Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Moncreiff, Henry James
MONCREIFF, HENRY JAMES, second Baron Moncreiff of Tullibole (1840–1909), Scottish judge, born at Edinburgh on 24 April 1840, eldest son of James Moncreiff, first Baron Moncreiff [q. v.], by his wife Isabella, daughter of Robert Bell, procurator of the Church of Scotland. After education at Edinburgh Academy and at Harrow School, he went in 1857 to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. and LL.B. in 1861 (with a first class in the law tripos). Having attended law lectures at Edinburgh University, and becoming a member of the Speculative Society, he passed on 14 July 1863 to the Scottish bar, where he acquired a fair practice. A whig in politics according to the tradition of his family, he was appointed advocate-depute in 1865 by his father, who was then lord advocate, but lost that office when the Russell ministry went out in June 1866. He was re-appointed under Gladstone's administrations of 1868 and 1880. In 1881 he became sheriff of Renfrew and Bute. On Gladstone's adoption of his home rule policy Moncreiff joined the liberal unionists. In 1888 he was raised to the bench, with the title of Lord Wellwood. In 1895, on the death of his father, he succeeded to the peerage, and in 1901 was appointed lord-lieutenant of Kincardineshire. He resigned his judgeship owing to failing health in 1905, died at Bournemouth on 3 March 1909, and was buried in the Grange cemetery at Edinburgh.
Moncreiff, who was a versatile writer, with a keen sense of humour, contributed many articles and short stories to 'Blackwood's Magazine,' the 'Cornhill Magazine,' the 'World,' 'Fraser's Magazine,' the 'Badminton Magazine,' and other periodicals, and wrote 'General Remarks on the Game of Golf' for the volume on golf in the 'Badminton Library.' A collection of his articles and stories was printed for private circulation in 1898 and 1907. He was also author of a useful treatise on 'Review in Criminal Cases' (1877).
Moncreiff married (1) in 1866 Susan (d. 1869), daughter of Sir William Dick Cunyngham of Prestonfield, Midlothian; (2) in 1873 Millicent (d. 1881), daughter of Colonel Fryer of Moulton Paddocks, Newmarket. He had no family, and was succeeded in the peerage by his brother, the Hon. and Rev. Robert Chichester Moncreiff (b. 1843). A portrait was painted by Fiddes Watt shortly before Moncreiff's death.
[Scotsman, 4 March 1909; Harrow School Register; Roll of the Faculty of Advocates; History of the Speculative Society, p. 151; personal knowledge.]