Biography

Hugh Blair. (1718-1800) (aka. Dr. Blair)

Presbyterian preacher. Married (1748) to Katharine Bannatyne. Two children, a boy and a girl, died in infancy and at age 21 respectively. Following his license in 1741 he became a received the parish of Collessie, Fife. In the following 20 years he was in charge of the Canongate, Edinburgh (1743-1754), Lady Yester's Church, Edinburgh (1754-1758) and High Church, Edinburgh (1758-1777) - also known as St. Giles Cathedral. He eventually refused the office of the Moderator of the General Assembly, which had been offered to him. Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres at the University of Edinburgh (1762-1783). Member of The Poker Club.

He was educated at Edinburgh University where he received his M.A. in 1739 for his dissertation De Fundamentis et Obligehone Legis Naturae. In 1763 he published a Dissertation on Macpherson's Ossian, (Link) and from 1777 and onwards he published his (at the time) wildly popular 4 volume Sermons, which was praised even by Dr. Johnson.

"Learned and ingenious", according to Boswell (LJ060463)

Life with James Boswell:

Boswell and Blair visited Thomas Sheridan on 06/04-63. On 09/04-63 they went to Covent Garden together, with William Nairne. Boswell and Blair moved in the same circles in Edinburgh society from the time Boswell returned to that city in 1766, and so met rather often.

External links:

• Hugh Blair - biography, discussion, Belle Lettres, etc

Literature:

• Lectures on Rhetoric
• The Rhetoric of Blair, Campbell and Whateley

On Abebooks you can find both Lectures on Rhetoric, his Sermons and even original engraved portraits of Blair. Robert Morell Schmitz's 1948 biography Hugh Blair is available online from Questia, The Internet's Largest Library (Read it now!).

This article was last updated at February 16 2008 20:34:59 CET

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