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SIR GEORGE MACKENZIE (1636-1691)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 252 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SIR See also:GEORGE See also:MACKENZIE (1636-1691)  , of Rosehaugh, Scottish lawyer, was the See also:grandson of See also:Kenneth, first See also:Lord See also:Mackenzie of Kintail, and the See also:nephew of See also:Colin and See also:George, first and second earls of See also:Seaforth; his See also:mother was a daughter of See also:Andrew See also:Bruce, See also:principal of St Leonard's See also:College, St See also:Andrews . He was See also:born at See also:Dundee in 1636, educated at the See also:grammar school there and at See also:Aberdeen, and afterwards at St Andrews, graduating at sixteen . He then engaged for three years in the study of the See also:civil See also:law at See also:Bourges; on his return to See also:Scotland he was called to the See also:bar in 1659, and before the Restoration had risen into considerable practice . Immediately after the Restoration he was appointed a " See also:justice-depute," and it is recorded that he and his colleagues in that See also:office were ordained by the See also:parliament in 1661 " to repair, once in the See also:week at least, to See also:Musselburgh and See also:Dalkeith, and to try and See also:judge such persons as are there or thereabouts delate of See also:witchcraft." In the same See also:year he acted as counsel for the See also:marquis of See also:Argyll; soon afterwards he was knighted, and he represented the See also:county of See also:Ross during the four sessions of the parliament which was called in 1669 . He succeeded See also:Sir See also:John Nisbet as See also:king's See also:advocate in See also:August 1677, and in the See also:discharge of this office became implicated in all the worst acts of the Scottish See also:administration of See also:Charles II., earning for himself an unenviable distinction as " the bloody Mackenzie." His refusal to concur in the See also:measures for dispensing with the penal See also:laws against Catholics led to his removal from office in ,686, but he was reinstated in See also:February ,688 . At the Revolution, being a member of See also:convention, he was one of the minority of five in the See also:division on the See also:forfeiture of the See also:crown . King See also:William was urged to declare him incapacitated for holding any public office, but refused to accede to the proposal . When the See also:death of Dundee (See also:July 1689) had finally destroyed the hopes of his party in Scotland, Mackenzie betook himself to See also:Oxford, where, admitted a student by a See also:grace passed in 169o, he was allowed to spend the See also:rest of his days in the enjoyment of the ample See also:fortune he had acquired, and in the See also:prosecution of his See also:literary labours . One of his last acts before leaving See also:Edinburgh had been to pronounce (See also:March 15, 1689), as See also:dean of the See also:faculty of See also:advocates, the inaugural oration at the See also:foundation of the Advocates' library . He died at See also:Westminster on the 8th of May 1691, and was buried in Greyfriars See also:churchyard, Edinburgh . While still a See also:young See also:man Sir George Mackenzie appears to have aspired to See also:eminence in the domain of pure literature, his earliest publication having been Aretina, or a Serious See also:Romance (anon., 1661) ; it was followed, also anonymously, by Religio Stoici, a See also:Short Discourse upon Several Divine and Moral Subjects (1663); A Moral See also:Essay, preferring Solitude to Public Employment (1665); and one or two other disquisitions of a similar nature . His most important legal See also:works are entitled A Discourse upon the Laws and Customs of Scotland in Matters Criminal (1674); Observations upon the Laws and Customs of Nations as to Precedency, with the See also:Science of See also:Heraldry (168o); Institutions of the Law of Scotland (1684); and Observations upon the Acts of Parliament (1686) ; of these the last-named is the most important, the Institutions being completely overshadowed by the similar See also:work of his See also:great contemporary See also:Stair .

In his See also:

Jus See also:Regium: or the Just and Solid See also:Foundations of See also:Monarchy in See also:general, and more especially of the Monarchy of Scotland, maintained (1684), Mackenzie appears as an uncompromising advocate of the highest doctrines of See also:prerogative . His Vindication of the See also:Government of Scotland during the reign of Charles II . (1691) is valuable as a piece of contemporary See also:history . The collected Works were published at Edinburgh (2 vols. fol.) in 1716–1722; and See also:Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland from the Restoration of King Charles II., from previously unpublished See also:MSS., in 1821 . See A . See also:Lang, Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh (1909) .

End of Article: SIR GEORGE MACKENZIE (1636-1691)
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