Robert Macqueen, Lord Braxfield

Robert McQueen, Lord Braxfield (1722 - 1799) was a Scottish lawyer and judge.

McQueen was born near Lanark, son of John McQueen of Braxfield.

He studied in Edinburgh and was called to the Bar in 1744. In 1759 he was appointed an Advocate Depute appearing for the Crown in prosecutions. He often appeared in more than 15 cases per day and earned £1900 in a single year. [cite book | author=Milne, Hugh M. (ed) | title=Boswell's Edinburgh Journals 1767-1768 | publisher=Mercat Press | year=2001|isbn=1841830208|pages=560]

He became a judge in 1776 and took the title Lord Braxfield.

In 1788 he became Lord Justice Clerk, the leading judge in Scotland. Explicitly taking the view that "Government in this country is made up of the landed interest, which alone has a right to be represented" he took an active role in the suppression of the Friends of the People Society in the trials and sentences passed on Thomas Muir and others. To accomplish this he "invented a crime of unconscious sedition" [cite book | author=Buchan, James | title=Crowded with Genius | publisher=Harper Collins | year=2003|isbn=0060558881|pages=338] .

Influence

Sir Henry Raeburn painted his portrait shortly before his death.

Braxfield has a notoriety in Scotland, due to the harsh way that he dealt with those who appeared before him, most famously in telling a defendant that "Ye're a vera clever chiel, man, but ye wad be nane the waur o' a hanging". In a recent survey of Scottish historians, Braxfield was identified as one of the "vilest villains" in Scotland's history. [cite web|publisher=Scotland on Sunday|title =Meet our 12 worst baddies - Scotland depraved | url =http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/scotland/Meet-our-12-worst-baddies.2738812.jp| accessdate = 2008-01-19 ]

He is thought to be the model for the judge in Robert Louis Stevenson's unfinished novel Weir of Hermiston. [cite web|publisher=Gazetteer for Scotland |title =Lord Robert Macqueen Braxfield | url =http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/people/famousfirst799.html | accessdate = 2008-01-19 ]

References

External links

* [http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/online_az/4:322/result/0/1881?artistId=4399&artistName=Sir%20Henry%20Raeburn&initial=R&submit=1 Portrait by Raeburn in the National Galleries of Scotland]
* [http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/content/help/index.aspx?r=546&1148 Braxfield's testament]