Smoothing the Rugged Parts of the Passage: Scots Law and its Edinburgh Chair
| Date | 01 September 2014 |
| Pages | 315-340 |
| DOI | 10.3366/elr.2014.0227 |
| Published date | 01 September 2014 |
Founded by the Town Council on 28 November 1722,
For an account of the early chairs, see Sir Alexander Grant,
Or fourth if one counts the Chair of Universal History (1719) which in due course metamorphosed into the Chair of Constitutional Law.
On the establishing of the Regius Chair, see J W Cairns, “The origins of the Edinburgh Law School: the Union of 1707 and the Regius Chair” (2007) 11 EdinLR 300.
Indeed, in the early years, the Chair was quite often referred to, including by its holders, as the Chair of Municipal Law.
On the proliferation of chairs of national law in the eighteenth century, see M D Gordon, “The Vinerian Chair: an Atlantic perspective”, in P Birks (ed),
This was given by William Forbes, the Regius Professor of Civil Law. Indeed by the time the first lectures on Scots law were being given in Edinburgh, Forbes had published a textbook for the use of his students: see William Forbes,
Alexander Bayne, the first person to be appointed to the Chair of Scots Law, had indeed previously given a course of such private lectures. For the difficulties of earlier study, particularly before the publication of Craig's
Further provision for the Chair was made in an Act of the new Parliament of the United Kingdom, the Edinburgh Beer Duties Act of 1722.
9 Geo I c 14. In the same breath as the Chair of Scots Law, the Act confirmed the Chair of Universal History: “which Two Professions of Universal Civil History, Greek and Roman Antiquities, and of Scots Law, the Magistrates and Council of the said City, are and shall be authorized and impowered to institute and establish, and to nominate and appoint the first Professors, who shall enjoy the said Salaries, and be instituted to the whole Privileges and Immunities, that the other Professors of the said University enjoy, and are intitled to”.
Crucially, the Act made provision for payment of a salary, of £100 a year,£100 remained the salary throughout the eighteenth century and, no doubt, beyond. A list of Edinburgh University salaries is given in
The money was not, however, to be available until 1 July 1723, and it may be that the first lectures were not given until then.
The first person to be appointed to the Chair of Scots Law was Alexander Bayne of Rires.
See R L Emerson,
On Spotswood see J W Cairns, “John Spotswood, Professor of Law: a preliminary sketch”, in W M Gordon (ed),
For further biographical information, see J W Cairns, “Bayne, Alexander, of Rires (c 1684–1737)”
C McL Weis and F A Pottle (eds),
Lord Kames told me this evening that a Mr Bayne of Logie, known by the name of Logie Bayne, was the first regular Professor of Scots Law here. He was first an advocate at this bar, but did not succeed. He then went to London and resided some years, thinking to try the English bar. But that would not do either. He returned to Scotland in low circumstances and knew very little law. But such was the effect of a grave countenance and a slow, formal manner, a neatness of expression and the English accent, that the advocates sent a deputation to ask him to accept of being professor, which he did most readily.
Kames had not been a pupil of Bayne. On the other hand, as he passed advocate on 22 January 1723 he would have been aware of the legal gossip of the time.
J W Reed and F A Pottle (eds),
Some of his cantatas for solo voice were performed at a concert held in St Cecilia's Hall in Edinburgh on 24 November 2007 to mark the tercentenary of the Edinburgh Law School. On this aspect of Bayne's life, too, Kames was unflattering: “He was a sort of musical composer but of no taste in music, for he was quite inattentive to the finest pieces at the concert till his own performances were played, and then he fell to the harpsichord and was all alive”: Weis & Pottle (eds),
Bayne's manner of lecturing is well documented, not least by Bayne himself. “When I entred upon the Profession of the Municipal Law”, Bayne was later to write, “I thought it became me rather to take Sir George Mackenzie's Institutions for my Text-Book, than to give one of my own, for this obvious Reason, that it was a Book of Authority, universally esteemed, and infinitely superior to any I could give”.
Alexander Bayne,
Bayne
will be shortly to give you our Author's Meaning in other Words … This being done, I retouch the same Matters in a more formal Discourse, and I add to them such other Matters as are coincident with the Subject of the Paragraph I'm upon, which are to be gathered partly from my Lord Stair's Institutions, partly from the later Decisions, and some of the other Authors upon our Law.
It is possible, however, that they copied from a common source. Three sets of student notes are held in Edinburgh University Library (shelf marks Gen.57D, Gen.794D, and E8411 ms 2668). The titles chosen...
To continue reading
Request your trial