CRAIG

CRAIG, Sir Thomas, of Riccarton, one of the ablest lawyers whom his country has produced, appears to have been the eldest son of William Craig of Craigfintray, afterwards called Craigston, in the county of Aberdeen. The period of his birth is uncertain; but as he was sent to the university of St Andrews in 1552, we may suppose him to have been born about the year 1538. He was entered at St Leonard's College, and took the degree of A.B. in 1555; but as his name does not occur in the list of masters, he is supposed to have left the university before he had completed the ordinary course of study. For those destined for the legal profession, it was then the usual practice to finish their education in some of the French universities, which about that period attained to the highest eminence as schools of the civil and canon law. A similar practice prevailed almost universally till the earlier part of the last century; and a writer in the reign of Charles the First thought it not a little "strange to see a man admitted to teach the laws, who was never out of the country studying and learning the laws."⁶ The law of Scotland is to a great extent founded on the principles of the civil law; and as at an early period, when the students of law were very few in number, the professors were without a sufficient excitement to exertion, the Scottish youth were compelled to seek for able preceptors in other countries.⁷ The reputation of Cujacius, Donellus, Govea, Balduinus, Contius, Hotman, and many other great names, elevated the French schools of law beyond all competition. Their celebrity, however, was at length eclipsed by the more modern universities of Holland; and our countrymen then resorted to Leyden and Utrecht, instead of Bourges and Toulouse. Craig, as we are informed, completed his academical studies in France, and he has himself made more than one allusion to his connexion with the university of Paris. But at Paris the civil law was not then publicly taught; and it is scarcely to be doubted that he repaired to some other university, in order to acquire this branch of knowledge. His skill in the civil and the canon law was united with great proficiency in classical learning, for which we may conjecture that he was in no small degree indebted to the discipline of Paris, where philological studies were then cultivated with very eminent success.

Craig, having attained manhood, was admitted an advocate in the month of February 1563. In 1564 he was appointed the deputy of the justice-general, Archibald Earl of Argyle. It belonged to his office to try the highest offences; and his name very frequently occurs in the criminal records of that period, which have now been rendered more accessible by the labours of Mr Pitcairn. This distinguished lawyer appears to have steered a prudent course in the midst of those disorders which prevailed in Scotland during a great part of his life; he appears to have devoted himself with great assiduity to the studies and duties of his profession; and, shunning the dangerous path of political ambition, to have sought a more pleasing solace of the mind in his recreations with the Muses. He published several Latin poems, which were afterwards inserted in the Deliciae Poetarum Scotorum, and which are allowed to evince

no mean portion of poetical spirit.¹ His earliest publication bears the title of "Henrici illustrissimi Ducis Albaniae, Comitiss Rossiae, &c. et Mariæ serenissimi Scotorum Reginae Epithalamium." Impressum Edinburgi per Robertum Lekprevik, 1665, 8vo. This poem, relating to a very inauspicious subject, is not inserted in the collection. Here we find another poem, entitled "Jacobi serenissimi Scotorum Principis, Ducis Rothesaiae, Genethliacum," which must likewise have been printed, although we have not been able to trace it, in a separate form.

A few years after he was called to the bar, he married Helen, the daughter of Heriot of Trabroun in the county of Haddington. His wife was probably the cousin of Buchanan, whose mother, Agnes Heriot, belonged to the same family. At the age of 34, his eldest son, Sir Lewis Craig, was raised to the bench in February 1604 by the title of Lord Wrightslands.² It was then customary for the judges to wear their hats on the bench; but whenever Craig had occasion to plead before his son, the latter sat uncovered, and listened to him with filial reverence. We may reasonably suppose that the same interest which had raised the son, might as easily have raised the father to the bench; but the modesty of his disposition perhaps led him to prefer a less elevated station;³ nor is it improbable that the salary of a judge would not have exceeded the emoluments of his extensive practice, added to those of his different appointments. He is not mentioned as the deputy of the justice-general after the close of the year 1573; and in the course of the following year he appears as sheriff of Edinburgh, so that he probably resigned the one office on being nominated to the other. At a much later period, namely in 1606, he is described as advocate of the church. This seems to complete the catalogue of his regular preferments, but we likewise find his name inserted in occasional commissions of importance.

