Alexander Nicolson

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Alexander Nicolson (1827–1893) was a Scottish lawyer and man of letters, known as a Gaelic scholar and sheriff-substitute of Kirkcudbright and Greenock, and as a pioneer of mountain climbing in Scotland.

Life

The son of Malcolm Nicolson, he was born at Husabost in

Free Church of Scotland. He graduated B.A. in 1850, and later in 1859 received an honorary degree of M.A. In the absence through illness of Sir William Hamilton, Nicolson as his assistant lectured for his class on logic, and for two years he performed a similar service for Patrick Campbell Macdougall in the class of moral philosophy.[1]

Giving up theology while at the

eighth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. He moved on, to the staff of the Edinburgh Guardian, a short-lived literary paper of high literary quality. For a year he edited an advanced Liberal paper, the Daily Express, which later was merged into the Caledonian Mercury.[1]

Nicolson was called in 1860 to the

Scottish bar. With little practice, for ten years he reported law cases for the Scottish Jurist, of which he became editor. He acted as examiner in philosophy in the university, and examiner of births, etc., in Edinburgh and the neighbouring counties.[1]

In 1865 Nicolson was appointed assistant commissioner by the Scottish education commission, in which capacity he visited widely in the

Western Isles, inspected their schools, and reported in a detailed blue-book. In 1872 he accepted the office of sheriff-substitute of Kirkcudbright, declining the offer of the Celtic chair in Edinburgh University, set up largely by his own efforts and those of John Stuart Blackie. In 1880 he received the degree of LL.D. from Edinburgh University.[1]

In 1883 Nicolson was one of the

Warriston cemetery
in Edinburgh.

Interests

Sgùrr Alasdair

Nicolson was popular in society, being known for stories and songs, such as "The British Ass" and "Highland Regiments".

John MacKenzie and with a possible winter first ascent of Sgurr nan Gillean. Credits for first ascents of British hills are very rare.[5] He was also a keen athlete and a volunteer.[1]

Works

It is as a scholar of

Gaelic Bible, made for the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge. He was also a Greek scholar. His main publications were:[1]

Nicolson also edited in 1857 a volume Edinburgh Essays, written by a number of his friends connected with the university. He wrote articles and verse for Good Words, Macmillan's Magazine, Blackwood's Magazine, The Scotsman, and other periodicals and newspapers.[1]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Lee, Sidney, ed. (1895). "Nicolson, Alexander" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 41. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  2. ^ Ewan A. Cameron, "The Life and Times of Fraser Mackintosh Crofter MP", (Aberdeen: University of Aberdeen Press, 2000)119-130
  3. ^ a b "Biography - Sherriff Alexander Nicolson". The Carmichael Watson Project. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
  4. ISBN 978-1-84965-353-4
    .
  5. ^ Ken Crocket, "Mountaineering in Scotland; The Early Years", (Scotland: Scottish Mountaineering Trust, 2015) 24-25.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1895). "Nicolson, Alexander". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 41. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

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