Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Veitch, James
VEITCH, JAMES, Lord Eliock (1712–1793), Scottish judge, son of William Veitch of Boigend and Eliock, writer to the signet, Edinburgh, was born on 25 Sept. 1712. After serving an apprenticeship with his father, he was called to the Scottish bar on 15 Feb. 1738. Shortly afterwards he visited the continent, where he became a favourite of Frederick the Great at his court. On returning to Scotland, he kept up a correspondence with his majesty. On 13 July 1747 he was appointed sheriff-depute of the county of Peebles, in 1755 was elected representative in parliament for Dumfriesshire, and continued member for the county till 1760. In 1761 he was elevated to the bench in the room of Andrew Macdowall (lord Bankton) [q. v.], and took his seat on 6 March by the title of Lord Eliock. He died at Edinburgh on 1 July 1793. He was unmarried, and was succeeded by his nephew. ‘His lordship,’ say Brunton and Haig, ‘was endowed with mental abilities of the first order, and was generally allowed to be one of the most accomplished scholars of his time.’
[Books of Sederunt; Brunton and Haig's Senators of the College of Justice, pp. 525–6; Gent. Mag. 1793, ii. 675; Scots Mag. 1793, p. 361; Foster's Members of Parliament of Scotland, p. 347.]