Grand Masters of Scotland - Onondaga and Oswego Masonic ...

father's title of Baron Strange (which could descend through the female line) and consequently held a higher position in society than
her husband. Thus, just less than a month later on 7 February 1764, the House of Lords deemed John as the rightful heir to his
uncle's title (notwithstanding the attainder of his father) and he succeed him as 3rd Duke of Atholl.
John died in 1774, aged 45, after drowning in the River Tay in a fit of delirium and was buried at Dunkeld.
30. David Dalrymple, afterwards Lord Westhall 1774-76
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Dalrymple
David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes (October 28, 1726–November 29, 1792), Scottish advocate, judge and historian, was born at
Edinburgh.
His father, Sir James Dalrymple, Bart., of Hailes, in the county of Haddington, auditor-general of the exchequer of Scotland, was a
grandson of James, first Viscount Stair; and his mother, Lady Christian Hamilton, was a daughter of Thomas, 6th earl of
Haddington.
David was the eldest of sixteen children. He was educated at Eton, and studied law at Utrecht, being intended for the Scottish bar,
to which he was admitted shortly after his return to Scotland in 1748. As a pleader he attained neither high distinction nor very
extensive practice, but he rapidly established a well-deserved reputation for sound knowledge, unwearied application and strict
probity; and in 1766 he was elevated to the bench, when he assumed the title of Lord Hailes. Ten years later he was appointed a
lord of justiciary. He was twice married, and had a daughter by each wife.
On his death, the baronetcy to which he had succeeded passed to the son of his brother John, provost of Edinburgh. Another
brother was Alexander Dalrymple (1737-1808), the first admiralty hydrographer, who distinguished himself in the East India
Company's service and as a geographer. Lord Hailes's younger daughter married Sir James Fergusson; and their grandson, Sir
Charles Dalrymple, 1st Bart. (cr. 1887), MP for Bute from 1868 to 1885, afterwards came into Lord Hailes's estate and took his
family name.
Lord Hailes's most important contribution to literature was the Annals of Scotland, of which the first volume, "From the accession of
Malcolm III, surnamed Canmore, to the accession of Robert I," appeared in 1776, and the second, "From the accession of Robert I,
surnamed Bruce, to the accession of the house of Stewart," in 1779. It is, as Dr Johnson justly described this work at the time of its
appearance, a "Dictionary" of carefully sifted facts, which tells all that is wanted and all that is known, but without any laboured
splendour of language or affected subtlety of conjecture.
The other works of Lord Hailes include:
• Historical Memoirs concerning the Provincial Councils of the Scottish Clergy (1769)
• An Examination of some of the Arguments for the High Antiquity of Regiam Majestatem (1769)
• three volumes entitled Remains of Christian Antiquity
o "Account of the Martyrs of Smyrna and Lyons in the Second Century," 1776
o "The Trials of Justin Martyr, Cyprian, etc.," 1778
o "The History of the Martyrs of Palestine, translated from Eusebius," 1780)
• Disquisitions concerning the Antiquities of the Christian Church (1783)
• editions or translations of portions of Lactantius, Tertullian and Minucius Felix.
In 1786 he published An Inquiry into the Secondary Causes which Mr Gibbon has assigned for the Rapid Growth of Christianity
(Dutch translation, Utrecht, 1793), one of the most respectable of the very many replies which were made to the famous 15th and
16th chapters of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. A "Memoir" of Lord Hailes is prefixed to the 1808 reprint of his Inquiry
into the Secondary Causes.
http://www.jamesboswell.info/People/biography-27.php
David Dalrymple. (1726-1792) (aka. Lord Hailes) Scottish lawyer, historian and antiquarian. Son of Sir James Dalrymple (1692-
1751), 2nd Bart of Hailes and Lady Christian Hamilton (d. 1770). He was married twice, first to Anne Brown (d. 1768), daughter of
Lord Coalston, and secondly to Helen Ferguson (d. 1810), daughter of Lord Kilkerran. Educated at Eton and Utrecht (Law).
Advocate Depute (1755-?). Appointed Judge in the Court of Session in 1766. Elevated to the bench in 1766 as Lord Hailes.
Appointed Lord of Justiciary in 1776. Grand Master of the masonic Grand Lodge of Scotland (1774-1776). He lived at Newhailes
(Note 1) in East Lothian, where he had an extensive library described by Dr. Johnson as "the most learned room in Europe."
Dalrymple published several books on a variety of subjects, including Historical Memoirs concerning the Provincial Councils of the
Scottish Clergy (1769), An Examination of some of the Arguments for the High Antiquity of Regiam Majestatem (1769), Annals of
Scotland from the Accession of Malcolm Canmore to the Accession of the House of Stuart (2 vols. published 1776 and 1779),
Remains of Christian Antiquity (3 vols. published 1776, 1778 and 1780) and Disquisitions concerning the Antiquities of the Christian
Church (1783). A memoir of his life is prefixed to the 1808 edition of his An Inquiry into the Secondary Causes which Mr Gibbon has
assigned for the Rapid Growth of Christianity (1786).
A biography gives him the following praise: "Of the character of lord Hailes, there can be but one opinion. As an able lawyer and an
upright judge, he stands eminently conspicuous in an age and a country where such characters were not rare, and when the
exercise of such qualities, from their superabundance, scarcely could merit praise. As a man of general erudition, he stands, if we
except Warburton, almost without a rival in the age he lived in. His skill in classical learning, the belles lettres, and historical
antiquities, especially those of his own country, have been universally admitted, and had popularity been his intention, as it was of
too many of his contemporaries, there cannot be a doubt but that he could have made himself the most shining meteor among
them." (Link)
Life with James Boswell:
Dalrymple was a friend of both James and (James' father) Alexander Boswell, and he seems to have acted as a mediator between
them a couple of times. (Note 2)
JB respected him highly, and in his journal of February 10, 1763 wrote "I [...] wrote to him, telling him how my affairs went on, and
that I wanted to be rationally happy, yet easy and gay, and hoped he would take a charge of me; would let me know what books to
read, and what company to keep, and how to conduct myself." , and that he (Boswell) considered Dalrymple "a representative of Mr.
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