and culture in the United States. They furnished most of the principal
schoolmasters in the Revolutionary Colonies south of New York, and
many of the Revolutionary leaders were trained by them. While Harvard
still continued under the charge of a president and tutors and had but
one "professor," William and Mary College had had for many years a
full faculty of professors, graduates of the Scottish and English
universities. The Scots established the "Log College" at Nashaminy,
Pennsylvania, Jefferson College, Mercer College, Wabash College, and
Dickinson College; and in many places, before the cabins disappeared
from the roadside and the stumps from the fields, a college was
founded. The "Log College" was the seed from which Princeton College
sprang. The University for North Carolina, founded and nurtured by
Scots in 1793, and the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton
University are indebted to the same source for their present position.
William Gordon and Thomas Gordon, who founded a free school in the
county of Middlesex, Virginia, in the latter half of the seventeenth
century, were Scots; and Hugh Campbell, another Scot, an
Attorney-at-law in Norfolk county, Virginia, in 1691, deeded two
hundred acres of land in each of the counties of Norfolk, Isle of
Wight, and Nansemond, for free schools. James Innes, who came to
America from Canisbay, Caithness, in 1734, by his will gave his
plantation, a considerable personal estate, his library, and one
hundred pounds "for the use of a free school for the benefit of the
youth of North Carolina," the first private bequest for education in
the state. One of the first public acts of Gabriel Johnston,
Provincial Governor of North Carolina (1734-52), was to insist upon
the need of making adequate provision for a thorough school system in
the colony. Out of the host of names which present themselves in this
field of public service we have room only for the following:
James Blair (1656-1743), born in Edinburgh, was the chief founder and
first President of William and Mary College, and Mungo Inglis was the
first Grammar Master there till 1712. Francis Alison (1705-99), an
Ulster Scot educated in Glasgow, was Vice-Provost of the College of
Philadelphia, now the University of Pennsylvania. David Rhind, tutor
of John Rutledge, "an excellent classical scholar, and one of the most
successful of the early instructors of youth in Carolina," was of
Scottish birth. The tutor of Thomas Jefferson was also a Scot. Samuel
Finley (1715-66), born in Armagh of Scots ancestry, S.T.D. of Glasgow
University, 1763, was President of the College of New Jersey, and one
of the ancestors of Samuel Finley Breese Morse, inventor of the Morse
system of telegraphy. In educational work in the eighteenth century no
name stands higher than that of William Smith (1727-1803), born in
Aberdeen, first Provost of the College of Philadelphia. He was the
introducer of the system of class records now used in all American
universities. Isabella Graham (1742-1814), born in Lanarkshire, ranked
as one of the most successful teachers in New York at the end of the
eighteenth century. James Dunlap (1744-1818), of Scottish descent, was
President of Jefferson College, Pennsylvania. William Graham
(1745-99), was first President of Washington College (now Washington
and Lee University). Robert Patterson (1743-1824), a Scot of Ulster,
was Vice-Provost of the University of Pennsylvania (1810-13), and
Director of the United States Mint in Philadelphia (1805-24). His son,
Robert M. Patterson, succeeded him as Vice-Provost in 1828. Peter
Wilson (1746-1825), born at Ordiquhill, Aberdeenshire, published
several important text-books on Latin and Greek, was Member of the New
Jersey Legislature in 1777, and in 1783 was appointed to revise and
codify the laws of the state of New York. Thomas Craighead
(1750-1825), first President of Davidson Academy (1785-1809),
afterwards the University of Nashville, was great-grandson of Rev.
Robert Craighead who went from Scotland to Donoghmore in Ireland.
Joseph McKeen (1757-1807), first President of Bowdoin College, was of
Ulster Scot origin (1718). John Kemp (1763-1812), born at Auchlossan,
Aberdeenshire, became Professor of Mathematics in Columbia University.
