John Philp Wood [1] (died 1838) [2] was a Scottish antiquary and biographer. [3]
His family was from Cramond, near Edinburgh. Though deaf-mute from early childhood, he held for many years the office of auditor of excise in Scotland. Wood died at Edinburgh in December 1838. He was a friend of Walter Scott, who called him ‘honest John Wood,’ and the brother-in-law of Robert Cadell, the business partner of Archibald Constable.
In 1791 he published A Sketch of the Life and Projects of John Law of Lauriston, Comptroller-general of the Finances of France (Edinburgh). A new and enlarged edition, entitled Memoirs of the Life of John Law, appeared in 1824, speculation and John Law (a native of Cramond) being topical. which the extravagance of contemporary commercial speculation aroused.
Wood brought out in 1794 the first parochial history attempted in Scotland, The Ancient and Modern State of the Parish of Cramond (Edinburgh). His major work was his edition of the Peerage of Scotland, by Sir Robert Douglas, printed at Edinburgh in two folio volumes in 1813. He had originally intended to bring out a separate peerage for the period between 1707 and 1809, but was persuaded to incorporate his collections with Douglas's work. He made contributions to the Gentleman's Magazine , and communicated to John Nichols most of the biographical notes to poets in ‘The Muses Welcome to King James,’ printed in the Progresses of King James I.
John Jamieson was a Scottish minister of religion, lexicographer, philologist and antiquary. His most important work is the Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language.
Mark Napier was a Scottish lawyer, biographer and historical author. He was called to the Bar, practised as an advocate, and was made Sheriff of Dumfries and Galloway. Napier wrote from a strongly Cavalier and Jacobite standpoint. He published Memoirs of the Napiers, of Montrose, and of Graham of Claverhouse, the last of which gave rise to controversy.
George Leslie, 4th Earl of Rothes was a Scottish nobleman and diplomat.
Sir James Balfour, 1st Baronet of Denmilne and Kinnaid, of Perth and Kinross, Scotland, was a Scottish annalist and antiquary.
Sir Thomas Hope, 1st Baronet Hope of Craighall (1573–1646) was a Scottish lawyer, and Lord Advocate under Charles I.
Alexander Arbuthnot (1538–1583) was a Scottish ecclesiastic poet, "an eminent divine, and zealous promoter of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland". He was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in both 1573 and 1577.
Sir James Balfour Paul was the Lord Lyon King of Arms, the officer responsible for heraldry in Scotland, from 1890 until the end of 1926.
Sir Robert Douglas of Glenbervie, 6th Baronet was a notable genealogist responsible for one of the major works on Scottish families, The Baronage of Scotland.
John Hope, 2nd Earl of Hopetoun was a Scottish aristocrat.
Alexander de Forbes, 1st Lord Forbes, also feudal baron of Forbes, was a Scottish nobleman.
The Scots Peerage is a nine-volume book series of the Scottish nobility compiled and edited by Sir James Balfour Paul, published in Edinburgh from 1904 to 1914. The full title is The Scots Peerage: Founded on Wood's Edition of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, containing an Historical and Genealogical Account of the Nobility of that Kingdom.
Andrew Crichton (1790–1855) was a Scottish biographer and historian.
John Small was librarian of Edinburgh University Library. He was a member of the Smalls of Dirnanean.
John Stuart LLD (1813–1877) was a Scottish genealogist.
Sir Adam de Gordon, Lord of Gordon was a 14th-century Scottish baron.
John Nickolls (1710?–1745) was an English collector and antiquary.
John Ward (1679?–1758) was an English teacher, supporter of learned societies, and biographer, remembered for his work on the Gresham College professors, of which he was one.
Gilbert James French (1804–1866), was a textile manufacturer and the biographer of Samuel Crompton.
John Bruce (1802–1869) was an English antiquary, closely associated with the Camden Society.
James Glassford was a Scottish legal writer and traveller.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : "Wood, John Philp". Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.