Born at
Polwarth, Berwickshire, he was raised as a strict
Presbyterian, and after a term of law study at
Paris he became a member of the
Scottish parliament in 1665 as shire commissioner for
Berwickshire, where he at once took a foremost place as defender of the
Covenanters. He went so far as to bring imprisonment upon himself, and on being freed was suspected of complication in the
Rye House Plot, so that he was forced to remain in hiding until he could escape in disguise to the
Netherlands. There, he joined
Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll and embarked with him on the
unsuccessful 1685 expedition to Scotland. Hume became a
refugee with a price set upon his head; but he once more escaped abroad and lived at
Utrecht under the name "Dr. Wallace," professing to be a Scottish surgeon. He returned with
William of Orange at the
Revolution of 1688, and once again joined the Scottish parliament as the commissioner for Berwickshire until becoming Lord Polwarth in 1690. With his estates restored and now a Scottish peer, he was made Lord Chancellor in 1696 and
Earl of Marchmont in 1697, although when
Anne came to the throne in 1702 he lost his chancellorship. ==Family==