His legal title was Master Extraordinary in Chancery and Commissioner of English Affairs.
He was apprenticed as a lawyer to Richard Mackenzie WS at 12 Thistle Street,[3] close to his family home, around 1825.
At this time he was living at 9 Doune Terrace on the Moray Estate on the west side of Edinburgh.
He also owned a villa at Stove, on Sanday, Orkney, close to his wife's childhood home.
She was the eldest daughter of Captain William Balfour RN of Trenaby in Orkney.