Founder of the Scottish lectureships in natural theology, born in Edinburgh in 1820, studied at the university there, and was called to the Scotch bar in 1849. He became sheriff of Orkney in 1865, was raised to the bench as Lord Gifford in January 1870, and died at Granton, near Edinburgh, on January 20, 1887. By his will he left $125,000 to the University of Edinburgh, $100,000 each to Glasgow and Aberdeen, and $75,000 to St. Andrews, to endow lectureships in natural theology, subject to no dogmatic tests whatsoever. The first lecturers appointed were Max Müller, E. B. Tylor, Andrew Lang, and J. Hutchison Stirling.
