Mackenzie, John Whitefoord (1794 -1884)

John Whitefoord Mackenzie was born 29 August 1794, the eldest son of John Mackenzie M.D. of Edinburgh. A solicitor, he was apprenticed to Francis Napier and became a member of the Society of Writers to His Majesty's Signet 26 May 1818. He married, 2 October 1826, Jane Campbell, daughter of John Gordon of Carleton in Ayrshire, another Writer to the Signet. He died 8 November 1884. His bookplate demonstrates that he was a member of the family of Mackenzie of Lochwards in Ayrshire, descended of Mackenzie of Davochmaluak, the arms having been matriculated as late as 1834. The bookplate shows the arms quartering Azure three boars heads couped a mullet or, perhaps for Gordon of Abergeldie (ancient arms) [see Nisbet, Alexander. A system of heraldry. New ed. Edinburgh, 1816. i, 309. The crest is an arm embowed holding a sword]. He was presumably related to the Whitefoords, also an Ayrshire family, one branch of which were made Baronets in 1707. John Whitefoord Mackenzie collected a fine collection of early Scottish books, most of which are distinguishable only by their bookplates, and a good number of which are in the National Library of Scotland. His library was sold by Messrs Thomas Chapman & Son in two sales, the firststarting 24 March 1886, and the second part starting 27 April 1886.