He studied law at Glasgow University from 1687 to 1691 and passed the Scottish bar as an advocate in 1694. From 1702 to 1707 he was MP for Rothesay.[3]
He was made a Burgess of Edinburgh in 1703 and of Perth in 1710. He was Sheriff Depute of Edinburghshire (Midlothian) from 1704 to 1709.
He inherited the estate of Blairhall in Longforgan in Perthshire around 1705 through the death of his father-in-law.
He was strongly opposed to the Act of Union in 1707 and imprisoned in 1708 for allegedly supporting a Jacobite invasion but nevertheless was created the Member of Parliament for Banffshire later in the same year. He generally opposed the alignment of English and Scottish laws debated after 1707, and fought for the independence of Scots Law.[4]
