James Dalrymple 1st Viscount Stair

James Dalrymple Stair, 1st Viscount , 1619-95, Scottish jurist. A student and then a regent of the Univ. of Glasgow, he was admitted to the bar in 1648. He supported the exiled Charles II and refused to swear allegiance to the Commonwealth, but he was nevertheless appointed (1657) a judge. After the Restoration he was prominent until his sympathy with the Covenanters at the time of the Scottish Test Act caused him to lose (1681) his appointment as judge. He then finished his Institutions of the Law of Scotland (1681), a great treatise on Scottish law. His exile in the Netherlands ended when he came (1688) to Great Britain with King William III, who made him lord advocate and raised him to the peerage.

Dalrymple, James, 1st Viscount Stair [S] (1619–95). Scottish lawyer and statesman. Born in Ayrshire, Dalrymple was a presbyterian. He was knighted at the Restoration and appointed a lord of Session. By 1681 he was in disfavour, lost his offices, and retired to Holland. He was accused of complicity in plots against Charles II and indicted for treason in 1685. He accompanied William of Orange on his expedition in 1688, was restored as president of the Court of Session, and promoted to the peerage in 1690. In 1681 he published Institution of the Law of Scotland, and was regarded by Macaulay as ‘the greatest jurist that his country had produced’.

J. A. Cannon

Dalrymple, John, 1st earl of Stair [S] (1648–1707). Lawyer and statesman. Like his father, Dalrymple was in disfavour during the early 1680s and was twice imprisoned in Edinburgh castle. But in 1687 James VII appointed him king's advocate [S] and the following year lord justice clerk [S] and a lord of Session. Nevertheless he gave strong support to William of Orange and was reappointed king's advocate 1689–92. From 1690 he was also secretary of state in Scotland, but was obliged to resign his offices for authorizing the massacre of Glencoe. Anne promoted him to the earldom of Stair in 1703, and he took an active part in bringing about the Union.