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CRAIG, THOMAS, author
of the Treatise on the Feudal Law, and of other learned works, was
probably born in the year 1538. It is uncertain whether he was the son of
Robert Craig, a merchant in Edinburgh, or of William Craig of Craigfintry,
afterwards Craigston, in the county of Aberdeen. In 1552, he was entered a
student of St Leonard’s college, in the university of St Andrews, but
does not appear to have completed the usual course of four years, as he
left the college in 1555, after receiving his degree as bachelor of arts.
He then repaired to France, and studied the civil and canon law in some of
the flourishing universities of that country. On his return, about the
year 1561, he continued his studies under the superintendence of his
relation, John Craig, the subject of a preceding memoir. After
distinguishing himself in a very eminent degree as a classical scholar, he
was called to the bar in February 1563, and in the succeeding year was
placed at the head of the criminal judicature of the country, as justice
depute, under the hereditary officer, the justice general, an
honour vested in the noble family of Argyle. Among his earliest duties in
this capacity, was that of trying and condemning Thomas Scott,
sheriff-depute of Perth, and Henry Yair, a priest, for having kept
the gates of Holyrood house, to facilitate the assassination of Rizzio. In
1566, when James VI. was born, Craig relaxed from his severer studies at
the bar, hailed the birth of the royal infant, and predicted the happiness
which such an event promised to his unsettled country, in a Latin poem
entitled, "Genethliacon Jacobi Principis Scotorum." This, says
Mr Tytler, in his elegant work, the life of Sir Thomas Craig, is a poem of
considerable length, written in hexameters, and possessing many passages
not only highly descriptive of the state of Scotland at this time, but in
themselves eminently poetical: it is to be found in the Deitiae Poetarum
Scotorum. "Craig," says Mr Tytler, "appears to have been a
man of a modest and retiring disposition, averse to any interference in
the political intrigues of the times, devoted to his profession, and fond
of that relaxation from the severer labours of the bar, which is to be
found in a taste for classical literature. While his contemporaries are to
be found perpetually implicated in the conspiracies against their mistress
the queen, and their names have come down to us contaminated by crime, the
character of this good and upright man shines doubly pure amid the guilt
with which it is surrounded. Although a convert to the reformed opinions,
and from this circumstance naturally connected with the party which
opposed the queen, his sense of religion did not confound or extinguish
his principles of loyalty. His name appears only in the journal books of
the court in the discharge of the labours of his profession, or it is
found in the justiciary records under his official designation of
justice-depute, or it is honourably associated with the literature of his
country; but it is never connected with the political commotions which the
money and intrigues of England had kindled in the heart of our
nation." Craig pursued an extensive practice at the bar for a period
of upwards of forty years, and during all that time, his name is scarcely
ever found mingling with the political movements of the times. During the
later part of his career, he devoted much of his time to the composition
of his learned treatise on the Feudal Law, upon which his reputation
principally rests. To describe the law of our country, as he found it
established by the practice of the courts in his own age; to compare it
with the written books on the feudal law; and to impart to it somewhat of
the form and arrangement of a science, demonstrating, at the same time,
its congruity in its fundamental principles with the feudal law of
England, such were the objects of Sir Thomas Craig in this work, which he
completed in 1603, a period when it might have been of signal service, if
published, in removing some of the prejudices which stood in the way of a
union between the two countries. The treatise, which was written in a
vigorous Latin style, was not, however, put forth to the world till
forty-seven years after the death of the learned author. The enlarged and
liberal mind of Sir Thomas Craig rendered him a zealous promoter of every
object which tended to preserve the mutual peace, or facilitate the union
of England. In January, 1603, he finished a Treatise on the Succession, to
further the views of his sovereign, upon the throne about to be vacated by
Elizabeth. This work was more immediately occasioned by the celebrated
"Conference on the Succession," written by the Jesuit Parsons,
under the assumed name of Doleman, in which the right of James VI. was
contested in a manner equally able and virulent. The treatise of Craig,
probably on account of the quiet succession of James a few months after,
was never sent to the press; but an English translation of it was
published in 1703 by Dr Gatherer. How much of his time Craig was in the
habit of dedicating to the Muses does not appear; but the Delitiae
Poetarum Scotorum contains another poem written by him on the
departure of his native monarch from Edinburgh, to take possession of his
new kingdom of England. It is entitled, "Ad Serenissimum et
Potentissimum Principem Jacobum VI. e sua Scotia discedentem, Paraeneticon"
"This poem," says Mr Tytler, "is highly characteristic of
the simple and upright character of its author. While other and more venal
bards exhausted their imagination in the composition of those
encomniastic addresses, the incense commonly offered up to kings, the
Paraeneticon of Craig is grave, dignified, and even admonitory. He is
loyal, indeed, but his loyalty has the stamp of truth and sincerity; his
praises are neither abject nor excessive; and in the advices which he has
not scrupled to give to his sovereign, it is difficult which most to
admire, the excellent sense of the precepts, or the energetic latinity in
which they are conveyed." Craig also addressed a similar poem to
prince Henry, who accompanied his father to England.
