Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 47.djvu/159

 tion of Icebergs and Transportation of Boulders by Ice’ (Canadian Journal, iv. 180), the substance of which is repeated in his paper read before the British Association in 1860 (Rep. Brit. Assoc. xxx. 174). At the same meeting he read a paper (unpublished) on the ‘Aborigines of the Arctic and Sub-Arctic Regions of North America.’

A portrait of him, painted by Mr. Stephen Pierce, and afterwards engraved, was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1852. A later portrait, painted by Mr. Sydney Hodges, is in the museum at Stromness; and there is a bust, by George Maccallum, in the Edinburgh University.

[The Polar Regions, by Sir John Richardson, 8vo, 1861; obituary notices in Amer. Geogr. Soc. Bull. vol. xxv. No. 3, Geogr. Journ. vol. ii. No. 3, Nature xlviii. 321, Times 26 July 1893, Orkney Herald 2 Aug. 1893; and the following Parliamentary Returns: Papers and Correspondence relative to the Arctic Expedition under Sir John Franklin, March 1851, pp. 45, 51; Arctic Expeditions 20 Dec. 1852, p. 72; Further Papers relative to the Recent Arctic Expeditions in Search of Sir John Franklin, January 1855, p. 831 (reprinted in 8vo form under title ‘The Melancholy Fate of Sir John Franklin and his Party, as described in Dr. Rae's Report, together with the Despatches and Letters of Capt. McClure’); Further Papers, &c., May 1856 (containing correspondence relative to the adjudication of the 10,000l. reward).] 

RAE, PETER (1671–1748), mechanic and historian, son of a clockmaker, was born at Dumfries. In his earlier years he appears to have followed his father's trade, for he afterwards constructed for the Duke of Queensberry at Drumlanrig Castle an astronomical and musical clock, which became the admiration of the neighbourhood. In 1697 he began to study theology, and in 1699 was licensed to preach. In 1703 he was ordained minister of Kirkbride. The parish was suppressed in 1727 by the lords commissioners of teinds, and in 1732 he was translated to Kirkconnel, where he remained till his death on 29 Dec. 1748. ‘Mr. Rae,’ says a successor, ‘was distinguished as a philosopher as well as a divine, nor was he less known as a mechanic, mathematician, and historian’ (, Statistical Account, x. 454). On 19 July 1697 he married Agnes, eldest daughter of John Corsane of Meiklenox, bailie of Dumfries. By her he had two sons, Robert and John, and two daughters, Janet and Agnes.

Rae's chief work was a ‘History of the Rebellion of 1715,’ containing much useful local detail and an appendix of original documents (Dumfries, 1718, 4to; London, 1746, 8vo). It was the subject of an attack in doggerel verse by Robert Ker, in ‘A Glass wherein Nobles, Priests, and People may see the Lord's Controversies against Britain.’ Rae also published a ‘Treatise on Lawful Oaths and Perjury,’ Edinburgh, 1749, and compiled a ‘History of the Parishes in the Presbytery of Penpont.’ The latter was never printed, and the original manuscript has disappeared, but several imperfect copies are in private hands (Notes and Queries, 4th ser. ix. 366).

[Hew Scott's Fasti Eccl. Scot. I. ii. 679, 681; Scots Mag. xi. 53; Gent. Mag. 1749, p. 44; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. x. 94, 187; Allibone's Dict. of Authors, ii. 1273.] 

RAE, WILLIAM (1769–1842), lord advocate, younger son of Sir David Rae, lord Eskgrove [q. v.], by his wife Margaret, daughter of John Stuart of Blairhall, Perthshire, was born in Edinburgh on 14 April 1769, and educated at the high school and university of Edinburgh. He was called to the Scottish bar on 25 June 1791, and was appointed sheriff of Midlothian on 27 May 1809. He succeeded his brother David as third baronet on 22 May 1815, and was appointed lord advocate in the place of Alexander Maconochie, afterwards Maconochie-Welwood [q. v.], on 24 June 1819 (London Gazette, 1819, pt. i. p. 1111). In the following month he was returned to parliament for the Anstruther burghs, which he continued to represent until June 1826. Rae appears to have spoken for the first time in the House of Commons on 31 Jan. 1821 (Parl. Debates, 2nd ser. iv. 232–3). On 15 Feb. 1821 he defended the right of the privy council to issue an order to the General Assembly of Scotland directing the erasure of the queen's name from the liturgy (ib. iv. 696–704). On 20 Feb. 1822 he opposed Lord Archibald Hamilton's motion for a committee of the whole house upon the royal burghs of Scotland, and declared that he ‘could not view any alteration in the constitution of them in any other light than that of a parliamentary reform of the boroughs of Scotland’ (ib. vi. 542–5). A few days afterwards he introduced a bill to remedy abuses in the expenditure of burgh funds (ib. vi. 800), which became law during the session (3 George IV, c. 91).

On 25 June Abercromby moved for the appointment of a committee ‘for the purpose of inquiring into the conduct of the lord advocate and the other law officers of the crown in Scotland with relation to the public press, and more especially to inquire into the prosecution carried on against W. Borth-