John Millar, Lord Craighill

Who was John Millar, Lord Craighill?

John Millar, Lord Craighill was a Scottish lawyer and judge. He served two brief terms as Solicitor General for Scotland and in 1874 was appointed a Senator of the College of Justice.

Millar was born in 1817, the son of John Hepburn Millar, a Glasgow merchant. Millar studied at the University of Glasgow and in 1842 was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates. In 1863, he married Elizabeth Neaves, daughter of Lord Neaves, a Senator of the College of Justice and former Solicitor General.

He served as an Advocate Depute, a Crown prosecutor in the High Court of Justiciary, from 1858 to 1859 and 1866 to 1867, before being appointed Solicitor General for Scotland, the country's junior Law Officer, in 1867 in the Conservative government of the Earl of Derby. The prior holder of the office, Edward Gordon had been appointed Lord Advocate, the senior Scottish Law Officer.

Millar only held the office until February 1868, when the Earl of Derby was replaced as Prime Minister by Benjamin Disraeli. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1868.