author
Lord John Lauder Fountainhall
1646–1722
A sharp-eyed Scottish judge and diarist, remembered for leaving one of the most valuable firsthand records of public life and the law in late seventeenth-century Scotland. His journals still attract readers for their detail, curiosity, and sense of history in motion.
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About the author
Born in Edinburgh in 1646 and later known as Lord Fountainhall, Sir John Lauder became an advocate, a judge, and an important observer of Scottish public life. He served as a Senator of the College of Justice and built a reputation as one of Scotland's leading jurists.
He is especially valued today for his journals, legal notes, and observations on public affairs. Those writings preserve a vivid picture of politics, courts, and everyday events in Scotland across a turbulent period, which is why historians and legal scholars still turn to him.
Lauder died in 1722, but his name has lasted not just because of his rank or office, but because he wrote so much down. For modern readers, that makes him more than a historical figure: he is also a remarkably direct witness to his own age.