After education at Moffat Academy and Heidelberg University, he entered Lincoln's Inn as a student on 2 November 1857, and on 30 April 1861 was called to the bar.
[1] Rae edited for a time about 1860 The Reader, and early joined the staff of the Daily News, sympathetic to its liberal politics, as a special correspondent in Canada and the United States.
He reviewed for The Athenæum, whose editor Norman MacColl was a close friend, and spent his time mainly at the Reform Club; he had joined in 1860, and was chairman of the library committee from 1873 till his death.
Taking up English political history of the 18th century, in 1874 he brought outWilkes, Sheridan, and Fox: or the Opposition under George III, which echoed the style of Thomas Babington Macaulay.
[1] With the aid of Lord Dufferin and others connected with the family, Rae researched Richard Brinsley Sheridan and tried to improve his reputation.
In fiction, Rae wrote three-volume novels: Miss Bayle's Romance (1887), followed by A Modern Brigand (1888), Maygrove (1890), and An American Duchess (1891).
[1] Rae married, on 29 August 1860, Sara Eliza, second daughter of James Fordati of the Isle of Man and London.