Wedderburn, ALEXANDER

Wedderburn, ALEXANDER, a Lord Chancellor of England, ennobled as Lord Loughborough and Earl of Rosslyn, was born at Edinburgh, 13th February 1733, the son of a Scottish judge. He passed as advocate, but was called to the English bar in 1757. He entered parliament in 1762, took part in the great Douglas cause, and in 1771 left the opposition to become a strenuous supporter of Lord North as Solicitor-general. He supported the American war policy, and was made chief-justice as Lord Loughborough (1780); but in 1784, disappointed of the chancellorship, passed over to Fox, and curried favour with the Prince of Wales. Insinuating and unscrupulous, he next made friends with Pitt, by whom he was made Lord Chancellor (1793), but to whom he played false. Addington gave him his earldom (1801), and he died 2d January 1805.