David Hume (advocate)

David Hume of Ninewells FRSE (1757–1838) was a Scottish advocate, judge and legal scholar, whose work on Scots criminal law and Scots private law has had a deep and continuing influence. He is referred to as Baron Hume to distinguish him from his uncle, David Hume the philosopher.

Hume was educated at the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. He became an advocate in 1779, and in 1786 was appointed Professor of Scottish Law at the University of Edinburgh, a post he retained until 1822, when he took up office as a Baron of Exchequer. In 1785 he married Jane Alder. They had three sons and three daughters.

Hume’s writings on criminal law culminated in his Commentaries on the Law of Scotland, Respecting Trial for Crimes (1797), a work that has continued to be cited in court into the 21st century. During his lifetime he never published his lectures on Scots private law, and indeed expressed the wish that they should not be published posthumously. But manuscript copies were widely circulated and were influential, sometimes being cited in court. Eventually they were published, in six volumes, between 1939 and 1958. The result was a revival of their influence, not least in the field of property law.

David Hume was baptised 27 February 1757 at Chirnside, Berwickshire, a son of John Hume of Ninewells (1709–1786) and his wife, Agnes née Carre (1725–1785); he was a nephew of the philosopher David Hume.

From 1765 to 1767, he was enrolled as a pupil at Edinburgh high school and then studied at the University of Edinburgh where, in 1774, he studied Roman Law. He matriculated as a law student at the University of Glasgow in 1775 where he remained until 1777 and lodged with Professor John Millar, "then the most celebrated law teacher in the British Isles." In 1777 and 1778 he was a registered student of Scots law in Edinburgh.

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