It would appear that Craig
either was one of those who accompanied the king to England, or soon after
followed him; as he was present at the entrance of his majesty into
London, and at the subsequent coronation. He celebrated these events in a
Latin hexameter poem, which is neither the chastest nor the most pleasing
of his productions, although the richest in metaphorical ornament and
florid description. Craig was, in 1604, one of the commissioners on the
part of Scotland, who, by the king’s desire, met others on the part of
England, for the purpose of considering the possibility of a union between
the two countries. He wrote a work on this subject, in which he warmly
seconded the patriotic views of the king. This treatise, written, like all
his other works, in Latin, has never been published; although, in point of
matter and style, in the importance of the subject to which it relates,
the variety of historical illustrations, the sagacity of the political
remarks, and the insight into the mutual interests of the two countries
which it exhibits, it perhaps deserves to rank the highest of all his
works. The work upon which he appears to have been last engaged, is one
upon the old controversy respecting the homage claimed from Scotland by
the English monarch. The "De Hominio" of Craig remained in
manuscript till the year 1695, when a translation of it was published by
Mr George Ridpath, under the title, "Scotland’s Sovereignty
Asserted, or a Dispute concerning Homage."
Craig was, in the latter
part of his life, advocate for the church, and under that character was
employed at the famous trial of the six ministers in 1606, on a charge of
treason for keeping a general assembly at Aberdeen. He was, perhaps,
unfitted, by his studious and modest disposition, to come farther forward
in public life. King James repeatedly offered him the honour of
knighthood, which he as constantly refused: he is only styled "Sir
Thomas Craig," in consequence of an order from the king, that
every one should give him the title. He had been married, in early life,
to Helen Heriot, daughter of the laird of Trabrown, in East Lothian, to
which family belonged the mothers of two great men of that age, George
Buchanan and the first earl of Haddington. By this lady he had four sons
and three daughters. Sir Lewis Craig, the eldest son, who was born in
1569, was raised, at the age of thirty-four, to the bench, where he took
the designation of Lord Wrightshouses. As this was in the life-time of his
own father, the latter had sometimes occasion to plead before his son. A
pleasing tradition regarding the filial respect shown by Sir Lewis, is
preserved in the biographical sketch prefixed to the treatise De Feudis.
The supreme judges in those days sat covered, and heard the counsel
who pleaded before them uncovered. "Whenever," says his
biographer, "his father appeared before him, Sir Lewis, as became a
pious son, uncovered, and listened to his parent with the utmost
reverence."
Another family anecdote of
a very pleasing character is derived from the same source. The father of
Sir Thomas Craig had been educated in the Roman Catholic religion. His
son, whose studies, after his return from France, were, as we have seen,
superintended by Mr John Craig, the eminent reformer, appears early and
zealously to have embraced the new opinions. The old man continued in the
faith of the church of Rome till a late period of his life; but, being at
length converted by the unanswerable reasons which were incessantly,
though reverentially, urged by his son, he became, to the great joy of the
subject of this memoir, a convert to the true religion.
This great man died on the
26th of February, 1608, when, if we are right as to the date of his birth,
he must have attained his seventieth year.
An Account of the Life and Writings
of Sir Thomas Craig of Riccarton
Including biographical sketches of the most eminent legal characters,
since the institution of the Court of Session by James V. till the
period of the Union of the Crowns by Patrick Fraser Tytler (1897) (pdf) |
