Baron Loughborough And Earl Of Rosslyn Wedderburn Alexander, a British jurist, born in Edinburgh, Feb. 13, 1733, died in Berkshire, Jan. 3, 1805. He was admitted to the bar at the age of 19, in 1753 became a member of the Inner Temple, London, and in 1757 was called to the English bar and rapidly gained a high reputation. He obtained a seat in parliament, and on Jan. 26, 1771, was appointed solicitor general in the ministry of Lord North, in which office he was conspicuous for his defence of Lord Clive. In January, 1774, when the petition of Massachusetts for the removal of Hutchinson and Oliver was laid before the privy council, Wedderburn defended those functionaries in a speech in which he made an insulting attack upon Franklin, the agent of the petitioners. He was a strong support to the ministry of Lord North during the revolutionary war. In 1778 he was made attorney general, and in 1780 chief justice of the court of common pleas, when he was raised to the peerage. In April, 1783, he assisted in forming the famous coalition ministry, in which he was appointed first commissioner of the great seal; and after its dissolution he remained out of office until Jan. 27, 1793, when he became lord high chancellor under Mr. Pitt. On his resignation of that office in 1801, he was created earl of Rosslyn.