Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hepburn, George Buchan
HEPBURN, Sir GEORGE BUCHAN (1739–1819), baron in the Scottish exchequer, son of John Buchan of Letham, East Lothian, by Elizabeth, daughter of Patrick Hepburn of Smeaton, was born in March 1739. He was educated at the university of Edinburgh, where Henry Dundas [q. v.], afterwards Viscount Melville, was among his intimate friends. He succeeded to the barony of Smeaton-Hepburn in 1764, and thereupon assumed the name and arms of Hepburn of Smeaton. In January 1763 he had been admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates, Edinburgh, and from 1767 he was solicitor to the lords of session till 1790, when he was appointed judge of the high court of admiralty in Scotland. On 31 Dec. of the following year he was made baron of the exchequer. He retired in 1814, and on 6 May 1815 was created a baronet. He was the author of ‘The General View of the Agriculture and Rural Economy of East Lothian, with Observations on the Means of their Improvement,’ 1796. He died 3 July 1819, having married (1) Jane, eldest daughter of Alexander Leith of Glenkindy and Freefield, and (2) Margaretta Henrietta, daughter of John Zacharias Beck, and widow of Brigadier-general Fraser. By his first wife he had an only son, who succeeded him in the baronetcy.
[Foster's Baronetage; Irving's Eminent Scotsmen; Gent. Mag. 1819, pt. ii. 91.]