Mackenzie, SIR GEORGE, a Scottish lawyer and statesman, nephew to the Earl of Seaford, was born at Dundee in 1636. He studied at St Andrews, Aberdeen, and Bourges in France ('the Athens of Scottish lawyers'); in 1656 was called to the bar at Edinburgh; and in 1661 boldly defended the Marquis of Argyll on his trial for high-treason. About the same time he was made a justice-depute, and as such had to repair 'once a week at least to Musselburgh and Dalkeith, and to try and judge such persons as are there delated of witchcraft.' He was soon after knighted, entered parliament as member for Ross-shire in 1669, and in 1677 was named king's advocate. Up to this point his career had been marked by a decidedly patriotic spirit, and he was even one of the most popular men in the country. In the midst of his professional labours he diligently cultivated literature, and was one of the first Scotchmen to write English with purity. 'That noble wit of Scotland,' Dryden terms him. Unhappily in the popular mind he is better known as criminal prosecutor in the days of the persecution, in which capacity he earned the title of 'Bluidy Mackenzie'; nor can it be disproved, in spite of his liberal antecedents, that he became a willing instrument of despotism. In 1682 he founded the Advocates' Library (q.v.); at the Revolution, six years afterwards, he retired to Oxford. He died in London, 8th May 1691, and was buried at Edinburgh in Greyfriars Churchyard.
His works, published between 1663 and 1686, and collected by Ruddiman (2 vols. folio, 1716-22), include Religio Stoici, Moral Essay upon Solitude, Moral Gallantry, Vindication of the Government of Charles II., three treatises on the law of Scotland, and Jus Regium. See his Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland (ed. 1821); and Taylor Innes, Studies in Scottish History (1892).