Thomas Muir’s Advocates’ Thesis on Slavery

Thomas Muir of Huntershill (1765–99) is well known as a political reformer who was unjustly tried for sedition in 1793 and transported to Botany Bay. Some years before his sedition trial, he had gained admission to the Faculty of Advocates and begun a legal career. His advocates’ thesis, recently brought to light by Professor Gerard Carruthers of the University of Glasgow, provides the occasion for looking at this earlier period of his life.