Nathaniel McKie
Biography
Birth: ca. 1715
Death: 1781
Son of William M'Kie. Ordained minister of Crossmichael and/or Balmaghie on August 23rd, 1739. According to Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae McKie @was noted for simplicity of character, plain uncultivated manners, superstitious credulity, and great eccentricity@.1 Author of Some thoughts on the Sacred Ministry, the opposition it meets with, its triumph, and the spring of its victory, a sermon (1741).
McKie is described by Boswell as "a strange Caliban of a clergyman", (Harvest, 160962) and "a great curler upon the ice [and] at the same time a great admirer of poetry [who] imagining that he has genius, is now and then bellowing out some uncouth clumsy ditty of his own composition." (Harvest, 170962) A friend and/or neighbour of Lord Kenmure.
Also known as
Life with James Boswell
Boswell probably met him at Lord Kenmure's on 16/9-62, but his journal isn't entirely clear as to whether he merely referred something told to him by Lord Kenmure, or formed the description himself.
Notes
Note 1: My identification of Boswell's McKie with this McKie is based on the similarities between Boswell's description and the description of a Nathaniel McKie in Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae (Link).
Recommended literature
Mentioned in
Nathaniel McKie is mentioned in:
