Edinburgh Bookshelf

Kay's Originals Vol. 2

Search

Volume 9 Page 68
  Enlarge Enlarge     Pictures Pictures
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 51 No. CLXXXIX. SIR JAMES CAMPBELL, BART., OF . ARDKINGLASS. THIS veteran soldier, who assumed the name of Campbell on succeeding to the title and estate of his maternal grandfather, was the son of Sir James Livingstone, Bart., whose father was the Earl of Callander, and his mother the eldest daughter of Sir James Campbell of Ardkinglass-an old baronial residence on the banks of Loch Fine. SIR JAMELSIV INGSTOCNAEM PBELeLn tered the army early in life ; fought under the Duke of Cumberland in the Netherlands; and, at the battle of Lafeldt, commanded the 25th Regiment of Foot. He subsequently served in America during the Canadian war, and was wounded in the leg, which rendered him lame for life. In 1778, when the Western Fencible Regiment was raised by the Duke of Argyle and the Earl of Eglinton, Sir James was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel, and he held the commission until the corps was disbanded in 1783. He was also Governor of Stirling Castle. Sir James was small in stature, but of a military appearance. He died at Gargunnock in 1788, and was succeeded by his son, Sir Alexander, on whose death in 1810, the estate descended to the next heir of entail, Colonel James Callander; the eldest son of John Callander, Esq., of Craigforth-a Scottish antiquary of some eminence. We had occasion to notice this gentleman in a former article. When the succession opened to him, he waa resident in France ; and, having been detained by Napoleon, he sent a lady, Madame Lina Talina Sassen, as his commissioner to Scotland. In the instrument by which she was appointed, she was designed his “beloved wife ; ” and under that character was received in society. But when the new proprietor of Ardkinglass made his appearance in propria peTsonu, he disclaimed the marriage, declaring that the instrument had been fmpetrated from him by intimidation. The resnlt was, a suit at the instance of.the lady, in which, although the Judgea found the marriage not proven, they awarded her a sum of S300 per annum, as a reparation for the deceit practised by him, and the damage sustained by her. Sir James appealed to the House of Lords, and the judgment was reversed; but Madame Sassen, having been admitted to sue in f mpau peris, raiaed suit upon suit against the deceiver, and continued to keep her opponent in hot water for the remainder of their respective lives. , For several years during the sitting of the Court, thia singular person waa either in attendance in the Outer House, or in one of the galleries of the Inner, where she waa always on the outlook to see that no advantage was taken in any of her cases ; for she distrusted both agents, counsel, and judges. She annoyed the former not unfrequently by visiting them half-a-dozen times aa day. When once she had effected a lodgment, there waa no gettiig rid of her. An eminent barrister, afterwards a judge, who had the misfortune to be one of her counsel, was besieged by her in hia bed-Noin for nearly an hour, and at last was obliged tu effect his escape through the window by mesne of 8 ladder. Though a foreigner, she had acquired a tolerable idea of the Scottish forms of legal procedure, and not nnfreqnently used to suggest very ingenious views of her cases ; but she was very obstinate. So much so, that although latterly she had tired her pseudo husband into a
Volume 9 Page 69
  Enlarge Enlarge