2023/08/14 by James P. Ambuske · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #American Constitutional Law and Politics #Political Systems and Governance #Scottish History and National Identity
paper · doi:10.1080/14788810.2023.2240948
openalex publication_date 2023/08/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15
This essay reconstructs the experiences of prominent Charleston merchant Colin Campbell, and his niece Louisa Campbell, to explore how Scots loyal to the Crown during the American Revolution later defended their interests in Scotland’s Court of Session. Using the case of Campbell and Ferrier v. Campbells (1796) as an organizing framework, it demonstrates how Scots litigated their suffering at the hands of American Patriots. It shows how lawsuits like it were embedded in a larger transatlantic legal ecosystem that shaped their outcome. The legal contest between Louisa Campbell and her cousins over Colin Campbell’s American property tied together legislatures and courts in South Carolina, Georgia, London, and Edinburgh. By doing so, they compelled the Lords of Session, the judges who sat on the bench of Scotland’s supreme civil court, to define American Independence.