Alexander Maconochie, Lord Meadowbank

{{Short description|Scottish advocate, judge, landowner and politician}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Lord Meadowbank

| honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable

| honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|FRSE|FSAS|sep=,|size=100%}}

| image = Alexander Maconochie (1777–1861) of Meadowbank MET DP162164.jpg

| caption = Portrait of Lord Meadowbank by Sir Henry Raeburn

| birth_name = Alexander Maconochie

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1777|03|02|df=y}}

| birth_place = Midlothian, Scotland, Great Britain

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1861|11|30|1777|03|02|df=y}}

| death_place = Meadowbank House, Kirknewton, West Lothian, Scotland, United Kingdom

| spouse = {{Marriage|Anne Blair|1805}}

| children = Allan Alexander Maconochie Welwood of Meadowbank and Garvock

| mother = Elizabeth Welwood

| father = Allan Maconochie, Lord Meadowbank

| education = Royal High School
University of Edinburgh

| occupation = Advocate, Judge, Politician

| office = Lord of session and justiciary

| termstart = 24 June 1819

| termend = 1843

| constituency =

| alongside =

| monarch =

| primeminister =

| predecessor =

| successor =

| office1 = Member of Parliament

| termstart1 = 1818

| termend1 = 1819

| constituency1 = Anstruther Burghs

| alongside1 =

| monarch1 =

| primeminister1 =

| predecessor1 = Sir John Anstruther

| successor1 = Sir William Rae, Bt.

| office2 =

| termstart2 = 1817

| termend2 = 1818

| constituency2 = Yarmouth

| alongside2 = John Leslie Foster

| monarch2 =

| primeminister2 =

| predecessor2 = Richard Wellesley
John Leslie Foster

| successor2 = John Copley
John Leslie Foster

| office3 = Lord Advocate

| termstart3 = 1816

| termend3 = 1819

| alongside3 =

| monarch3 =

| primeminister3 =

| predecessor3 = Archibald Colquhoun

| successor3 = Sir William Rae, Bt.

| office4 = Solicitor General for Scotland

| termstart4 = 1813

| termend4 = 1816

| alongside4 =

| monarch4 =

| primeminister4 =

| predecessor4 = David Monypenny

| successor4 = James Wedderburn

| office5 = Sheriff of Haddington

| termstart5 = 1810

| termend5 = 1813

| alongside5 =

| monarch5 =

| primeminister5 =

| predecessor5 = John Burnett

| successor5 = William Home

}}

The Right Honourable Alexander Maconochie, Lord Meadowbank of Garvock and Pitliver {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|FRSE|FSAs|sep=,|size=100%}} (2 March 1777–30 November 1861), was a Scottish advocate, judge, landowner and politician. After 1854 he took the surname Maconochie-Welwood.

Life

Maconochie was born on 2 March 1777 in "Society" a district in south Edinburgh, Midlothian (now known as the Pleasance), the eldest son of Elizabeth Welwood of Garvock and Allan Maconochie, Lord Meadowbank. He was educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh, and probably at the University of Edinburgh. He was admitted as an advocate in 1799, and in 1800 admitted to the Highland Society.

He served as Sheriff of Haddington from 1810 and Solicitor General for Scotland from 1813, and as Lord Advocate from 1816 to 1819.

He was Member of Parliament for Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, England, from 1817–1818, and for the Kilrenny district of Anstruther Burghs from 1818 to 1819. He made his Parliamentary debut during a period of considerable unrest in both Scotland and England in 1817, choosing to mark it by announcing the existence of a seditious conspiracy of weavers in the suburbs of Glasgow. The ensuing prosecutions were spectacularly unsuccessful, however, and caused considerable embarrassment, both to the government and to Maconochie himself, who, as Lord Advocate, was directly responsible.

In 1817 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Sir William Arbuthnot, 1st Baronet, Thomas Allan, Sir David Brewster and Sir Henry Jardine. He served as a Councillor of the Society during 1822-5 (Literary section) and 1835–7.{{cite book

|last1=Waterston

|first1=Charles D

|last2=Macmillan Shearer

|first2=Angus

|title=Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783-2002: Biographical Index

|url=http://www.rse.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf

|accessdate=12 January 2013

|volume=II

|date=July 2006

|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh

|location=Edinburgh

|isbn=9780902198845}}

In February 1827 he co-founded the Edinburgh Theatrical Fund with Sir Walter Scott and served as its first President. This body provided funds for "the relief of decayed actors".Grant's Old and New Edinburgh vol.2 p.350

In the 1830s, his city address is listed as 13 Royal Circus Edinburgh's New Town.{{Cite web|url=http://digital.nls.uk/83401143|title=Edinburgh Post Office annual directory, 1832-1833|website=National Library of Scotland|access-date=2018-01-21}} His rural estate Meadowbank from which he took the name of his title was located in West Lothian. Meadowbank House passed to him from his father and circa 1835, he paid for the Scottish architect William Henry Playfair to redesign the house in Scottish baronial style.{{cite book |last= Jaques and McKean |date=1 September 1994 |title= West Lothian - An Illustrated Architectural Guide |location=Scotland |publisher=The Rutland Press |pages=106–107 |isbn=978-1873190258}}

In part because of his rather indifferent record, especially after further embarrassment in the Court of Session in 1819, he was appointed a lord of session and justiciary as Lord Meadowbank 1819, and resigned in 1843. With the same title as his father, he was subject of one of Scots law's better puns. When he quizzed one advocate as to the difference between 'likewise and also', he received the reply that just as his father had been Lord Meadowbank, so was he, 'also but not likewise'.

He assumed the additional surname of Welwood on succeeding to his cousin's estates in 1854.

Maconochie-Welwood died on 30 November 1861 at Meadowbank House (now named Kirknewton House), Kirknewton, West Lothian, and was interred at a private burial ground at Meadowbank House.

Artistic Patronage

He was patron to the Edinburgh artist William Crawford.{{Cite web |url=http://www.avictorian.com/Crawford_William.html |title=Archived copy |access-date=25 July 2020 |archive-date=25 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200725225730/http://www.avictorian.com/Crawford_William.html |url-status=dead }}

Family

In 1805 he married Anne Blair the eldest daughter of Lord President Robert Blair, Lord Avontoun. The couple had children including:

Allan Alexander Maconochie {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|FRSE|sep=,|size=100%}} (1806–1885).{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=31 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead}}
Isabella Cornelia (b. 1807, d. 1888)
Robert Blair Maconochie (b. 21 May 1814, died 4 October 1863) who married Charlotte Joanna
Mary Anne Maconochie, who married Steuart Bayley Hare of Calderhall, father of Lt Col Hare.Logie: A Parish History Menzies Fergusson 1905
Henry Dundas Maconochie-Welwood, b. 1820, died 1852 in Calcutta while working for the East India Company
Anne (b. 1822, d. 1882)
Elizabeth (d. 1881).