He "had an important influence in moulding the views of De Witt
Clinton on topics of internal improvement and national policy." John
Brown (1763-1842), Professor of Logic and Moral Philosophy in the
University of South Carolina, was afterwards third President of the
University of Georgia. Joseph Caldwell (1773-1835) was Founder and
President of the University of North Carolina. Jesse Mercer
(1769-1841), Founder of Mercer University, was the grandson of a
Scottish emigrant to Virginia. Robert Finley (1772-1817), Trustee of
the College of New Jersey (1807-17) and fourth President of the
University of Georgia, was of Scottish parentage. John Mitchell Mason
(1770-1829), fourth President of Dickinson College and for several
years Foreign Secretary of the American Bible Society, was the son of
Dr. John Mason, born in Linlithgow. Both were ministers of the
Associate Church in New York. Archibald Alexander (1772-1851), fourth
President of Hampden-Sidney College, Virginia (1796-1806), and
Professor in Princeton Theological Seminary (1812-51), was of Scottish
parentage. James Waddell Alexander (1804-59), Professor of Rhetoric
and Belles-Lettres at Princeton (1833-44) and of Ecclesiastical
History and Church Government in Princeton Theological Seminary
(1844-51) was his son. Joseph Addison Alexander (1809-60), Orientalist
and Biblical critic, was another son of Archibald Alexander. Moses
Waddell (1770-1840), born in Iredell county, North Carolina, of
Scottish parentage, fifth President of the University of Georgia, was
one of the foremost teachers of his day. Samuel Brown Wylie
(1773-1852), Vice-Provost of the University of Pennsylvania (1834-45),
was born in Antrim of Scottish parents and educated in Glasgow. Joseph
McKean (1776-1818), Boyleston Professor of Rhetoric in Harvard
University (1809-18) was of Scottish parentage. Charles Macalister
(1798-1873), born in Philadelphia of Scottish parentage, intimate
friend of five Presidents, Government Director of the United States
Bank, was founder of Macalister College, Minneapolis. John Dempster
(1794-1863), President of the Illinois Wesleyan University, was of
Scottish parentage. Daniel Curry (1809-87) was President of De Pauw
University (1855-59). Andrew Harvie, born in Scotland before 1810,
became Principal of the Tecumseh branch of the State University of
Michigan (1839-40), Master of Chancery (1848), State Senator
(1850-51). Described as a "man of ability and thorough culture."
Nathaniel Macon Crawford (1811-71), fourth President of Mercer
University and afterwards President of Georgetown College, Kentucky,
was a son of William H. Crawford the statesman. John Forsyth
(1811-86), clergyman, author, and Professor of Latin in Rutgers
College, was of Scottish parentage, and received his education in
Edinburgh and Glasgow. James McCosh (1811-94), born at Carskeoch,
Ayrshire, was President of Princeton University from 1868 to 1888, and
was the author of many works on philosophy. John Fries Frazer
(1812-72), Vice-Provost of the University of Pennsylvania (1858-68),
was of Scottish ancestry. Louis Agassiz described him as "the first of
American physicists of his time." James Sidney Rollins (1812-88), of
Ulster Scot origin, for his efforts on behalf of education in his
state was declared by the Curators of the University of Missouri to
have won the honorable title of "Pater Universitatis Missouriensis."
Daniel Kirkwood (1814-95), mathematician and educator, grandson of
Robert Kirkwood who came from Scotland c. 1731, was Professor of
Mathematics at Indiana University (1856-86). David Chassel, "of Scotch
descent and Scotch characteristics," was tutor to Professor James
Hadley, America's greatest Greek scholar. Joshua Hall McIlvaine
(1815-97), a distinguished comparative philologist, was President of
Evelyn College, Princeton. Alexander Melville Bell (1819-1905), the
"Nestor of elocutionary science," inventor of the method of phonetic
notation of "visible speech," was born in Edinburgh. Alexander Martin
(1822-93), sixth President of De Pauw University, was born in Nairn,
Scotland. John Fraser (c. 1823-1878), second Chancellor of the
University of Arkansas, was born in Cromarty, Scotland. Malcolm
MacVicar, born in Argyllshire in 1829, was famous as an educator,
writer of text-books, and inventor of many devices to illustrate
principles in arithmetic, astronomy and geography. John Maclean
(1798-1886), tenth President of Princeton University, was of Scottish
parentage. Matthew Henry Buckham (b. 1832), eleventh President of the
University of Vermont, was born in England of Scottish parentage.
