T. R. Buchanan – politician – born in 1846 and later educated at Balliol College, Oxford. He graduated with a First Class in Classical and Mathematical Moderations, then a First Class in Greats. By 1871 he was a Fellow of All Souls College and Librarian of the Codrington Library. Here he […]
John Lanne Buchanan – writer – born in Menteith (Perthshire). After education at Callander Grammar School and the University of Glasgow, Buchanan became an assistant to the minister of Comrie, Robert Menzies. He worked as a missionary in the Western Isles where his Gaelic and evangelical outlook assisted his work. Buchanan […]
Dugald Buchanan (1716-1768) – Gaelic poet – was born at Ardoch Farm, Strathtyre (near Balquhidder) in Perthshire. After some schooling at Stirling and Edinburgh, Buchanan began work as an apprentice carpenter. An early spirituality was formalised by the attending of a college of divinity in Glasgow (early 1740s). Buchanan atones for […]
Alexander Bryce (c.1713-1786) – Mathematician and Church of Scotland minister – baptised in Boarland, Kincardine-on-Forth, Perthshire. After schooling at Kilmadock School, Doune, Bryce studied astronomy and mathematics at Edinburgh. He graduated MA in May 1735. He spent some time as a tutor whilst producing a detailed study and A map of the […]
Robert Archibald Armstrong (1788-1867) – lexicographer – was born at Kenmore in Perthshire. After going up to Edinburgh University, then St Andrews University where he studied Latin and Greek, Armstrong taught in several London schools, including the South Lambeth Grammar School. During this time, he took a wife who subsequently gave him three daughters. He wrote […]
James Blow (Blaw) – printer and bookseller was born in 1676 of the Blaw family of Culross, Perthshire. He began his career as a printer with Patrick Neill who ran Belfast’s first ever printing press. James Blow married the sister of Patrick Neill and took over the business around 1705. In the next year, he […]
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 […]