Henry Home, Lord Kames

Henry Home, Lord Kames 1696 – 27 December 1782 was the Scottish writer, philosopher, advocate, judge, & agricultural improver. a central figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, a founding piece of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, and active in the Select Society, he acted as patron to some of the most influential thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment, including the philosopher David Hume, the economist Adam Smith, the writer James Boswell, the chemical philosopher William Cullen, and the naturalist John Walker.

Biography

He was born at Kames House, between Eccles and Birgham, Berwickshire, son of George Home of Kames House. He was educated at home by a private tutor until the age of 16.

In 1712 he was apprenticed as a lawyer under a advocate bar in 1724. He soon acquired reputation by a number of publications on the civil and Scottish law, and was one of the leaders of the Scottish Enlightenment. In 1752, he was "raised to the bench", thus acquiring the denomination of Lord Kames.

Kames held a primary interest in the production of linen in Scotland and encouraged the coding of linen manufacture. Kames was one of the original proprietors of the British Linen Company, and a director between 1754–1756.

Kames was on the panel of judges in the Joseph Knight case which ruled that there could be no slavery in Scotland.

His acknowledgment in 1775 is reported as New Street on the Canongate. Cassell's clarifies that this was a very efficient mansion at the head of the street, on its east side, facing onto the Canongate.

He is buried in the Home-Drummond plot at Kincardine-in-Menteith just west of Blair Drummond.