Sir Alexander Morison (1579-1631)

Sir Alexander Morison, Lord Prestongrange (1579-1604) was the second Rector of Edinburgh University, serving from 1627 to 1631.

Morison was born in Edinburgh in 1579, son of John Morison, a bailie of the city.

The same course was adopted by Lord Preston- 

grange (a Lord of Session), who was elected Rector in 1627, and gave the oath de fideli administratione> but did nothing farther. He died in 1631 ; and the office of Rector remained in abeyance for nine years, when the Town Council resolved to revive it.

th January. The Council and Ministry, at an meeting in the CoUedge first, and thereafter in the Council, elected Mr Alexander Morison of Prestongrange, one of the lords of Session, a veiy learned man, (whose father had been Bailyie of the city sundry times), to be Rector of the CoUedge. He appeared indeed' before the Council, and gave his oath defideU admim- fitratione ; but nothing more followed upon it.

Father: John Morison [Morrison], of Saughtonhall, b. Abt 1558, Saughton Hall, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland

Law Lord. The son of an Edinburgh Baillie, Morison became an Advocate in 1604. He was appointed a Lord of Session in 1626 and adopted the style Lord Prestongrange, after his East Lothian home.

1626, February 14.—ALEXANDER MORISON 0F PREsTONGRANGE,

SoN of John Morison, one of the bailies of Edinburgh, by Katherine, daughter of Sir John Preston, Lord President.s Being bred to the bar, he was admitted advocate on the 25th January 1604a,4 and an Ordinary Lord on the 14th February 1626.5 Lord Prestongrange was elected Rector of the University of Edinburgh in 1627, and attended before the Town Council to give his oath de fideli, but according to Crawford, nothing more came of it.6 He died at Prestongrange on the 20th September 1631, in the fifty-second' year of his age.7

An Historical Account of the Senators of the College of Justice from its ...

By George BRUNTON (Solicitor, Edinburgh, and HAIG (David)), David Haig