Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/140

 , Leicestershire. He remained chief justice for twelve years, and preserved the dignity of the office, although ‘he had not much credit as a common lawyer.’ On 2 April 1783 North and Fox formed a coalition ministry under the premiership of the Duke of Portland; the great seal was put into commission, and Loughborough was appointed first commissioner. The coalition government, it was evident, could not long hold together. Loughborough seemed to favour the party of Fox rather than that of their opponents. It is possible that the friendship of the prince regent for Fox had suggested to Loughborough that in event of the death of George III the coveted lord chancellorship might be at Fox's disposal. But Pitt came into office at the end of 1783, and Lord Thurlow was made chancellor. Thurlow retired in June 1792, and the great seal was for seven months in commission.

At length Pitt gratified Loughborough's ambition. On 28 Jan. 1793 he obtained the great seal, and took his seat as lord chancellor. Having reached the goal of his ambition, he abandoned the party of the Prince of Wales, and definitely joined himself to the adherents of George III, who were known as ‘the king's friends.’ In 1795 he obtained a regrant of his title, and, as he had no children, it was given in remainder to his nephew, Sir James St. Clair Erskine. The designation was changed from Loughborough, Leicestershire, to Loughborough, Surrey. The chancellor was not fated to find the woolsack an easy seat. The wave of insurgency which had begun in France spread rapidly to this country, and the sedition trials were mercilessly prosecuted under the new chancellor. There can be little doubt that the firm attitude of Loughborough helped to stem the swelling tide of revolution, though it served to make him very unpopular. There were constant cabals among contending statesmen, and he knew that his place, so patiently waited for, was far from secure. After the king had a return of mental malady, Loughborough was accused of procuring the king's signature to important documents when he was not in a fit state to understand them. In March 1801 Pitt's ministry was dismissed, Mr. Addington (Lord Sidmouth) was called upon to form a new cabinet, and Loughborough was ousted from his office to make way for John Scott, lord Eldon. On 14 April Loughborough resigned the great seal, but so tenaciously did he cling to office that he continued to attend the meetings of the cabinet when he had no longer any right to do so, until he was politely dismissed by Addington. On 21 April 1801 he was created Earl of Rosslyn, with remainder to his nephew, as in the patent of the barony of Loughborough. As an equity judge Loughborough attained a very modest reputation. But his decrees were well considered, and were couched in clear and forcible language. He showed good sense and good nature in the distribution of ecclesiastical patronage.

After his retirement from the woolsack Loughborough's mental powers declined. He took little part in parliamentary affairs, and spent most of his time in a villa which he purchased near Windsor. It is said that he often contrived to force himself into the company of the king. He died suddenly at his residence on 2 Jan. 1805, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral. He was twice married: first, on 31 Dec. 1767, to Betty Anne, daughter of John Dawson of Morley, Yorkshire; and, secondly, in 1782, to Charlotte, daughter of William, first viscount Courtenay. As he died without issue, the earldom fell to his nephew, Sir James St. Clair Erskine, son of his sister Janet, who was the direct ancestor of the present Earl of Rosslyn.

[The chief authority is Campbell's Lives of the Lord Chancellors, as the writer had access to the Rosslyn documents. Many letters by and to Wedderburn will be found in Hist. MSS. Comm. 6th Rep., 10th Rep. pt. vi., 12th Rep. pt. ix., 14th Rep. pts. i. iv. x. See also The Wedderburn Book, 1898; Millar's Compt Buik of David Wedderburne (Scottish Hist. Soc.); Millar's Roll of Eminent Burgesses of Dundee; Franklin's Works, ed. Sparks, iv. 425, 447; Brougham's Statesmen of the Reign of George III; Foss's Judges.]  WEDDERBURN, DAVID (1580–1646), Latin poet, was baptised in Aberdeen on 2 Jan. 1579–80 (Aberdeen Parish Register). He was the eldest son of William Wedderburn, burgess of Aberdeen, and Marjorie Annand, and was educated at Marischal College. In 1602 he was appointed master of the grammar school of Aberdeen, in conjunction with Thomas Reid (d. 1624) [q. v.]; but in the following year he resigned his office, with the intention of becoming a minister. This purpose was abandoned, however, and in 1603 he was reinstated. In 1614 Gilbert Gray, principal of Marischal College, died, and Wedderburn was appointed to teach the class in that college which had been under Gray's charge. On 6 Feb. 1620 Wedderburn was made poet-laureate of Aberdeen, receiving a salary of eighty merks yearly from the town council, for which he undertook to teach a weekly lesson of humanity in the college, and ‘to compose in