of witnesses, for the royal prerogatives of Jesus Christ: or, The last speeches and testimonies of those who have suffered for the truth in Scotland, since 1680. 1794. p. 99. Retrieved 26 February 2013. 
  11. ^ John Evelyn (1870). Diary and correspondence of John Evelyn. Bell and Daldy. p. 317. Retrieved 26 February 2013. 
  12. ^ George Mackenzie (1 October 2005). The Laws And Customes Of Scotland, In Matters Criminal: Wherein To Be Seen How The Civil Law, And The Laws And Customs Of Other Nations Do Agree With, And Supply Ours. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. pp. iii note 4. ISBN 978-1-58477-605-5. Retrieved 26 February 2013. 
  13. ^ George Mackenzie (1684). Jus Regium: Or the Just and Solid Foundations of Monarchy in General, and More Especially of the Monarchy of Scotland: Maintain'd Against Buchannan, Naphtali, Dolman, Milton, &c. By Sir George Mackenzie. heir of Andrew Anderson. Retrieved 26 February 2013. 
  14. ^ Kenneth G. C. Reid; Reinhard Zimmerman (2000). A History of Private Law in Scotland. Oxford University Press. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-19-826778-2. Retrieved 26 February 2013. 
  15. ^ Darren Oldridge (2002). The Witchcraft Reader. Routledge. p. 219. ISBN 978-0-415-21492-6. Retrieved 26 February 2013. 
  16. ^ Alex Sutherland (7 January 2009). The Brahan Seer: The Making of a Legend. Peter Lang. p. 61. ISBN 978-3-03911-868-7. Retrieved 26 February 2013. 
  17. ^ Julian Goodare (21 September 2002). The Scottish Witch-Hunt in Context. Manchester University Press. p. 168. ISBN 978-0-7190-6024-3. Retrieved 26 February 2013. 
  18. ^ George Fraser Black (1 May 2003). Calendar of Cases of Witchcraft in Scotland 1510 to 1727. Kessinger Publishing. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-7661-5838-2. Retrieved 26 February 2013. 
  19. ^ Alexander Broadie (1 July 2010). The Scottish Enlightenment Reader. Canongate Books. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-84767-573-6. Retrieved 26 February 2013. 
  20. ^ a b T C Smout (22 December 2005). Anglo-Scottish Relations from 1603 to 1900. Oxford University Press. pp. 79–8. ISBN 978-0-19-726330-3. Retrieved 26 February 2013. 
  21. ^ Harris, Tim. "Spence, William". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/67376.  (subscription or UK public library membership required)
  22. ^ Daniela Havenstein (1999). Democratizing Sir Thomas Browne: Religio Medici and Its Imitations. Oxford University Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-19-818626-7. Retrieved 26 February 2013. 
  23. ^ Cadell and Matheson, p. 1.
  24. ^ Clare Jackson (2003). Restoration Scotland, 1660-1690: Royalist Politics, Religion and Ideas. Boydell Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-85115-930-0. Retrieved 26 February 2013. 
  25. ^ a b Mackenzie 1879, p. 279.
  26. ^ Lang 1909, p. 77,78.
  27. ^ a b unknown (29 September 2006). "Moat Haunted". The Scotsman. Retrieved 19 May 2013. 
  28. ^ Clydesdale, Lyndsay (30 October 2006). "Spooky Scotland". Daily Record. Retrieved 19 May 2013. 
↑Jump back a section

Further reading

Attribution
Authority control
↑Jump back a section

Read in another language

This page is available in 1 language

Last modified on 19 May 2013, at 15:43