The greatest of his literary labours was his treatise on the feudal law. Such an undertaking was at that period attended with many difficulties. The municipal law had not received any considerable degree of cultivation; of systematic treatises it possessed few or none; written authorities of every kind were scanty and inaccessible; and the collecting of materials must therefore have been not a little tedious and laborious. The feudal law, in its general principles, was taught in the foreign universities as a necessary branch of jurisprudence, and the foreign lawyers, particularly those of Italy and France, had published a great variety of works on the subject; but it was Craig's special object to illustrate the principles of that law as they had been applied and modified in his native country, and in this department he was without a model and without a precursor. It is not therefore surprising, though it may justly be regretted, that he was unable to amass such a stock of materials as prepared him for throwing a clear and steady light on the progress of feudal rights and tenures from the earliest times. The character of his work is likewise affected by his patriotic zeal to facilitate the union of the two kingdoms, by assimilating their national laws and customs. "Sir Thomas Craig," says another able jurist, "who is always instructive when he describes the feudal customs of his own time, is seldom so when he goes back into history."⁴ This remark of Dr Stuart may perhaps appear sufficiently just and discriminating. The value and importance of Craig's Jus Feudale is admitted by every competent judge, nor has it been superseded by any subsequent treatise: with the exception of Bruce's compendium, no professed work on the same subject has since made its appearance.⁵ The author was evidently a man of superior ta-

lents, as well as of extensive learning; and it may perhaps be affirmed, without much hazard of refutation, that no other Scottish lawyer can so safely be brought into comparison with Lord Stair.

Craig did not himself commit his elaborate work to the press; and indeed the printing of any treatise on the law of Scotland seems then to have been considered as almost entirely out of the question. Nearly half a century after the author's death, it was published by Robert Burnet, who had married his grand-daughter; "Jus Feudale, tribus libris comprehensum," &c. Edinb. 1655, fol. Some copies bear the imprint of London. The editor has prefixed a preface, in which he speaks with learning and judgment of the author and his work. After a long interval appeared another edition, "cum præfatione Luderi Menckemi, J.Cti." Lipsiae, 1716, 4to. This was speedily followed by the latest and best edition; "editio tertia, prioribus multo emendatior, opera et studio Jacobi Baillie, Advocati." Edinb. 1732, fol. Prefixed is an excellent portrait of the author, together with a short account of his life; and the typography of the edition is greatly superior to that of the other two. Of this work there are two manuscript copies in the Advocates' Library, and likewise two copies of "A Compend or Breviary of the most substantial Points relating to the Law: extracted forth of the books of that learned jurisconsult D. T. O. treating upon the Feudal Law."

Another ample and elaborate work, undertaken about the same period, is his treatise entitled "De Jure Successionis Regni Angliæ libri duo, adversus Sophismata cujusdam personati Dolomanni." Under the assumed name of Dolman, Robert Parsons had in the year 1694 published "A Conference about the next Succession to the Crown of England;" in which he chiefly aimed at superseding the claims of a Protestant successor to Queen Elizabeth. Although he did not proceed on the same philosophical principles, he arrived at a similar conclusion with Buchanan; namely, that all political power is derived from the people, and that the consent of the governed is an essential ingredient in all legitimate governments. The right of resisting kings was boldly taught by other Jesuits, and particularly by Mariana, well known as the historian of Spain,⁶ but all their better speculations are mingled with Jesuitical notions of priestly power. Craig, adhering to the prevalent doctrines respecting the divine right of kings and the passive obedience of subjects, has at great length discussed the subject of regal succession and authority. Such a production cannot now be regarded as of much importance; but of so able a man, intimately acquainted with history, and with jurisprudence in all its branches, the labour could not be entirely fruitless. Parsons was likewise refuted by Peter Wentworth, Sir John Hayward, and other English writers.

King James succeeded very quietly to the throne of England, and the original of Craig's treatise De Jure Successionis it was not thought necessary to publish. Various manuscripts of it have however been preserved: one belongs to the Advocates' Library, another to the University Library, and a third to the writer of this notice. The second of these Gatherer describes as the original manuscript. The author's doctrines were afterwards found very palatable by the Jacobites; and the design of printing the work was formed by Dr Monro, who was principal of the university of Edinburgh at the period of the Revolution. He lost his preferments in the church and university, and being otherwise involved in the troubles of his party, he did not live to carry this design into execution. From the transcript which he had procured, a translation was however made and published (Lond. 1703, fol.) by his friend James Gatherer, who before the Revolution had been parson of Kilmours in Ayrshire, and who, having at length become a bishop among the non-jurors, died in the month of February 1733.⁷ One biographer has been too liberal in conferring upon him, and upon divers other divines, the degree of doctor.

