WILLIAM
SHARP McKECHNIETHIRD son of the late William McKechnie, M.D., Paisley, Mr. McKechnie was born in that town 2nd September, 1863, and after spending his boyhood in Paisley, Edinburgh, and Greenock, he settled at Elderslie in 1879, and has since resided there. He was educated at Glasgow University, where during his arts curriculum, 1879-83, he took prizes in logic, moral philosophy, and natural philosophy, graduating M.A. with first-class honours in philosophy in November, 1883. During his Law curriculum, 1883-7, he took first prizes in conveyancing, public law, and constitutional law and history, also first of the special prizes given by the Faculty of Procurators in conveyancing ; and he graduated LL.B. in April, 1887. Meanwhile, in 1884 he had been apprenticed to Messrs. Roberton, Low, Roberton & Cross, writers, Glasgow (under the late Sir James Roberton and his partners), and he remained with this firm till 1890. In that year he was admitted law agent and notary public, and he started business as solicitor in Glasgow in October in partnership with Messrs. William Ritchie and John Gray, the name of the firm being McKechnie & Gray. Of this firm he is still senior partner. In the same year Mr. McKechnie became a member of the Faculty of Procurators in Glasgow.
In March, 1894, he married Elizabeth Cochrane Malloch, daughter of the late John Malloch, J.P., of The Glen, Elderslie, and five months later he was appointed Lecturer on Constitutional Law and History in Glasgow University, a post which he still holds.
In September, 1896, Mr. McKechnie published "The State and the Individual; an introduction to political science, with special reference tosocialism and individualism" (MacLehose), and in April, 1897, he received from Glasgow University the higher degree of Doctor of Philosophy. "Magna Carta: a commentary on the great Charter of King John" (MacLehose, 1905), is his best known work. He contributed an article on George Buchanan's De Jure Regni apud Scolos to the Glasgow Quater-centenary volume, and he is the author of numerous contributions to the Scottish Historical Review and other legal and historical periodicals.