William Nairne, Lord Dunsinane

The Right Honourable Lord Dunsinane Sir William Nairne, 5th Baronet of Nairne
Lord of Session
In office 1786–1809
Commissioner of Justiciary
In office 1792–1808
Personal details
Born	c.1731 Perthshire, Scotland
Died	23 March 1811 Collace, Perthshire, Scotland
Nationality	Scottish
Residence	Dunsinane House, Perthshire, Scotland
Profession	Advocate

Sir William Nairne, Lord Dunsinane, 5th Baronet of Nairne (c. 1731-1811) was a Scottish advocate and judge, and the uncle of Katherine Ogilvie.

The title of Lord Dunsinane was taken from Dunsinane Hill, a ruined fort near Collace, Perthshire, the family seat of the Nairne family. Dunsinane Hill is referenced in Shakespeare's play, Macbeth. The alternative Gaelic spelling of the term Dunsinane is Dunsinnan, meaning "The hill of ants"; likely a reference to the large number of people it took to build the fortress.

William Nairne was born in Perthshire, Scotland in about 1731. He was the son of Sir William Nairne, 2nd Baronet and his wife, Emilia Graham of Fintry, Forfarshire. The Nairne baronetcy was conferred on Nairne's grandfather by Queen Anne on 31 March 1704.

As the younger son of the 2nd Baronet, and under the presumption that ascending to the baronetcy was unlikely, Nairne pursued a career in law. He was admitted as an advocate on 11 March 1755, and in 1758 was appointed joint Commissary Clerk of Edinburgh with Alexander Nairne, a distant relative. He was made Sheriff of Perthshire in 1783. After thirty years as an advocate, Nairne was elevated to a Lord of Session, a position he held from 1786 to 1809. He also was appointed a Commissioner of Justiciary, a position he held from 1792 to 1808.

Nairne's ‘Disputatio Juridica ad tit. 4 Lib. xx. Pand. Qui potiores in pignore vel hypotheca habeantur’ was published in 1755. He also assisted in the collection of the ‘Decisions of the Court of Session from the end of the year 1756 to the end of the year 1760’, in 1765.

...
Wikipedia