Irvine, Alexander Forbes (1777 -1861)

Alexander Forbes Irvine, 20th Laird of Drum was born at Schivas House near the village of Tarves in Aberdeenshire on 18 February 1818, the son of Alexander Forbes Irvine, 19th Laird of Drum (1777-1861), and his wife Margaret Hamilton of the Hamiltons of Little Earnick. Alexander studied law firstly at Marischal College in Aberdeen University, then at Edinburgh University. He passed the Scottish bar as an advocate in 1848, and rose to be Dean of the Faculty of Advocates. He was Principal Clerk of the Justiciary Court 1867 to 1874 and Sheriff of Aberdeenshire from 1874 onwards. He inherited the Drum Estate in 1861, on the death of his father. In 1878 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and twice served as Vice President to the Society. In 1848 he married Anna Margaretta Forbes-Leslie (d.1900), daughter of Lt Col Jonathan Leslie of Rothienorman, and had two sons: Alexander Charles Quentin Hamilton Irvine, who died at six, and Francis Hugh Irvine, 21st Laird of Drum.