James Kennedy Patterson (b. 1833), first President of the Agricultural
and Mechanical College of Kentucky (1880-1901), was born in Glasgow.
David French Boyd (1834-99), second President of Louisiana State
University, and his brother, Thomas Duckett Boyd, also a University
President, were descended from John Boyd of Ayrshire, who emigrated to
Maryland in 1633. William Henry Scott (b. 1840), third President of
Ohio State University and Professor of Philosophy there, was of
Scottish ancestry. Neil Gilmour, born in Paisley, Scotland, in 1840,
was Superintendent of Public Instruction of New York State; and James
MacAlister (1840-1913), born in Glasgow, was the first Superintendent
of Schools in Philadelphia, where he introduced many reforms, notably
in the Kindergarten and in co-ordination of teaching. In 1891 he
became President of the Drexel Institute and was also author of
several works on education. Thomas Davidson (1840-1900), philosopher,
educator, and author, was born at Deer, Aberdeenshire. John McLaren
McBride (b. 1846), of Scottish parentage, was President of the
University of South Carolina. Gustavus Richard Glenn (b. 1848)
descended from Nicholas Glenn, an emigrant from Scotland, filled
several important educational positions and was afterwards President
of North Georgia Agricultural College. George Edwin Maclean (b. 1850),
a distinguished English and Anglo-Saxon scholar, was fifth Chancellor
of the University of Nebraska. William Milligan Sloan (b. 1850),
author, educator, and Professor of History in Columbia University, is
descended from William Sloane, a native of Ayr, who settled here in
the beginning of the nineteenth century. James Cameron Mackenzie (b.
1852), born in Aberdeen, is founder of the Mackenzie School for Boys
at Dobbs Ferry (1901) and a frequent contributor to educational
publications. James Hervey Hyslop (b. 1854), philosopher,
psychologist, and educator, was grandson of George Hyslop of
Roxburghshire. He devoted many years to psychical research. James
Geddes (b. 1858), philologist and Professor of Romance Languages in
Boston University, is of Scottish parentage. Andrew Armstrong
Kincannon (1859-1917), Chancellor of the University of Mississippi,
was descendant of James Kincannon who came from Scotland c. 1720.
Edwin Boone Craighead (b. 1861), Professor of Greek at Wofford
College, South Carolina, and afterwards third President of Tulane
University, is of Scottish descent. John Huston Finley (b. 1863),
President of the College of the City of New York and New York State
Commissioner of Education, is a descendant of a brother of Samuel
Finley, President of Princeton College. Andrew Cunningham McLaughlin,
born in 1861, Professor of American History in the University of
Michigan, is the son of a Peebles lawyer. Duncan Black Macdonald,
Professor of Semitic Languages at Hartford Theological Seminary, was
born in Glasgow in 1863. Richard Cockburn Maclaurin (1870-1920),
seventh President of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was born
in Lindean, Selkirkshire. George Hutcheson Denny (b. 1870), Professor
of Latin in Washington and Lee University, and later President of the
same institution, and James Gray McAllister (b. 1872), sixteenth
President of Hampden-Sidney College, are both of Scottish descent.
William Allan Neilson, born in Doune, Perthshire, was Professor of
English in Harvard University (1906-17), and is now President of Smith
College, Northampton, Massachusetts. William Douglas Mackenzie,
President of Hartford Theological Seminary Foundation, is a son of
John Mackenzie of Knockando, Morayshire, and was born in Fauresmith,
South Africa, in 1859.
As librarians may legitimately be included under the head of
educators, the following individuals may be mentioned: John Forbes
(1771-1824), born in Scotland, was Librarian of the New York Society
Library. His son, Philip Jones Forbes (1807-77), was Librarian of the
same institution from 1828 to 1855, and his son, John born in 1846,
afterwards became Librarian there. Morris Robeson Hamilton (b. 1820),
State Librarian of New Jersey, was descendant of John Hamilton, acting
Governor of New Jersey (d. 1746). John Cochrane Wilson (1828-1905),
Librarian of the Law Library of the Equitable Life Assurance Company.
