George Mackenzie

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Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh, Knt., (1636–1691), known as Bluidy Mackenzie, was a Scottish lawyer, Lord Advocate, and legal writer.

Contents 1 Education and life 2 Alleged paranormal activities 3 External link 4 Sources

[edit] Education and life

Mackenzie was born in Dundee, son of Sir Simon Mackenzie, of Lochslin, a brother of the Earl of Seaforth. He was educated at the University of St Andrews, King's College, Aberdeen, and the University of Bourges, France.

He was elected to the Faculty of Advocates in 1659, and distinguished himself in the trial of Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll in 1661. He was a member of the Scottish Parliament for Ross from 1669 and in 1677 became Lord Advocate and a member of the Privy Council of Scotland. As Lord Advocate he was the minister responsible for the persecuting policy of Charles II in Scotland against the Covenanters. He resigned for a short time in 1686, taking up office again in 1688. He opposed the dethronement of James II, and to escape the consequences he retired from public life. He founded the library of the Faculty of Advocates, which opened in 1689.

When the leading Scottish jurist Sir John Lauder, Lord Fountainhall was, in 1692, offered the post of Lord Advocate he declined it because the condition was attached that he should not prosecute the persons implicated in the Glencoe Massacre. Sir George Mackenzie, who had previously been a Lord Advocate, also refused to concur in this partial application of the penal laws, and his refusal (unlike Fountainhall's) led to his temporary disgrace.

The inhumanity and relentlessness of his persecution of the Covenanters gained him the nickname of "Bluidy Mackenzie" (Eng: Bloody Mackenzie). In private life, however, he was a cultivated and learned gentleman with literary tendencies, and is remembered as the author of various graceful essays, of which the best known is A Moral Essay preferring Solitude to Public Employment (1665). He also wrote legal, political, and antiquarian works of value, including Institutions of the Law of Scotland (1684), Antiquity of the Royal Line of Scotland (1686), Heraldry, and Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland from the Restoration of Charles II, a valuable work which was not published until 1821. Mackenzie was the founder of the Advocates' Library in Edinburgh. He retired at the Revolution to Oxford. He died at Westminster on 8 May, 1691 and is buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh.

[edit] Alleged paranormal activities

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Three centuries after his death, a series of happenings in Greyfriars Kirkyard was linked by some to Mackenzie. In 1999, a homeless man took shelter in Mackenzie's unlocked mausoleum and damaged the coffins inside. He is reported to have been seen running from the mausoleum and screaming, and police allegedly found him delirious. It is believed that it was his and a nearby caretaker's (whom the man had ran into whilst escaping) combined fear that caused it to manifest. Since that night phenomena have been experienced in and around the kirkyard. Nearby houses reported experiencing smashed plates and objects being thrown across rooms. Visitors to the kirkyard reported feeling extremely cold or very hot, had the sensation of being held or tugged or their throats being squeezed and some complained later of bruises, scratches and gouge-marks on their bodies. Most attacks and feelings of unease occurred around MacKenzie's Mausoleum. An exorcist, Colin Grant, was brought in to perform an exorcism ceremony. A few weeks later, he died of a heart attack [1].

By now, the phenomenon was called 'The MacKenzie Poltergeist' and the centre of activity 'The Black Mausoleum'. Edinburgh City Council closed off that part of the cemetery until an Edinburgh-based historian, Jan Henderson, took up the case. He persuaded the council to allow controlled visits to that part of the kirkyard and in turn this developed into a nocturnal guided tour, which has become something of a major attraction. Of the visitors who have taken the tour, over 400 have reported feeling various sensations of being touched, pulled, grabbed or similar and many of them have returned home to find dark bruising and/or deep scratches or their faces, necks, hands, bodies or legs. Greyfriars Kirkyard and, in particular, MacKenzie's Poltergeist, have been featured on paranormal TV programmes, including Fox's "Scariest Places on Earth".

A book has been written on the phenomenon: The Ghost That Haunted Itself.

In March, 2004 a group of Scottish teenagers were brought before Edinburgh high court for allegedly pretending to perform sex acts on, and tossing around, the head of a corpse obtained from the Mackenzie Mausoleum. The identity of the corpse is unknown.

[edit] External link

• Scottish teenagers in court, from thisislondon.com
• Edinburgh Evening News article, July 2003

[edit] Sources

• Concise Dictionary of National Biography

This article incorporates public domain text from: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J.M. Dent & sons; New York, E.P. Dutton.