Life
Born on 24 July 1798, he was descended from the Napiers of Merchiston. His great-grandfather Francis Napier, 6th Lord Napier had five sons, of whom the youngest, Mark, a major-general in the army, was the grandfather of the biographer. His father was Francis Napier, a writer to the signet in Edinburgh, and his mother was Mary Elizabeth Jane Douglas, eldest daughter of Colonel Archibald Hamilton of Innerwick, Haddingtonshire. He was educated at Edinburgh High School and the university of Edinburgh, and passed advocate at the Scottish bar in 1820.
In 1844 Napier was appointed sheriff-depute of Dumfriesshire, to which Galloway was subsequently added, and he held office for the rest his life. He died at his residence at Ainslie Place, Edinburgh, on 23 November 1879, as the oldest member of the Faculty of Advocates then discharging legal duties.
Read more about this topic: Mark Napier (historian)
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