Miss Catherine Wolf Bruce established a Free Circulating Library in
Forty-second Street in memory of her father, George Bruce the
type-founder, in 1888. It is now a branch of the New York Public
Library.
SCOTS IN LITERATURE
John Lawson (c. 1658-1711), Surveyor-General of North Carolina, a
native of Aberdeen, published "A New Voyage to Carolina," in 1709,
reprinted 1714, 1718, 1737, 1860, and twice translated into German
(1712, 1722). Lawson was cruelly murdered by the Tuscaroras. Hugh
Henry Brackenridge (1748-1816), born near Campbeltown, Argyllshire,
Judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, was author of a political
satire, "Modern Chivalry," a work now extremely rare. David Ramsay
(1749-1815), physician and patriot, of Ulster Scot descent, Delegate
to the Continental Congress, was author of historical works relating
to the Revolution and to South Carolina. Gilbert Imlay, born about
1755 in New Jersey of Scottish parents, was the first Kentucky
novelist, author of "The History of an Expatriated Family" (1793),
etc. Robert Dinsmoor (1757-1836), poet, was brother of Governor
Dinsmoor of New Hampshire. Hugh McCall (1767-1824), author of the
first "History of Georgia," (published in 2 v., 1811-16), was of
Scottish descent. His ancestor emigrated from Dumbartonshire to Ulster
along with the ancestor of J.C. Calhoun. The ancestors of both
remained two generations in Ulster before coming to America. The
greatest name in American literature is that of the son of the
Orcadian farmer, Washington Irving (1783-1859). He was the first who
won international honors for American literature. John Mellish or
Melish (1771-1822), born in Perthshire, died in Philadelphia, traveled
extensively in the United States and published several volumes of his
travels and also published many topographical and military maps. James
Murdock (1776-1856), of Ulster Scot descent, translated and edited
Mosheim's "Institutes of Ecclesiastical History," Milman's "History of
Christianity," etc. Henry Marie Brackenridge (1786-1871), author and
jurist, was son of the author of "Modern Chivalry." Thomas F. Gordon
(1789-1860), lawyer and historian of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, etc.,
was of Scottish ancestry. Augustus Baldwin Longstreet (1790-1870),
lawyer, newspaper editor, author of "Georgia Scenes" (1840), etc., was
son of the inventor. Lydia (Huntley) Sigourney (1791-1865), poet and
miscellaneous writer, was partly of Scots descent. Hew Ainslie
(1792-1878), author of a "Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns," etc., was
born in Ayrshire. David Paul Brown (1795-1872), born in Philadelphia
of Scottish parents, was author of "The Forum; or Forty Years of
Practice at the Philadelphia Bar." James Lawson (1799-1880), newspaper
editor and dramatist, was born in Glasgow and died in Yonkers. Angus
Umphraville of Missouri, the unknown author of "Missourian Lays" (St.
Louis, 1821), was most probably a Scot. His verses are described as
"simply wonderful." Maria J. McIntosh (1803-78), authoress, was
descended from the McIntoshes of Georgia. George Washington Bethune
(1805-62) of New York, a graceful poet and eloquent orator, was the
son of Divie Bethune, a native of Dingwall. Robert Shelton Mackenzie
(1808-80), born in Dublin of Scottish parentage, was editor of the
standard edition of "Noctes Ambrosianæ," and in 1834 became the first
regular salaried correspondent of an American newspaper, the New York
"Evening Star." Rev. Robert Turnbull (1809-77), born at Whitburn,
Linlithgowshire, edited the "Christian Review" for many years and was
author of several works. James C. Moffat (1811-90), orientalist, poet,
and Professor of Classics in Lafayette College, author of "Comparative
History of Religions," etc., was born in Glencree, Wigtownshire.
