Patrick Bannerman (1715-1798) – minister, writer and religious radical. Born at Inveravon, educated King’s College, Aberdeen, ordained St Madoes in 1741 and then moved to Kinnoull parish in 1746. He wrote on religious and civil liberty and campaigned on these issues within the Protestant church – especially against ecclesiastical patronage and hierarchy within the church. Amongst […]
James Browne – journalist, writer and editor – born 1793 at Whitefield, Cargill and educated at St Andrews. Browne spent some time in various posts before settling on his eventual career. He initially trained for the Church of Scotland, then tutored before becoming an assistant master at Perth Academy. As well […]
John Cunningham – historian and minister – born 1819 in Paisley was ordained in 1845 as the Church of Scotland parish minister of Crieff; he stayed in this parish for more than four decades. Here he married a local woman, Susan Porteous, who bore him seven children. Cunningham did not restrict […]
Charles Bisset – surgeon and military engineer – born at Glenalbert by Dunkeld in 1717. He was educated at Edinburgh where he studied medicine and from where he received an appointment as second surgeon in the British military hospital facility in Jamaica (1740). Bisset spent five years in the Americas and […]
James Donn – botanist and horticulturist – born in Perthshire in 1758. He began his study of gardening at Kew in London before appointment as curator of Cambridge University’s botanic garden in 1794 where he undertook the expansion of the gardens both quantitatively and qualitatively. His magnum opus was his Hortus Cantabrigiensis, […]
Alexander Dow (1735/6-1779) army officer and writer. Born in Perthshire, Alexander Dow ran away to sea at a young age joining a private ship of war, the King of Prussia, in 1757. By 1760, he was in Bengal where he joined the East India Company achieving the rank of ensign within […]
Patrick Matthew of Gourdiehill (1790-1874), writer on arboriculture and evolutionary theory, was born into a minor family of Perthshire landowners (Carse of Gowrie). He was educated at Perth Academy before going up to Edinburgh University to study medicine. Unfortunately, after his mother’s death, Patrick Matthew was forced to give up his […]
Agnata Frances (Ramsay) Butler (1867-1931) – classical scholar. Born in London, Agnata Ramsay was brought up in Perthshire. Her family were academics and Agnata followed in their footsteps by going to Girton College, Cambridge to take the tripos in classics. As such she was one of the first women to do […]
John Burns Hynd (1902-1971) was born in Perth and educated at St Ninian’s Episcopal Church and Caledonian Road School. After leaving school, Hynd first worked as a railway clerk (London, Midland and Scottish Railways) in Perth, until 1925. Involvement in the labour movement saw him work firstly for the National Union […]
James Edward Gordon, politician and Protestant religious activist, was born at Abernethy (or possibly Aberdeen) in 1789; his father was a factor employed by the Duke of Gordon. At the age of fifteen, Gordon went into the Royal Navy, was promoted to lieutenant in 1811 and by 1814 was in […]