Library of Charles Areskine (1680-1763): Scottish lawyers and book collecting, 1700-1760
Date
26/06/2012Author
Baston, Karen Grudzien
Metadata
Abstract
The thesis uses the study of an individual’s book collection to examine wider themes in
eighteenth century Scottish legal, social, political, and intellectual history. Charles
Areskine’s library was made up of the books he needed as an advocate and judge, the
texts he wanted to use to better understand the law and its history, and the books he
used to enhance his ability to participate in the intellectual milieu of early eighteenth
century Britain.
Charles Areskine of Alva, Lord Tinwald (1680-1763) was an important Scottish
lawyer and judge. Following a legal education in the Netherlands, he became an
advocate and was called to the Bar in 1711. Areskine’s legal career was very successful
and he attained high positions in the Scottish legal establishment becoming Lord
Advocate (1737-1742) and Lord Justice Clerk (1748-1763). He was appointed to the
bench as Lord Tinwald in1744. He served in parliament and developed his country
estates at Tinwald in Dumfriesshire and at Alva in Clackmannanshire.
Areskine is an interesting figure in the early Scottish Enlightenment not least
because he began his career not in legal but in academic circles. He was a regent at the
University of Edinburgh when he was barely out of his teens and from 1707 to 1734 he
was the first Professor of the Law of Nature and Nations at Edinburgh. Areskine was
also a traveller, a client of the earl of Ilay, a friend to philosophers, a patron of the arts,
and a book collector.
A manuscript which lists of the contents of Areskine’s library survives in the
National Library of Scotland as NLS MS 3283. ‘Catalogŭs Librorŭm D. Dni. Caroli
Areskine de Barjarg, Regiarŭm Causarum Procŭratoris. 1731’ lists 1290 titles divided
into books on legal topics, which are not given any specific headings, and ‘Libri
Miscellanei’. Although it is clearly dated as 1731, the manuscript was continuously added
to and acted as a library catalogue throughout Areskine’s life. The list provides
important evidence about Areskine’s participation in the legal, intellectual, and cultural
concerns of the early Scottish Enlightenment. Areskine’s law books provide evidence
for his scholarly interest in the history of law while showing the types of books lawyers
turned to in order to fashion their arguments in the courts. His ‘miscellaneous’ books
demonstrate his engagement with the wider cultural concerns of the first half of the
eighteenth century.
The books that eighteenth century Scottish lawyers owned provide evidence for
their interests and influence. Areskine was not unique: his book collecting was part of a
wider tradition among Scottish lawyers. Areskine’s legally educated patron, Archibald
Campbell, had one of the largest private libraries in Britain and his colleagues on the
Bench, Lord Arniston and Lord Hailes, created collections which they stored in specially
built rooms in their houses.
Because so many of them survive in the Alva Collections of the Advocates
Library and the National Library of Scotland, it has been possible to examine Areskine’s
books for clues about who owned them before he did and what happened to them after
his death. Several inscriptions and bookplates survive in the Alva books which give
evidence for a lively book market which was centred on the Scottish legal community.
Advocates bought and sold many of their books at auctions. This study shows that
books on topics of interest to Scottish lawyers changed hands and stayed in use for
decades.
Collections
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