David Home of Crossrig

Sir David Hume or Home, of Crossrig, Lord Crossrig (1643–1707) was a Scottish judge and diarist. Biography Early life David Hume, second son of Sir James Hume or Home of Blackadder, Berwickshire, created a baronet of Nova Scotia in 1674, by his wife Mary, daughter of Sir James Dundas of Arniston, was born 23 May 1643. He entered the University of Edinburgh in 1657, but having, in accordance with a custom kept up by the students in opposition to the regulations of the university, gone on 11 March of the following year to a football match on the Borough Muir, and having declined to submit to the consequent punishment of whipping in the class, he was expelled from the university. Through the interposition of his relative Sir David Dundas he was again admitted in November 1659, and graduated MA in 1662. After travelling in France in the autumn of 1664 he settled in Paris, where he studied law till the outbreak of hostilities with England compelled him to leave in April 1666. Abandoning his intention of adopting the legal profession, he entered into the wine trade in 1672, and was for a year (1673) also partner in a brewery. On 13 April 1681 he met with an accident which necessitated the amputation of one of his legs. His sympathies being with the Presbyterian party, he was at the time of Argyll's expedition in 1685 arrested on suspicion, but soon after the collapse of the enterprise he was set at liberty. Public office On 3 June 1687 Hume was admitted advocate upon his petition without trial of his qualifications. He represented that he had studied law abroad in company with Lord Reidford, one of the Lords of Session, Sir Patrick Home, and Sir John Lauder, who were prepared "to give testimony regarding his diligence and proficiency in that study". He ingenuously admits in his Domestic Details that his reason for petitioning to be admitted in this fashion was that he considered himself "so rusted in the study of law" that he could not venture to undergo the ordinary examination. Home was among the first judges nominated by King William after the revolution, and one of the four appointed by the Privy Council in October 1689 "to give his attendance for passing bills of suspension and all other bills according to the common form". He took his seat on the bench by the title of Lord Crossrig, on 1 November 1689; on 22 January of the following year was appointed a Lord of the Justiciary, and was shortly afterwards knighted.