John Blair (priest)

Last updated October 01, 2019

John Blair FRS, FSA (died 24 June 1782), was a British clergyman, and chronologist.

Fellowship of the Royal Society is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of London judges to have made a 'substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematics, engineering science, and medical science'.

The Society of Antiquaries of London (SAL) is a learned society "charged by its Royal Charter of 1751 with 'the encouragement, advancement and furtherance of the study and knowledge of the antiquities and history of this and other countries'." It is based at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, and is a registered charity.

Life

He was born and educated in Edinburgh. Leaving Scotland as a young man, he became usher of a school in Hedge Lane, London, in succession to Andrew Henderson, author of a well-known history of the rebellion of 1745.^[1]

In 1754, he published, 'The Chronology and History of the World, from the Creation to the Year of Christ 1753, illustrated in fifty-six tables.' It was dedicated to the lord chancellor (Hardwicke), and was published by subscription. In the preface he acknowledged great obligations to the Earl of Bute. The plan and scope of the work originated with Dr. Hugh Blair's scheme of chronological tables. The 'Chronology' was reprinted in 1756, 1768, and 1814. It was revised and enlarged 'by Willoughby Rosse in Bohn's 'Scientific Library,' 1856. In 1768, Blair published 'Fourteen Maps of Ancient and Modern Geography, for the illustration of the Tables of Chronology and History ; to which is prefixed a dissertation on the Rise and Progress of Geography.' The dissertation was separately republished in 1784.^[1]

Blair's first book was well received. In 1755 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and in its 'Transactions' appeared a paper by him on the 'Agitation of the Waters near Reading'^[2]^[1]

He had previously obtained orders in the church of England, and in September 1757 was appointed chaplain to Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha and mathematical tutor to the Prince Edward, Duke of York and Albany. In March 1761, on the promotion of Dr. Townshend to the deanery of Norwich, Blair was given a prebendal stall at Westminster. Within a week the dean and chapter of Westminster presented him to the vicarage of Hinckley. In the same year he was chosen fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. In September 1763 he left with the Duke of York on a tour on the continent, and was absent until 1764. In 1771 he was transferred, by presentation of the dean and chapter of Westminster, to the vicarage of St. Bride, London, and again to the rectory of St. John the Evangelist, Westminster, in April 1776. He was also rector of Horton (Milton's Horton) in Buckinghamshire. He died on 24 June 1782.^[1]

Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg was Princess of Wales by marriage to Frederick, Prince of Wales. She was one of only four Princesses of Wales who never became queen consort, as her eldest son succeeded her father-in-law as George III of the United Kingdom in 1760 rather than her spouse, who had died nine years earlier. Augusta was presumptive regent of Great Britain in the event of a regency between the death of her spouse in 1751, until the majority of her son in 1756, though in the event her father-in-law, George II, lived until 1760.

Prince Edward, Duke of York and Albany, was the younger brother of George III of the United Kingdom and the second son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha.

Blair's 'Lectures on the Canons of the Old Testament, comprehending a Dissertation on the Septuagint Version,' 1785, was a posthumous publication.^[1]

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References

1 2 3 4 5 Grosart 1886.
↑ Phil. Trans. x. 651, 1755

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Grosart, Alexander Balloch (1886). "Blair, John (d.1782)". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography . 5. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 162–163.; Endnotes:

Notes and Queries, 6th series, vii. 48 ;
Anderson's Scottish Nation; researches in Edinburgh.

John Blair (priest)

Contents

Life

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