Dalrymple, David, Lord Hailes (1726–1792)

Scottish judge and historian. He became judge of the Court of Session as Lord Hailes in 1766, but is chiefly remembered for his Annals of Scotland 1776, which deals with the period 1057–1371.

He was the great-grandson of the 1st Viscount Stair (1619–1695).

He studied at Eton and Utrecht University, in the Netherlands, and became a barrister in Scotland in 1748. The writers Dr Johnson and Horace Walpole and the politician Edmund Burke were among his friends.