James Skene

James Skene of Rubislaw (1775–1864) was a Scottish lawyer and amateur artist, best known as a friend of Sir Walter Scott.

The second son of George Skene of Rubislaw, near Aberdeen, and his wife Jean Moir, he was born at Rubislaw, Aberdeen on 7 March 1775; his father died the following year. In 1783 his widow moved to Edinburgh, for the education of her seven children.

James's sister, Helen Skene, never married and died on July 20, 1842, age 75, a spinster in Florence where she is buried in the English Cemetery, Florence. His sister, Catherine, married a Dr Kissock in Edinburgh, their daughter, Janet Jardine Kissock, is buried in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome.

James Skene attended Edinburgh high school. An elder brother died in 1791, and he became heir of Rubislaw. At 21 he went to Germany as a student, and, returning to Edinburgh, was admitted to the Scottish bar in 1797. His friendship with Sir Walter Scott was built on his knowledge of German literature. In 1797 Skene became cornet of the Edinburgh light horse, the regiment largely organised by Scott, who was himself its quartermaster, secretary, and paymaster.

In 1802 Skene revisited the continent of Europe, for a time in company with George Bellas Greenough; and he became a member of the Geological Society. Returning to Edinburgh in 1816, he joined literary and scientific societies. In 1817 he became a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and was for a long period the curator of its library and museum. He was active in the Scottish Society of Antiquaries. He was secretary to the Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Scotland.

For the health of his family, Skene went to Greece in 1838, staying for several years near Athens, in a villa built to his own design. Returning in 1844, he lived first at Leamington Spa and then at Frewen Hall, Oxford, where he died on 27 November 1864.

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