Significant Scots
Lord Charles Neaves

Charles Neaves, Lord Neaves FRSE (1800–1876) was a Scottish advocate, judge, theologian and writer. He served as Solicitor General (1852), as a judge of the Court of Session, the supreme court of Scotland (1854), and as Rector of the University of St Andrews (1872). Neaves was known as one of the early analysts of the history of evolution, and is often quoted regarding the subjects of evolution and women's rights.

Neaves was born in Edinburgh in 1800, the son of Charles Neaves, a Forfar solicitor and clerk of the Justiciary Court in Edinburgh. Neaves was educated at the High School and Edinburgh University. He became a member of the Faculty of Advocates at age 22. He married Eliza Macdonald in 1835. From 1841 to 1845, he was Advocate Depute, and from 1845 to 1852 sheriff, of the Orkney and Shetland islands. He became solicitor-general for Scotland in 1853, and served judge of the Court of Session from 1853 to 1858. From 1858 to his death, he was Lord of Justiciary, Scotland's supreme criminal court. Neaves lived the majority of his life in Edinburgh, but when associated with the Justiciary Court, he travelled to Glasgow thrice yearly and Lord Neaves (although elderly and almost without hearing capability by the 1875) acquired a reputation in Glascow as a man of justice and evenness. Charles Neaves also had acknowledged skills as a composer of verse. He was vice-president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1859–67, 1868–73 and 1874–76), and a president of the Heriot-Watt Institution. From 1872 to 1874, he held the post of Rector at the University of St Andrews, the oldest university in Scotland. The Rector chairs meetings of the University Court, the governing body of the University of St Andrews. Neaves was a regular author of poetry and essays to Blackwood's Magazine. Here we are bringing you his book on Songs and Verses, Social and Scientific.