Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/310

446 period of his course, that activity both of mind and body, which distinguished him in the prime of life; and, ripe like a sheaf in autumn, obtained his frequent wish and prayer, an easy and peaceful death, after a very short indisposition, on Sunday, the 25th of January, 1784. By his lady, who died November 23, 1766, he had six sons and a daughter: one of the former, colonel Webster, fell in the American contest. The person of Dr Webster was, as already mentioned, dignified and commanding. In latter life, it became somewhat attenuated and bent. His countenance, of which a good memorial, by David Martin, is in the office of the Ministers' Widows' Fund, was of an elevated and striking cast, and highly characteristic of his mind. It is related to his honour, that the superior income which his wife's fortune placed at his command, was employed with unusual bountifulness in behalf of the poor, to whom he thus proved himself a practical as well as theoretic friend.

WEDDERBURN,, first earl of Rosslyn, was born, February 13, 1733, iu the city of Edinburgh. His father was Peter Wedderburn, of Chesterhall, Esquire, an eminent advocate, who became, in 1755, a judge of the court of session, with the designation of lord Chesterhall. The grandfather of the latter was Sir Peter Wedderburn of Gosford, an eminent lawyer, and subsequently a judge, during the reign of Charles II.; of whom Sir George Mackenzie speaks in terms of the highest panegyric, in his Characters of Scottish Lawyers. Sir Peter was descended from an old landed family in Forfarshire, which had produced several learned persons of considerable eminence.

The subject of this memoir was bred to the profession in which his father and great-grandfather had so highly distinguished themselves; and so soon were his natural and acquired powers brought into exercise, that he was admitted to the bar at the unusually early age of nineteen. He was rapidly gaining ground as a junior counsel, when an accident put a sudden stop to his practice in his native courts. He had gained the cause of a client in opposition to the celebrated Lockhart, when the defeated veteran, unable to conceal his chagrin, took occasion from something in the manner of Mr Wedderburn, to call him "a presumptuous boy." The sarcastic severity of the young barrister's reply drew upon him so illiberal a rebuke from one of the judges, that he immediately unrobed, and, bowing to the court, declared that be would never more plead where he was subjected to insult, but would seek a wider Held for his professional exertions. He accordingly removed to London, in May, 1753, and enrolled himself a member of the Inner Temple. A love of letters which distinguished him at this early period of life, placed him, (1754,) in the chair at the first meeting of a literary society, of which Hume, Smith, and other eminent men, greatly his seniors, were members. Professional pursuits, however, left him little leisure for the exercise of his pen; which is to be the more regretted, as the few specimens of his composition which have reached us, display a distinctness of conception, and a nervous precision of language, such as might have secured the public approbation for much more elaborate efforts. It. is related, to his honour, that he retained to the close of his life, amidst the dignities and cares of his elevated station, a most affectionate attachment to all the literary friends of his youth.

Mr Wedderburn was called to the English bar in 1757, and became a bencher of Lincoln's Inn in 1763. He early acquired considerable reputation