Cosmo Nelson Innes FRSE (9 September 1798 – 31 July 1874) was a Scottish advocate, judge, historian and antiquary. He served as Advocate-Depute, Sheriff of Elginshire, and Principal Clerk of Session. He was a skilled decipherer of ancient Scottish records and helped to compile, edit and index Acts of the Scottish Parliament 1124–1707. He was said to be tall, handsome but shy. He was accused of being a Catholic sympathiser whilst it remained illegal, and joined the newly created Scottish Episcopal Church, close in practice to the Catholic Church. Dean Ramsay, head of the Episcopal Church, was one of his friends. Life Born in Durris House to Euphemia Russell and John Innes of Leuchars WS. His middle name, Nelson, is almost certainly to mark Horatio Nelson's then recent victory at the Battle of the Nile in August 1798. Thirteen of his 14 siblings died, only he and his sister Elizabeth survived. His friends included Alexander Forbes Irvine (1818–1892), whose career closely paralleled his own. He was educated at Edinburgh High School, then at the University of Edinburgh under Professor James Pillans. He then undertook further studies at the universities of Aberdeen and Glasgow, and at Balliol College, Oxford (1817–1820) graduating with a BA 1820. He was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1822, and was appointed Professor of Constitutional Law and History at the University of Edinburgh in 1846. In the 1830s he lived in Allan Ramsay's former house, Ramsay Lodge, at the top of the Royal Mile (later absorbed into Ramsay Gardens). He had offices with his brother, Thomas Innes, at 51 North Castle Street in the New Town. From 1840 to 1852 he was Sheriff of Moray during which time he had to deal with protesters angry at the continued export of grain from their district after the potato crop on which they relied heavily was lost to blight. On Wednesday 27 January 1847, Innes and his special constables were repulsed by a mob after they attempted to arrest the leaders of the protesters who had unloaded oatmeal from the cargo vessel James and Bessie in Burghead harbour and returned it to the grain-merchant's granary. The Sheriff and his party were obliged to retreat to Elgin and call for military assistance. Innes resigned from his post as Sheriff in 1852 to succeed Thomas Thomson in the role of Principal Clerk of Session in the Scottish Court of