Andrew Fletcher, Lord Milton

Andrew Fletcher, Lord Milton (1692 – 13 December 1766) was a notable Scottish judge and Lord Justice Clerk.

Andrew Fletcher was the son of Henry Fletcher of Saltoun (d.1733) (the first person to use machinery in barleymills in Scotland) by his spouse Margaret (d.1745), daughter of Sir David Carnegie, 1st Baronet of Pittarow (d.1708). Milton's paternal uncle was the politician and patriot Andrew Fletcher.

Having been educated for the Bar, he was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates on 26 February 1717. He succeeded Sir John Lauder, Lord Fountainhall as an Ordinary Lord in the Court of Session, as Lord Milton, taking his seat on 4 June 1724. On 22 August 1726 he was appointed a Lord of Justiciary in place of James Hamilton of Pencaitland, who had resigned.

The following year Lord Milton was named by Letters Patent, dated 5 July, as one of the Commissioners for improving the fisheries and manufactures of Scotland.

Upon the resignation of James Erskine of Grange, Lord Milton was constituted Lord Justice Clerk, taking his seat on 21 June 1735. On 10 November 1746, he was appointed Principal Keeper of His Majesty's Signet. He resigned his office as Lord Justice Clerk in 1748, but retained his appointments with the Signet and as judge of the Court of Session until his death.

During the 1745 Jacobite rebellion Lord Milton was much admired for the mild and judicious manner with which he conducted himself as Lord Justice Clerk in that difficult time. He abstained as much as possible from severe measures, and adopted means either to conceal, or recall such of the rebels as had been misled, as he put it, from the paths of loyalty, rather than actuated by premeditated designs to overturn the government. Much information which he suspected was sent to him by over-officious and malignant people, was found in his cupboards after his death, unopened.

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