Charles Maclaren

Charles Maclaren FRSE FGS (7 October 1782 – 10 September 1866) was a Scottish journalist and geologist. He co-founded The Scotsman newspaper, was its editor for 27 years, and edited the 6th Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica[1] and the first to determinate the position of old Troy at Hisarlik[2][3]

grave of Charles MacLaren, Grange Cemetery
For other people with the same name, see Charles McLaren (disambiguation).
Charles MacLaren by John Hutchison 1861
57.58 George Square in Edinburgh

Life

He was born at Ormiston, Haddingtonshire, 7 October 1782, the son of John McLaren, a farmer, and his wife, Christian Muckle.[4] Charles received his education at Fala and Colinton, but was also partly self-taught.

Around 1797 he moved to Edinburgh, where he served as clerk and book-keeper to several firms, he joined the Philomathic Debating Society, where he made the acquaintance of John Ritchie and William Ritchie. [5]

He established the Scotsman, 26 January 1817, with William Ritchie and John M'Diarmid, and was joint editor of the first few numbers. When he obtained a position as a clerk in the custom house, he yielded the editorial chair to John Ramsay M'Culloch. In 1820, Maclaren resumed the editorship and held it till 1846, when he resigned it to Alexander Russel. The paper rapidly became the leading political journal of Scotland; its tone was throughout decidedly whiggish, and in church matters it advocated much freedom of opinion.

In 1822 Maclaren was the first person to successfully identify the correct position of the lost city of Troy, in his Dissertation on the Topography of the Plain of Troy.[6]

In the 1830s Charles Maclaren of the Scotsman newspaper is listed as living at 58 George Square on the south side of the city.[7] The property is a double level flat over 57 George Square.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1837. His proposer was Sir Thomas Dick Lauder. In 1846 he was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of London (FGS), and he was President of the Edinburgh Geological Society from 1864 to his death.[5][8]

He died at Moreland Cottage on Grange Loan,[9] Edinburgh, 10 September 1866.

He was interred at the Grange Cemetery.[5] His monument is a large Celtic cross facing the north path.

Publications
  • Dissertation on the Topography of the Plain of Troy
  • The Geology of Fife and the Lothians

In 1820, Archibald Constable employed Maclaren to edit the sixth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, (1823) and to revise the historical and geographical articles. McLaren contributed the articles 'America,' 'Europe,' 'Greece,' 'Physical Geography,' and 'Troy'.

His Selected Works (1869) were edited by Robert Cox and James Nicol.[10]

Family

In 1842, late in life, he married Jane Veitch Somner (d.1871), a farmer's daughter, who was the widow of the jurist David Hume.[1] They had no children.

References
  1. Waterston, Charles D; Macmillan Shearer, A (July 2006). Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783-2002: Biographical Index (PDF). II. Edinburgh: The Royal Society of Edinburgh. ISBN 978-0-902198-84-5. Retrieved 22 December 2011.
  2. https://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/Charles-MacLaren-Determined-Location-of-Troy
  3. https://www.britannica.com/place/Troy-ancient-city-Turkey
  4. "Charles Maclaren, FRSE (1782-1866)". gaedin.co.uk. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
  5. Boase 1893.
  6. Deuel, Leo (1977). Memoirs of Heinrich Schliemann. New York: Harper & Row. p. 131. ISBN 9780060111069.
  7. "Edinburgh Post Office annual directory, 1832-1833". National Library of Scotland. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
  8. Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
  9. Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1865-66
  10. Henderson, Thomas Finlayson (1887). "Cox, Robert" . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. 12. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Boase, George Clement (1893). "Maclaren, Charles". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. 35. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

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