John Pringle, Lord Haining

John Pringle, Lord Haining (c. 1674 – 19 August 1754) was a Scottish lawyer, politician, and judge. His ownership of a large estate near Selkirk secured him a seat in the Parliament of Scotland from 1702 until the Act of Union in 1707, and then in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 until he became a Lord of Session in 1729.

Pringle was the second son of Andrew Pringle of Clifton in the Scottish Borders. His mother Violet was a daughter of John Rutherford of Edgerston, Roxburgh. Andrew Pringle had forced the marriage of his oldest son Robert to Andrew's niece Janet Pringle, thereby reuniting Pringle lands which had been divided in a previous generation. This wealth allowed Andrew to educate John at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated with an MA in 1692, and at Utrecht where he graduated in 1696. He was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1698.

Pringle soon established a successful legal practice, and in 1701 or 1702 his father purchased for him The Haining estate at a cost of £3,412 (£499,000 in 2017). This large estate, beside the town of Selkirk gave him a strong influence on the politics both of the shire of Selkirkshire and burgh of Selkirk. Due to the support of his future father-in-law, the hereditary sheriff of Selkirkshire Sir James Murray, Pringle was elected to Parliament in 1702 as a shire commissioner for Selkirkshire.

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