Donald Mackenzie, Lord Mackenzie

The Hon. Donald Mackenzie, styled Lord Mackenzie, (22 June 1818 – 19 May 1875) was a Senator of the College of Justice, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Early life

Donald Mackenzie was born 22 June 1818, the only son of Capt. Donald Mackenzie, of the 21st Fusiliers and Margaret Robina Jamieson, daughter of the Rev. John Jamieson, DD, author of the Scottish National Dictionary.

He studied at the Loretto School and the University of Edinburgh. He originally studied medicine, and became a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians and also a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. Mackenzie never practised as a physician, instead, yielding to his mother's wishes, he took up the study of the law.

Legal career

Mackenzie was admitted as an advocate to the Scottish bar in 1842. He was Advocate Depute from 1854 to 1858, and again from 1859 to 1861. He served as the Sheriff of Fifeshire from 1861 to 1870. On 16 March 1870, he was appointed a Judge of the Court of Session in Scotland, under the name Lord Mackenzie.

Personal life

On 6 September 1843, Mackenzie married Janet Alice Mitchell (1821-1914), the daughter of Andrew Mitchell, Esq. of Maulside, Ayrshire. The couple had 12 children.

• Donald Mackenzie (1844-1924), married Laura Augusta Mackenzie Douglas, the granddaughter of Sir Archibald Campbell, 1st Baronet
• Lilias Oswald Mackenzie, married John Balfour, 1st Baron Kinross, in 1869 Died in 1872
• Andrew Mitchell Mackenzie (1847-1885), Stockbroker, married Helen Maria Mackenzie Douglas, a second granddaughter of Sir Archibald Campbell
• Charlotte Margaret Robina Mackenzie (1850-1903)
• Alice Elizabeth Mackenzie (b. 1852), married Charles Walker
• Annie Adele Mackenzie (1854-1925), married the Hon. Alexander Low, Lord Low, a Senator of the College of Justice, Edinburgh, Scotland
• Robert Jameson Mackenzie (1857-1912), Rector of Edinburgh Academy 1888 -1901 and author of the book, "Almond of Loretto"
• Alastair Oswald Morison Mackenzie, K.C. (1858-1949), Sheriff of Inverness, Elgin and Nairn
• Farquhar John Conrad Mackenzie (1861-1916), Farmer in USA
• The Right Reverend Dr. Kenneth Mackenzie (1863-1945), Bishop of Argyll and The Isles
• Mary Oswald Mackenzie (1866-1954), married Charles Frewen Jenkin, an engineer and later Professor of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford

Mackenzie's Edinburgh townhouse was at 24 Heriot Row: a fine Georgian townhouse in the New Town.

Mackenzie died at Maulside, Dulwich Wood Park, Norwood, outside London, England, on 19 May 1875. He had taken a leave of absence, due to ill health, from his duties at the College of Justice only a short time before his death. He is buried in Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh, Scotland. The grave lies on the western wall in the section known as "Lord's Row".