Family and Education

b. c. 1756, o.s. of John Campbell (formerly Coats), merchant, of Clathick, Perth, ld. provost of Glasgow, and Agnes, da. and h. of Laurence Colquhoun of Killermont. educ. Glasgow Univ. 1769; adv. 1779. m. 19 Sept. 1796,1 Mary Anne, da. of Rev. William Erskine, episcopalian minister of Muthill, Perth, 2s. 6da. (1 d.v.p.). suc. fa. 1804 and took additional name of Colquhoun. d. 8 Dec. 1820.

Offices Held

Ld. adv. Mar. 1807-July 1816; commr. of inquiry, administration of justice in Scotland Nov. 1808; ld. clerk register July 1816-d.

Sheriff, Perth 1793-1807; officer, Edinburgh vol. inf. 1793; capt. E. Kilpatrick vols. 1798, Dunbarton vols. 1804; rect. Glasgow Univ. 1807-9.

Biography

Campbell Colquhoun was an able lawyer, but was too reserved in manner to succeed in politics. His appointment as lord clerk register in 1816, the redemption of a pledge extorted from reluctant ministers five years previously, was unpopular not only with Scottish Whigs but with many leading friends of Lord Liverpool’s government.2 He was again returned for Dunbartonshire in 1820 with the backing of the 3rd duke of Montrose. He is not known to have spoken or voted in the new Parliament, and was granted a month’s leave owing to illness in his family, 12 June 1820. He died that December at the Wiltshire home of his son-in-law. No will has been found. His eldest son John Campbell Colquhoun (1803-70) succeeded a distant female cousin to the property of the Colquhouns of Garscadden in 1821, and was Conservative Member for Dunbartonshire, 1832-4, Kilmarnock Burghs, 1837-41 and Newcastle-under-Lyme, 1842-7.

Ref Volumes: 1820-1832

Author: David R. Fisher

Notes

• 1. Scots Mag. (1796), 649.
• 2. G.W.T. Omond, Lord Advocates of Scotland, ii. 229.