Of a similar denomination is Craig's work entitled "De Unione Regnorum Britanniae Tractatus;" which relates to a subject of great interest to his contemporaries, and which is written with the author's usual learning and ability. "In point of matter and style," says Mr Tyler, "in the importance of the subject to which it relates, the variety of historical illustrations, the sagacity of the po-

Craig. Critical remarks, and the insight into the mutual interests of the two countries which it exhibits, it perhaps deserves to rank the highest of all his works.¹ This treatise has never been printed; but a manuscript, extending to 264 pages in folio, is preserved in the Advocates' Library. On the same subject two Latin disquisitions were published by Robert Pont, D.D., who was at once an officiating clergyman and a judge in the supreme court; and by David Hume of Godscroft, who is well known for his other writings in prose and verse. Craig performed another patriotic task by preparing a work which bears the following title: "De Homino Disputatio adversus eos qui Scotium Feudum Legium Angliam Regemque Scotorum eo nomine Hominum Anglo debere asserunt." This work is likewise preserved in manuscript in the same library; but long after the death of the author, a translation of it was published under the title of "Scotland's Sovereignty asserted, by George Ridpath." Lond. 1695, 8vo. Craig had vindicated the independence of the Scottish monarchy against the imputations of English historians, particularly Holinshead, or his condjutor Harrison; and the more recent attempt of Rymer is allowed to have been sufficiently repelled by Ridpath, who has shown that the supposed form of ancient homage bears several unequivocal marks of forgery. His publication was however followed by "Atwood's Superiority and direct Dominion of the Crown of England over the Crown and Kingdom of Scotland, asserted against Sir Thomas Craig." Lond. 1704, 8vo. This book was refuted by Anderson in 1705; and the superiority of the crown of England was re-asserted by Atwood in the course of the same year.

Archbishop Nicolson mentions an historical production of the same learned author. "I have likewise seen an abstract of a book on the same subject, by Mr Thomas Craig, the great civilian, entitled De Sacerdotum Origine; but where the book itself may be found, I know not."² And here we complete the enumeration of his writings in prose.

Towards the close of his life, he again indulged his poetical vein. He wrote some commendatory verses, which are prefixed to Thomas Jack's "Onomasticum Poeticum." Edinb. 1592, 4to. And seven years later, he wrote a short elegy on the death of Rollock, which, with many similar contributions, is subjoined to George Robertson's Vita et Mortis D. Roberti Kelloe Scoti Narratio. Edinb. 1699, 8vo. During one and the same year, he published three different poems. "Ad sereniss. et potentiss. Principem Jacobum Sextum, e sua Scotia decedentem, Parmenticon." Excudebat Robertus Waldegrave, 1603, 4to. "Ad serenissimum Britanniarum Principem Henricum, e Scotia decedentem, Propempticon." Edinburgi excudebat Robertus Charteris, 1603, 4to. "Serenissimi et invictissimi Principis, Jacobi Britanniarum et Galliarum Regis, Exequies." Excudebat Robertus Charteris, 1603, 4to.

In the year 1604, Craig was nominated among the Scottish commissioners empowered to treat respecting the projected union of the two kingdoms. One of his associates was Sir John Skene, who had likewise contributed to illustrate the jurisprudence of his native country. The Scottish and the English commissioners met at Westminster, but their deliberations were not attended with any important consequences. This visit afforded him an opportunity of cultivating an acquaintance with Camden, and other learned men; and James determined to elevate him to the rank of knighthood; but Craig secretly withdrew himself, in order to avoid the intended ceremony. The king, however, commanded that he should be styled and reputed a knight; and accordingly his name is generally accompanied with a title which he himself had no wish to assume.

Sir Thomas Craig died Feb. 26, 1608. His death was bewailed in Latin verse by his learned countryman Dempster, who, like himself, was a poet as well as a lawyer. He left behind him an estimable character and a fair estate. He was celebrated for his liberal style of hospitality, and for his zealous adherence to the Protestant faith. He had four sons and three daughters. Sir Lewis Craig, whom we have

already mentioned as his eldest son, died in the year 1622. The second, James Craig, of Castle-Craig and Craigston in the kingdom of Ireland, was killed during the insurrection of 1641; and dying without issue, he bequeathed his estates to his next brother, John Craig, an eminent physician. Gassendi informs us that in the year 1592 Craig, a Scottish physician, published a tract against Tycho Brahe, under the title of Capnuranica Restitutio, seu, Cometarum in Aethera Sublimationis Refutatio; and that an answer to it was written by Christianus Longomontanus.³ The Danish astronomer himself published a Responsio Apologetica ad quandam Scotum, Aristotelicum Philosophum, et Medicum Galenicum. This is supposed to have been the third son, Dr Craig, who was successively physician in ordinary to King James, and first physician to King Charles. The youngest son was Robert Craig, whose son acquired by marriage the estate of Ramornie in Fife-shire. Margaret, the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas, became the wife of Sir Alexander Gibson of Durie; and from this marriage is descended the late possessor of the estate of Riccarton, Sir James Gibson Craig, Bart. Elizabeth, his second daughter, married James Johnston of Warriston; and their son Sir Archibald Johnston acted a conspicuous part in the proceedings of his own unhappy times: their daughter Rachel was married to Robert Burnet of Crimond, a judge in the Court of Session, and the father of Gilbert Burnet, the celebrated Bishop of Salisbury. Craig's third daughter, Janet, was married to John Belches of Tofts, and their son Sir Alex. Belches was likewise raised to the bench. (D.L.)