Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh, Knt. (1636/1638–1691), known as Bluidy Mackenzie, was a Scottish lawyer, Lord Advocate, and legal writer.[1]
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Mackenzie, was born in Dundee, was the son of Sir Simon Mackenzie, of Lochslin (died about 1666) and Elizabeth, daughter of the Reverend Peter Bruce, (who was minister of St. Leonard's, and Principal of St. Leonard's Hall in the University of St. Andrews). Sir Simon was the son of Kenneth Mackenzie, 1st Lord Mackenzie of Kintail and so George Mackenzie was the cousin of George Mackenzie, 2nd Earl of Seaforth.[2] The Mackenzies were a clan from Ross-shire that had risen to prominence in the 15th century during the disintegration of the Lordship of the Isles.[3]
He was educated at the King's College, University of Aberdeen (which he entered in 1650), the University of St Andrews, and the University of Bourges in France.[4]
He was elected to the Faculty of Advocates in 1659,[5] and distinguished himself in the trial of Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll in 1661. He was knighted and was a member of the Scottish Parliament for Ross from 1669,[6] In 1677 became Lord Advocate,[5] and a member of the Privy Council of Scotland.[6] As Lord Advocate he was the minister responsible for the persecuting policy of Charles II in Scotland against the Presbyterian Covenanters. He resigned for a short time in 1686, taking up office again in 1688.[6] 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.[6]
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.
During and after the Restoration approximately 18,000 Covenanters died for their beliefs. After the Battle of Bothwell Bridge Mackenzie imprisoned 1,200 Covenanters in a field next to Greyfriars Kirkyard,[7] some were executed and hundreds died of maltreatment.[8] The inhumanity and relentlessness of his persecution of the Covenanters gained him the nickname of "Bloody Mackenzie",[5] In private life 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.[5] He retired at the Glorious Revolution to Oxford. He died at Westminster on 8 May 1691 and is buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh, his mausoleum being designed by James Smith.[5]
In 1662 Mackenzie married Elizabeth, daughter of George Dickson of Hartree, one of the Senators of the College of Justice. They had:[9]
His first wife died not later than 1667-1668 and in 1670 he married secondly Margaret, daughter of Haliburton of Pitcur.[10] They had a son and two daughters:[9]