Background
He was born in the Soutergate, Dumfries, the only surviving son of Andrew Crosbie of Holm (d1762), the provost of Dumfries, and his wife, Jean Grierson.
He was born in the Soutergate, Dumfries, the only surviving son of Andrew Crosbie of Holm (d1762), the provost of Dumfries, and his wife, Jean Grierson.
He studied Law at the University of Edinburgh, and was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1757.
His early education was at Dumfries Academy. In 1769, together with James Boswell, he helped to fund the Corsican rebels fighting under Pasquale Paoli. Around 1770 he began building his own house on Street Andrews Square at the east end of the then first phase of Edinburgh"s New Town.
However he was financially ruined in 1772 by the demise of Douglas, Heron & Company, a bank in Ayr in which he was a partner.
In 1780 he was a co-founder of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. In 1783 he was a co-founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
He was elected Vice-Dean of the Faculty in 1784, two months before his death. Popular despite being an acknowledged alcoholic (not helped by his financial ruin), he died in impoverished circumstances, probably of liver disease, on 25 February 1785, and was interred at Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh.
Crosbie was married to Elizabeth Barker, a "woman of ill-repute".
Crosbie was painted in the role of advocate in full robes, addressing his courtroom, by David Martin. The portrait was donated by his widow to the Faculty of Adevocates following his death and hangs in Parliament House, Edinburgh (part of the Edinburgh Law Courts). Councillor Paulus Pleydell, in Scott"s Guy Mannering, is said to have been based on Crosbie.
Faculty of Advocates]
A member of the Edinburgh Philosophical Society upon it gaining a royal warrant in 1783, he automatically became a founding Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.