Note 320:3 — Chapter VIII

His grandfather distinguished himself by his resolute and skilful defence of William Veitch, one of the nonconforming clergy, who suffered in the persecutions of the reign of Charles II. Elliot acting as the persecuted man's agent, made an appeal to the feelings of the English statesmen, on the barbarity of the measures of their Scots colleagues; and was so far successful, that the sentence of death pronounced against Veitch, was commuted to banishment. He thenceforth became, of course, a marked man, and an act of forfeiture passed against him in 1685, as an accessory in Argyle's rising. He afterwards obtained a remission of his sentence, and on 22d November, 1688, he was received as a member of the faculty of advocates. He was created a baronet in 1700, and on 25th July, 1705, was raised to the bench. (Brunton and Haig's account of the Senators of the College of Justice.) In Dr. M'Crie's curious "Memoirs of Mr. William Veitch," (p. 99) it is stated, that when the evil days were passed, and the condemned nonconformist was parish minister of Dumfries, he was occasionally visited by the judge, when the following conversation passed between them,—"Ah Willie, Willie, had it no' been for me, the pyets had been pyken your pate on the Nether-bow Port;" to which the retort was, "Ah Gibbie, Gibbie, had it no' been for me, ye would ha'e been yet writing papers for a plack the page."

This Sir Gilbert's son, and the father of Hume's correspondent, was raised to the bench on 4th June, 1726, and became Lord Justice Clerk on 3d May, 1703. He died on 16th April, 1766.