Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, PC, FRSE (28 April 1742 – 28 May 1811), styled as Lord Melville from 1802, was the trusted lieutenant of British Prime Minister William Pitt and the most powerful politician in Scotland in the late 18th century.
Dundas was instrumental in the encouragement of the Scottish Enlightenment, in the prosecution of the war against France, and in the expansion of British influence in India. Prime Minister Pitt appointed him Lord of trade from 1784 to 1786, Home Secretary (1791–1794), President of the Board of Control for Indian Affairs (1793–1801), Secretary at War (1794–1801) and First Lord of the Admiralty (1804–1805). His deft and almost total control of Scottish politics during a long period in which no monarch visited the country led to him being nicknamed King Harry the Ninth, the "Grand Manager of Scotland" (a play on the masonic office of Grand Master of Scotland), the "Great Tyrant" and "The Uncrowned King of Scotland".
He is, however, a controversial figure, as he proposed a gradual abolition of the British transatlantic slave trade over eight years at a time when the leaders of the abolitionist movement sought an immediate end to the slave trade and the West Indian interests opposed any abolition at all.
Becoming a member of the Faculty of Advocates in 1763, he soon acquired a leading position in the Scottish legal system. He became Solicitor General for Scotland in 1766; but after his appointment as Lord Advocate in 1775, he gradually relinquished his legal practice to devote his attention more exclusively to public affairs.
In 1776, Dundas acted as counsel to Joseph Knight, who had been purchased as a slave in Jamaica and was later taken to Scotland. As a young man Knight tried to escape from his owner, and when that failed he launched a legal battle for his freedom. The case went to Scotland's highest civil court, where Dundas led Knight's legal team, in the case of Knight v. Wedderburn. Dundas was assisted by prominent members of the Scottish Enlightenment, and also Samuel Johnson, whose biographer James Boswell later wrote: "I cannot too highly praise the speech which Mr. Henry Dundas generously contributed to the cause of the sooty stranger." Arguing that "as Christianity gained ground in different nations, slavery was abolished", and appealing to the earlier ruling in Somerset v Stewart in England, Dundas said "he hoped for the honour of Scotland, that the supreme Court of this country would not be the only court that would give its sanction to so barbarous a claim." Dundas concluded his remarks by stating: "Human nature, my Lords, spurns at the thought of slavery among any part of our species." His pleading in Scotland's highest court was successful, and the Court ruled: "the dominion assumed over this Negro, under the law of Jamaica, being unjust, could not be supported in this country to any extent". In winning the case for Knight's emancipation, Dundas achieved a landmark decision in which the Court declared that no person could be a slave on Scottish soil. Any slaves then domiciled in Scotland could thus claim their freedom. Michael Fry said that Dundas's success in Knight v Wedderburn was "instrumental in prohibiting not only negro slavery but also native serfdom in Scotland."
Until 1785, he served also as Dean of the Faculty of Advocates. He was created a Legum Doctor by the University of Edinburgh on 11 November 1789, was Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow from 1781 to 1783, and on 2 February 1788 was appointed Chancellor of the University of St Andrews. He was also a trustee for the University of Edinburgh and South Bridge.