The second son of Sir David Falconer of Glenfarquhar, one of the commissaries of Edinburgh, and younger brother of Sir Alexander Falconer of Glenfarquhar. He studied the law under his father, and having passed advocate on 3 July 1661, was afterwards appointed one of the commissaries of Edinburgh, and was knighted.
On 24 May 1676, he was nominated a Lord of Session, and on 2 March 1678, was admitted a Lord of Justiciary. On 5 June 1682, he was appointed Lord President of the Court of Session, and in the parliament of 1685 he represented the county of Forfar. Falconer collected the decisions of the Court of Session from November 1681 to 9 December 1685, when he ceased to sit in court.
They were published in 1705 by John Spottiswood.
He died at Edinburgh, after a short illness, on 15 December 1685, and was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, where a monument was erected to his memory.
He was elected a Lord of the Articles, and a member of three commissions then appointed. One for trade, another for the plantation of kirks, and a third for the regulation of inferior judicatories.