Robert Macfarlane (1812-83), Editor of the "Scientific American," and
author of two or three technical treatises, was born in Rutherglen.
John Milton Mackie (1813-94), of Scottish ancestry, was author of
several important biographical works. William Secular (1814-72), born
in Kilbarchan, Editor of the Lowell "Courier" (1841-47), published the
"History of Massachusetts in the Civil War" (1868-71). Arthur
MacArthur (1815-96), Jurist and Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin
(1856-58), born in Glasgow, was author of "Education in Relation to
Manual Industry" (1884) and "Biography of the English Language"
(1889). William Ross Wallace (1819-81), author of "Perdita," etc., was
described by Bryant as "a born poet." Donald Macleod (1821-65), son of
the Rev. Alexander Macleod of Mull, Professor of Rhetoric in Mount St.
Mary's College, Ohio, was author of historical and other works. His
brother, Xavier Donald Macleod, was a poet and miscellaneous writer.
Donald Grant Mitchell (1822-1908), "Ik Marvel," was of Scottish
descent, and so was General Lew Wallace (1827-1905), author of "Ben
Hur," etc. James Grant Wilson (1832-1914), son of the poet publisher,
William Wilson, of Poughkeepsie, was born in Edinburgh, and attained
the rank of General in the Civil War. He was afterwards author of
several important biographical and historical works. William Swinton
(1833-92), journalist, was correspondent of New York "Times"
(1862-64), and author, was born in Haddingtonshire. He "produced many
educational works which were widely adopted in both private and public
schools throughout the country." Henry Ward Beecher called him the
"American Napier" from the vividness of his historical descriptions.
David Gray (1836-88), editor of the Buffalo "Courier" and poet, was
born in Edinburgh. John Clark Ridpath (1841-1900), educator,
historian, and author, was decended from the old Border family of
Redpath. He was the author of "Great Races of Mankind" (1893),
"History of the World" (1898), etc. Katherine Margaret Brownlee (b.
1841), a descendant of the Brownlees of Torwood, was author of several
volumes of poetry. Leonard Allison Morrison (b. 1843) of New
Hampshire, was a descendant of John Morrison who went from Scotland to
Londonderry and thence to Londonderry, New Hampshire, in 1723. Always
devoted to literary studies, as a historical and genealogical writer
he has earned an enviable reputation. James Morrison Steele Mackaye
(1842-94), actor and dramatist, was grandson of William Kay who came
from Scotland about 1800. His son, Percy Wallace Mackaye (b. 1875) is
a distinguished dramatist and poet. Wallace Bruce (b. 1844), poet and
essayist, was descended from George Bruce who came from Scotland in
1635. While United States Consul at Edinburgh (1889-93) he secured the
erection of a statue of Lincoln in the Calton Burial Ground, to
commemorate the services of Scottish-American soldiers in the Civil
War. James Kennedy, born at Aberlemno, Forfarshire, in 1850, is a
well-known poet, author, and lecturer. John D. Ross, born in Edinburgh
in 1853, is author of several literary works particularly relating to
Scotland. Francis Marion Crawford (1854-1909), the novelist, son of
Thomas Crawford the sculptor, was also of Scottish descent. Henry
Morse Stephens, the historian, was born in Edinburgh in 1857. Ernest
Evan Seton-Thompson (b. 1860), artist, author, and naturalist, and
Charles William Wallace (b. 1865), philologist and Shakespearean
scholar, are both of Scottish descent. John Hanson Thomas McPherson
(b. 1865), historian and educator, author of "History of Liberia"
(1891), is a descendant of Robert McPherson who came from Scotland in
1738. George Barr McCutcheon (b. 1866), author of many widely read
works of fiction ("Graustark," "Brewster's Millions," etc.) is a
descendant of John McCutcheon who emigrated from Scotland in 1730.
Mary Johnston (b. 1870), author of "Prisoners of Hope" (1898), "To
have and to hold" (1899), etc., is a descendant of Peter Johnston who
emigrated to Virginia in 1727.
SCOTS IN THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL WELFARE