Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Jameson, Andrew
JAMESON, ANDREW, Lord Ardwall (1845–1911), Scottish judge, born at Ayr on 5 July 1845, was eldest son of Andrew Jameson, sheriff of Aberdeen and Kincardine, by his wife Alexander, daughter of Alexander Colquhoun Campbell of Barnhill, Dumbartonshire. Educated at Edinburgh Academy, he graduated M.A. from the University of St. Andrews in 1865. He afterwards attended Edinburgh University, and on 19 May 1870 he passed at the Scottish bar, where he gradually acquired a considerable practice. In 1882 he was appointed junior counsel to the department of woods and forests. On 27 April 1886 he was made sheriff of Roxburghshire, Berwickshire, and Selkirkshire. Having taken a prominent part in politics as a liberal unionist, he received from Lord Salisbury's government the office of sheriff of the counties of Ross, Cromarty, and Sutherland on 28 Nov. 1890, and became sheriff of Perthshire on 27 Oct. 1891. On the resignation of Henry James Moncreiff, second Baron Moncreiff [q. v. Suppl. II], he was raised to the bench, on 6 Jan. 1905, with the title of Lord Ardwall. In the same year he was made hon. LL.D. of St. Andrews. After an illness of about six months he died, at 14 Moray Place, Edinburgh, on 21 Nov. 1911, and was buried at Anwoth in Kirkcudbrightshire. In addition to legal and political work Jameson was active in other spheres of public life. He conducted several important inquiries on behalf of the government, frequently acted as an arbiter in industrial disputes, and was for some years, in succession to Lord James of Hereford, chairman of the board of conciliation, between the coalowners and Scottish Miners' Federation. He was keenly interested in Scottish religious affairs, as a member of the Free church, and he supported Dr. Robert Rainy [q.v. Suppl. II] in promoting the union of that body with the United Presbyterians (1900), though he had strongly opposed him during the agitation for disestablishing the Church of Scotland. He was also devoted to country life, and during the later part of his career paid much attention to agriculture. Of frank and boisterous speech, he shared the tastes and pursuits of the Scottish judges of the old school, of which George Fergusson, Lord Hermand [q. v.], was the last survivor (Scotsman, 22 Nov. 1911).
In 1875 Jameson married Christian, daughter of John Gordon Brown of Lochanhead and niece of Walter McCulloch of Ardwall in Kirkcudbrightshire, from whom she inherited the estate after which the judge took his title. There were born of this marriage one daughter and three sons, the eldest and youngest of whom entered the army. The second, John Gordon Jameson, advocate, unsuccessfully contested East Edinburgh, as a unionist, at a by-election in January 1912. There are three paintings of Lord Ardwall by Sir George Reid, two of which are (1912) at 14 Moray Place, Edinburgh, and the third at Ardwall.
[Roll of the Faculty of Advocates; Scotsman, and Perthshire Constitutional Journal, 22 Nov. 1911; personal knowledge.]