Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Craig, James Gibson
CRAIG, Sir JAMES GIBSON (1765–1850), politician, second son of William Gibson, merchant, was born in Edinburgh on 11 Oct. 1765. His ancestor, Sir Alexander Gibson, lord president of the court of session in the reign of James VI, married the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Craig of Riccarton, the feudal lawyer of Scotland [q. v.] In 1823 James Gibson succeeded under entail to the estate of Riccarton (Midlothian), and took the additional name of Craig.
He was educated at the high school, Edinburgh. In 1786 he was admitted a writer to the signet, and for sixty-four years he carried on the business of a law agent with eminent success, gaining the confidence of many who, on public grounds, were ardently opposed to him. His political activity dated from his early manhood, and at that time a bold adherence to the whig cause was not without sensible dangers. In a biographical sketch of his friend Allen [see Allen John, M.D.], he describes a dinner given in Edinburgh to celebrate the fall of the Bastille, in the organisation of which he and Allen took a leading part. After every effort had been made to prevent this demonstration, the guests as they entered had their names taken by the police, while the sheriff of the county and another person were subsequently discovered in an adjoining room noting down as much of the proceedings as could be heard through the partition. Cockburn in his life of Jeffrey, paying a warm tribute to Craig's public services, declares he was ‘so prominent in our worst times that it is difficult to understand how Thomas Muir could be transported and James Gibson (his original name) not be even tried.’
Craig was soon recognised as the natural leader of the Scotch whigs, and in Scotland no one bore so great a part in the struggles of the pre-reform era. His personal appearance harmonised with the mental qualities by which he impressed himself on his contemporaries. A giant frame and massive features were the complement of a courageous, enthusiastic, and energetic nature. It was remarked of him that the very tramp of his top boots seemed to inspire confidence and the hope that springs from resolute exertion. When public discussion was necessary he generally avoided all prominent positions: he was content by previous management to insure that the practical outcome was to the purpose. All the needy patriots in Scotland resorted to him; he helped them alike with money and personal influence. Craig and Jeffrey, though staunch friends and colleagues, had their differences; Jeffrey did not always sympathise with Craig's zeal, and Cockburn records that he had not infrequently, especially when lord advocate, to check his ‘interference.’ Craig was, indeed, somewhat wilful and fond of his own way, though his wilfulness was tempered by sound judgment.
He was one of the victims of the scurrilous ‘Beacon’ newspaper, whose quarrels, taken up by the ‘Sentinel,’ led to the fatal duel between James Stuart and Sir Alexander Boswell [see Boswell, Sir Alexander]. Shortly before this event, on the discovery of the prominent members of the tory party who had provided funds for the ‘Beacon,’ Stuart opened a plainly hostile correspondence with the lord advocate, and this Craig followed by a communication of a similar character to Sir Walter Scott. A duel in the latter case was only prevented by Scott's friends, who came forward with ‘a proposal that this and all similar calls should be abandoned on an assurance that Scott had no personal accession to any of the articles complained of, and that the paper should be discontinued’ (Cockburn, Memorials). Nine years later (1830) Craig is found in a more gratifying relation to Scott by taking a leading part in restoring to him, after his bankruptcy, his library furniture and other personal possessions at Abbotsford.
After the passing of the first Reform Bill Craig's political activity abated. The government of Lord Grey made him (1831) a baronet—the only reward he ever received for his services. During the remainder of his life his public appearances were infrequent, and some of the questions that prompted his intervention were local, though involving important principles. He thus found occasion to maintain with equal tenacity the claims of protestant dissenters and Roman catholics to all the privileges and honours of citizenship. In the controversy which ended in the disruption of the church of Scotland in 1843 he separated himself from his political friends, not on the original question (the appointment of ministers contrary to the wishes of congregations), but because he thought the ‘spiritual independence’ claimed by the free church party a danger to the state. He died at Riccarton on 6 March 1850, in his eighty-fifth year. His sons William and James are separately noticed.
[Scotsman, 9 March 1850; Encyclop. Brit. 8th ed. vii.; Cockburn's Life of Jeffrey, i. 250–2; Cockburn's Memorials of his Time, pp. 381–3; Lockhart's Life of Scott, chap. lxxix.; Allen's Inquiry into the Rise and Growth of the Royal Prerogative in England, 1849 (biographical sketch prefixed to).]