Adam Gifford, Lord Gifford

Who was Adam Gifford, Lord Gifford?

Adam Gifford, Lord Gifford FRSE was a Scottish advocate and judge.

He was a Radical in politics, and expected no appointment from Government, until he was made an advocate depute in 1861, under Palmerston; he prosecuted Jessie McLauchlan in the 1863 Sandyford murder case. He was appointed Sheriff of Orkney and Man in 1865, but delegated his duties to a resident sheriff-substitute.

His lucrative private practice as an advocate made him a fortune, which he bequeathed towards the endowment of the four Gifford Lectureships on natural theology in connection with each of the four universities in Scotland then extant; he was a man of a philosophical turn of mind, and a student of the works of Spinoza. He held office as a judge from 1870 to 1881, despite symptoms of paralysis from 1872 onwards.

He was the uncle of Sir Walter Raleigh, the professor of English at the University of Glasgow.