Adam Gifford, Lord Gifford

Lord Gifford.

Adam Gifford, Lord Gifford FRSE (/ˈɡɪfərd/; 29 February 1820 Edinburgh – 20 January 1887) was a Scottish advocate and judge.

Adam Gifford was born in Edinburgh on 29 February 1820 to parents James Gifford (Treasurer of the Merchant Company of Edinburgh) and Catherine Ann West. He went to school at Edinburgh Institution and in 1835 he was apprenticed to be a solicitor. He studied at Edinburgh University and was called to the bar as an advocate in 1849.

He was a Radical in politics, and expected no appointment from Government, until he was made an advocate depute in 1861, under Palmerston. He prosecuted cases for the Crown including Jessie McLauchlan in the 1863 Sandyford murder case. He was appointed Sheriff of Orkney and Zetland in 1865, but delegated his duties to a resident sheriff-substitute and continued his private practice as an advocate.

His lucrative private practice as an advocate made him a fortune, which he bequeathed towards the endowment of the four Gifford Lectureships on natural theology in connection with each of the four universities in Scotland then extant (Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh and St. Andrews); he was a man of a philosophical turn of mind, and a student of the works of Spinoza. He held office as a judge from 1870 to 1881, despite symptoms of paralysis from 1872 onwards. On his resignation (due to ill-health) he was replaced by Patrick Fraser thereafter known as Lord Fraser.

He was the uncle of Sir Walter Raleigh (1861–1922), the professor of English at the University of Glasgow.

References

• Oxford DNB
• Nuttall Encyclopedia
• Gifford Lectures.