John Blair of Dunskey
Biography
Birth: n/a
Death: 1772
Of Dunskey. Son of John Blair of Dunskey and Anne Kennedy, a first cousin of the 10th Lord Eglinton. Ensign (1759) in the Third Foot Guards. Lieutenant (1767).
This identification of the Captain Blair mentioned by Boswell both in letters to Johnston and in journal entries is suggested by Ralph Walker in CJJ. It is based primarily on the facts that 1) Blair was a first cousin once removed of Lord Eglinton's where Boswell met him on May 26, 1763, and 2) Boswell referred to all junior officers as Captains. One may wonder if John Johnston had the same habit, for in a letter to Boswell of March 10, 1763 he too refers to a Captain Blair, mentioning that the said Blair would arrive in London three weeks later. Pottle, in the London Journal, suggested that Boswell might have referred to a Lieutenant Alexander Blair of whom no more seems to be known, but more information may have been available when CJJ was published.
Also known as
Life with James Boswell
Boswell mentions a Captain Blair in an ecstatic letter to John Johnston dated September 13, 1762, and again in his journal of May 1, 1763, where he dined with Blair at Andrew Douglas. He referred several times to Blair as a generous and honest soul; good company during the following months, when he saw a bit of Blair either together with Douglas or William Temple.
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