DALRYMPLE FAMILY. The surname of this family is derived from the lends of Dalrymple, in the shire of Ayr, of which, in remote times, the chief of the house was proprtctor. The family appears to have been of Importance very early, for in the reigu of King Robert 11L, Duncan Dalrumpill had a charter of the office of Tos cheodorach (or principal executive officer of the crown) in Nithadale; and in 1462 James de Dalrymple was clericus regis.
The lands of Stair, whence the viscounty and earldom are derived, came into the family by William de Dalrymple, who became pos sessed of them in tho middle of tho 15th century by his marriage with his relation, Agues Kennedy, heiress of the estate. The eon of these parties married a daughter of Sir John Chalmers, of Garlgirtb, in the tame shire, whose first ancestor bad held the high office of chamberlain of Scotland; and in lineal descent from him was James Dalrymple of Stair, who married Janet, daughter of Kennedy of linockdew, and by her bad • Jausz Dahnsmrhz, first Viscount Stair, lie was born in May1619, at Dummnrchie, in the parish of Barr, 'county of Ayr, and lost his father before he had attained his fifth year. At that tender ago he was left under the guardianship of his mother, who survived her husband upwards of thirty years. his early education was acquired at the school of Manchline, whence, at the age of fourteen, ho was removed to the college of Glasgow, where, applying himself closely to his studies, he qualified himself for taking the degree of A.M. in 1637. He left college the following year, and at the breaking out of the civil war obtained a captain's oommission in the Earl of Glencairn's regiment.. About this time the chair of philosophy in the University of Glasgow became vacant, and haying, by the advice of some of the professors, become a candidate, he was in 1641, being then twenty-two years old, appointed to the place after a comparative trial. It was then the practice for every regent (as the professors appointed by the crown were called) to swear at taking office that he would demit on his marriage. This Dalrymple did, and having in 1643 married Margaret Roes, co-heiress of the estate of Balneil in Wigton, he resigned the chair, but was soon afterwards reappointed. In this place he sedulously pursued his studios, and particularly the study of the civil law, with the view to the profession of the law, in which a knowledge of the Roman jurisprudence was then of great moment. In 1647 ho resigned hia chair, removed to Edinburgh, and after the lintel trials, was admitted an advocate on the 17th of February 1648. The following year he was appointed secretary to the commissioners seat by the Scottish parliament to treat with Cherie' II., then an exile In If ollend, for his return to his native doininion• Ho held the rune office In the more successful mission of 1050, and was on that occasion particularly noted for his "abilities, sincerity, and modera tion,' During the Protectorate he was warmly recommended to Cromwell by General Monk, as • fit person to be one of the judges of the court of session, and on the 1st of July 1057, Dalrymple took his seat on the bench. At the Restoration he went to London with the Earl of Canaille to pay his respects to the king. On that occasion the honour of knighthood was conferred upon him; and by letter, dated Whitehall, 14th February 1001, he was also nominated one of the lords of session. But refusing to sIgn the declaration enacted in
1603, his place was declared vacant 19th of January 1604. Having some time after waited on the king In London, his majesty allowed him to qualify his sulfseription to the Declaration, and restored bhp to his seat. He was created a baronet in June 1661 ; and on tho resignation of Sir John Gilmour, he was appointed president of the court of session 7th of January 1671. On the 25th of February 1672, his eldest von, John, was admitted an advocate before the court : on the 25th of Jnne 1675, his next son, James, was admitted ; and his third son, Hew, on the 23rd of February 1677. Dalrymplo continued president till the )oar 1691, when, on account of his conduct on occasion of the Test Act, ho was superseded, and found It necessary lo retire Into Holland. In 1651 ho published his' Institutions of the Law of Scotland,' the work of a great and philosophic mind, but one deeply imbued with the principles of the Roman jurisprudence : it gave consistency to the body of Soots law; • and till our own day has guided the determinations of the Scottish lawyers. From his retire ment at Leyden ho transmitted to the Ediuburgh press hie 'Decisions of the Court of Session from 1661 to 1081 ; ' the first volume appear ing in 1684, and the second in 1657. And iu 1680 he published at Leyden his Philosophin. Nova Experimentali•' He also busied himself about this time on a work relating to the mutual obligations of the sovereign and his people, but it was never published. On the accession of King James II., Dalrymple'e eldest son was appointed lord advocate of Scotland in the room of Sir George Mackenzie; and in this place he had influence enough to procure • pardon for his father, who, ou the testimony of Spence, the secretary of Argyll, had been prosecuted and outlawed for his alleged concern in the Rye house Plot. Sir John held the situation of lord advocate for about twelve months, when he was appointed successor to Emilie of Coliuton, both as lord justice clerk and as an ordinary lord of session. His father, on coming over to this country with the Prince of Orange, with whom he had been much in favour while in Holland, was reinstated in the bresidency of that court; and on the 21st of April 1690, raised to the peerage by the style and title of Viscount Stair. The same year Sir John was re-appointed lord advocate ; and the next year advanced to be one of the principal secretaries of state, in which latter place he continued till the year 1695, when he was driven from office upon the parliamentary inquiry into the equally impolitic and barbarous massacre of Glencoe, of which he appears to have been the chief instigator.
Stair died in the end of the same year, on the 23rd of November 1695, shortly after the publication of his work entiled ' A Vindication of the Divine Perfections,' and was buried in the high church of Edinburgh. He was succeeded in his title and estate by his eldest son, who on the 8th of April 1703 was advanced to be Earl of Stair, and who died suddenly on the 8th of January 1707, after a warm debate that day on the 22nd article of the treaty of Union, which relates to the number and privileges of Scots peers. By his wife, daughter and heiress of Sir John Dundee of Newliston, in the shire of Edinburgh, he left a younger son, who was