Alexander Bayne of Rires, Fife, was admitted as an Advocate on 10 July 1714. In January 1722 he was appointed Curator of the Advocates' Library, and in November 1722 he was elected as the first occupant of the Chair of Scots Law at Edinburgh University although he had been engaged in lecturing privately on the law of Scotland before he was made Professor. His publications include an edition of Sir Thomas Hope's Minor practicks (1726) to which was appended the Discourse on the rise and progress of the law of Scotland and the method of studying it, and Institutions of the criminal law of Scotland (1730). Professor Alexander Bayne died in June 1737. One of his daughters became the first wife of Allan Ramsay (1713-1784) the painter.
From the guide to the Papers of Professor Alexander Bayne (d. 1737), 1715-1729, (Edinburgh University Library)
