Duncan McNeill, 1st Baron Colonsay

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

File:Duncan McNeill, 1st Baron Colonsay.jpg

File:Lord Colonsay Vanity Fair 13 September 1873.jpg"
Lord Colonsay as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, September 1873}}]]

File:The grave of Duncan McNeill, Warriston Cemetery, Edinburgh.jpg

Duncan McNeill, 1st Baron Colonsay FRSE (20 August 1793 – 31 January 1874) was a Scottish advocate, judge and Tory politician. He was Lord Justice General and Lord President of the Court of Session between 1852 and 1867.

His younger brother was the physician and diplomat Sir John McNeill.{{cite book

|last1 = Waterston

|first1 = Charles D

|last2 = Macmillan Shearer

|first2 = A

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

|url = http://www.rse.org.uk/fellowship/fells_indexp2.pdf

|access-date = 25 September 2010

|volume = II

|date = July 2006

|publisher = The Royal Society of Edinburgh

|location = Edinburgh

|isbn = 978-0-902198-84-5

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061004113303/http://www.rse.org.uk/fellowship/fells_indexp2.pdf

|archive-date = 4 October 2006

}}

Background and education

McNeill was born on the island of Oronsay in the Inner Hebrides, the son of John McNeill (1767–1846), laird of Colonsay and Oronsay, and his wife Hester (née McNeill).{{cite book|last=Burke|first=Sir Bernard|title=A genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Great Britain & Ireland|year=1898|publisher=Harrison & Sons|page=864}} Educated at St Andrew's University where he graduated MA in 1809..

He served his apprenticeship in Edinburgh under Michael Linning WS, based at 6 St James Square.Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1800 He became a member of the Faculty of Advocates in 1816. He was the presumptive father of philosopher Edmund Montgomery.{{cite web|title=Ney Museum-Edmund Montgomery|url=http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/elisabetney/html/montgomery_biography.html|publisher=Elisabet Ney Museum|access-date=29 October 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100124032043/http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/elisabetney/html/montgomery_biography.html|archive-date=24 January 2010|url-status=dead}}

Political, legal and judicial career

He was Advocate Depute in Edinburgh 1820 to 1824.

MacNeill was appointed Sheriff of Perthshire in 1824. He served under Sir Robert Peel as Solicitor General for Scotland from 1834 to 1835 and again from 1841 to 1842 and as Lord Advocate from 1842 to 1846.{{cite book|last1=Campbell|first1=George Douglas, Duke of Argyll|title=Autobiography and Memoirs, Volume 1 |orig-year=1906|year=2010|publisher=Nabu Press|isbn=978-1-149-14037-6|last2=Campbell|first2=Ina Erskine McNeill, Duchess of Argyll|page=268}} From 1843 to 1851 he sat as Member of Parliament for Argyllshire.{{Cite web |url=http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Acommons2.htm |title=leighrayment.com House of Commons: Andover to Armagh South |access-date=27 August 2010 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181020203450/http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Acommons2.htm |archive-date=20 October 2018 }} In 1851 he was appointed a Senator of the College of Justice and an Ordinary Lord of Session as Lord Colonsay and Oronsay. He was Lord Justice General and Lord President of the Court of Session from 1852 to 1867, and was raised to the peerage as Baron Colonsay, of Colonsay and Oronsay in the County of Argyll, on 26 February 1867.{{cite journal|title=Appointments, Preferments and Promotions|journal=The Gentleman's Magazine|year=1867|volume=222|page=373}}{{London Gazette |issue=23222 |date=22 February 1867 |page=951 }}{{cite book|last1=Fryde|first1=E.B.|last2=Greenway |first2=D.E. |last3=Porter |first3=S. |last4=Roy |first4=I. |title=Handbook of British Chronology |year=1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-56350-5|page=199}}

Personal life

File:73 Great King Street, Edinburgh.jpg

In 1829 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh his proposer being John Shank More.{{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-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}

In later life Edinburgh University awarded him an honorary doctorate (LLD).

McNeill was unmarried, but lived in a very large Georgian townhouse: 73 Great King Street in Edinburgh's Second New Town.Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directories 1857 onwards

He was a member of the Highland Society of Edinburgh (1833).

Lord Colonsay died at Pau, France, on 31 January 1874, aged 80, when the title became extinct.{{cite web|last=Sheets|first=John W|title=The Americans, The Earl of Selkirk and Colonsay's 1806 Emigrants to Prince Edward Island|url=http://www.islandregister.com/colonsay_selkirk.html|publisher=The Island Register|access-date=31 October 2010}}

He was interred at Warriston Cemetery in Edinburgh, south of the upper east–west path towards the East Gate. His bronze coat of arms has been stolen from the monument.

Coat of arms

{{Emblem table

|image = {{center|150px 180px}}

|image size =

|notes =

|coronet = A coronet of an Baron

|crest = A mailed arm and hand holding a dagger proper.

|escutcheon = Quarterly: 1st and 4th, azure a lion rampant argent; 2nd, argent a sinister hand couped fesseways in chief gules and in base wavy azure a salmon naiant of the first; 3rd, or, a galley, her oars in saltire gules on a chief of the last three mullets of the first; all within a bordure ermine.

|supporters= Two Highland deerhounds proper.

|motto = Vincere aur mori{{cite book |last= Burke |first= Bernard |author-link=Bernard Burke |title= A genealogical and heraldic dictionary of the peerage and baronetage of the British Empire |date=1869|publisher=Harrison & sons|location=London |pages=646|url=https://archive.org/details/generalarmoryofe00burk/page/646/mode/2up?view=theater&q=Colonsay}}}}