John Inglis, Lord Glencorse

John Inglis, Lord Glencorse (1810 – 1891) was a Scottish politician and Judge. He was Lord President of the Court of Session (1867-1891).

The youngest son of John Inglis, a Church of Scotland minister, Inglis was born in Edinburgh in August 1810. From the University of Glasgow he went to Balliol College, Oxford. He was admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates in 1835, and in 1852 he was made Solicitor General for Scotland in Lord Derby's first ministry, three months later becoming Lord Advocate, a post he held from May to December of that year. In March 1858 he resumed this office in Lord Derby's second administration, being returned to the House of Commons as member for Stamford. Again his tenure was brief, leaving office in July 1858. He was responsible for the Universities of Scotland Act of 1858, and in the same year he was elevated to the bench as Lord Justice Clerk, with the judicial title "Lord Glencorse". In 1867 he was made Lord Justice General of Scotland and Lord President of the Court of Session. He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1859, and awarded a Doctor of Civil Law by the University of Oxford in 1859.

Outside his judicial duties he was responsible for much useful public work, particularly in the department of higher education. In 1869 he was elected Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh against Gladstone, having already been Rector of the University of Aberdeen in 1857 and Rector of the University of Glasgow in 1865. He died in August 1891.

He was President of Scottish Texts Society and published "Historical Study of Law" 1863.

References

*This article includes material drawn from Concise Dictionary of National Biography, 1939