James Robertson, Baron Robertson

James Patrick Bannerman Robertson, Baron Robertson (19 August 1845 – 1909), was a Scottish judge and Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 until 1891 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Robertson.

Life

Robertson was the son of the Rev. R. J. Robertson, of Forteviot, Perthshire and his wife Helen Bannerman, daughter of Rev. J. Bannerman of Cargill, Perthshire. He studied at Edinburgh University (MA 1864, hon LLD 1890), and passed to the Scottish bar in 1867. He became a Queen's Counsel in 1885. ^[1]

Robertson stood unsuccessfully for parliament at Linlithgowshire in 1880. At the 1885 general election he was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for Buteshire and held the seat until 1891. He was appointed Solicitor General for Scotland in 1885 and again in 1886 and was appointed Lord Advocate in 1888 and was made a Privy Counsellor in the same year. He carried the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889.^[1]

Robertson gave up his seat when he was appointed Lord President of the Court of Session in 1891, and was appointed a Law lord and Life peer as Baron Robertson, of Forteviot in the County of Perthshire. He was Rector of Edinburgh University in 1893 and was also Chairman of the Irish University Commission. In 1899, he was a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.^[1] He was a Trustee of the Board of Manufactures in Scotland, from which he resigned in 1899.^[2]

In later life he retired to live in Muchalls Castle in Aberdeenshire and died at the age of 74.^[1]

Family

Robertson married Philadelphia Mary Lucy Fraser, daughter of W. N. Fraser of Tornaveen, Aberdeenshire in 1872. They had two sons, and one daughter.^[1]

Notes

1. Ormond 1912.
2. The London Gazette: no. 27165. p. 1076. 16 February 1900.

References

•  Omond, George William Thomson (1912). "Robertson, James Patrick Bannerman". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement​. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by James Robertson
• Debretts House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1886
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 6)