Malcolm Laing

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Malcolm Laing

Malcolm Laing (1762 – 6 November 1818) was a Scottish historian, advocate and politician.

Life

He was born to Robert Laing and Barbara Blaw at the paternal estate of Strynzia or Strenzie, on

Speculative Society in 1782.[3]

In 1785 Laing was admitted advocate, and from 1789 for five years was advocate for poor litigants.

Sir James Mackintosh, a friend, regarded Laing's delivery as far too fast, and an impediment to his legal career;[7] Henry Cockburn, Lord Cockburn commented quite positively on his "hard, peremptory, Celtic manner and accent".[8]

Laing signed the declaration of the

Society of Friends of the People in 1794, and joined the Whig Club.[9][10] A personal friend of Charles James Fox, he was one of a group of advisers of Fox during the first years of the 19th century on his work of British history, with William Belsham, Samuel Heywood and James Maitland, 8th Earl of Lauderdale.[11] He was Member of Parliament for Orkney and Shetland from 1807 to 1812, brought in by the Ministry of All the Talents.[10]

In 1808 Laing suffered a breakdown, and withdrew from public life.[10] He introduced merino sheep on the islands of Eday and Sanday, purchasing a flock from Tweeddale that had belonged to Sir James Montgomery, 1st Baronet.[12][13] At the end of his life he tried to introduce the brown hare.[14]

Works

History

Laing finished

early modern Scottish history.[15] In 1804 also Laing edited The Historie and Life of King James the Sext.[16]

By modern standards, Laing erred by endorsing a "Scottish Gothic" theory of the

Teutonic origin. He endorsed the views of John Pinkerton on the matter, as did John Jamieson and James Sibbald.[17]

Ossian critic

In 1805 Laing published in two volumes Poems of Ossian, containing the Poetical Works of James MacPherson in Prose and Verse, with Notes and Illustrations.

Hebrew verse
to construction his own alleged translations. [19]

For Charles James Fox, as explained in a letter to Laing, Macpherson was in the ranks of politically mischievous historians, led by

A History of England. Others they attacked were Sir John Dalrymple, 4th Baronet and Thomas Somerville. The underlying issue was Tory and Jacobite revisionism of the fabricated Whig historical narrative.[20]

The "Ossian debate", on the poems' authenticity to supposed ancient sources, was coming to a head that year. Via Robert Anderson, Laing claimed he was in possession of a confession by Macpherson of the complete fabrication to another party, Sir John Elliott, who had mentioned it to Thomas Percy. On the other hand, the Report of the Highland Society (1805) upheld the authenticity claims. Percy took the eirenic view that the blame game, at least, should cease.[21]

Family

On 10 September 1805 Laing married Margaret Dempster Carnegy, daughter of Thomas Carnegy of Craigo and Mary Gardyne. Margaret's sister was married to Adam Gillies, Lord Gillies.[22]

References

  • "Laing, Malcolm." British Authors of the Nineteenth Century H. W. Wilson Company, New York, 1936.

Notes

  1. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/15890. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help) (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  2. ^ William White (1861). Notes and Queries. Oxford University Press. p. 96.
  3. ^ Speculative society of Edinburgh (1845). History of the Speculative society of Edinburgh. The society. p. 153.
  4. ISBN 978-90-04-29494-3
    .
  5. ^ "Orkney and Shetland 1790–1820, History of Parliament Online". Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  6. ISBN 978-0-521-58941-3
    .
  7. ISBN 978-1-134-97766-6
    .
  8. ^ a b c Lee, Sidney, ed. (1892). "Laing, Malcolm" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 31. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  9. ISBN 978-0-19-726330-3
    .
  10. ^ a b c d "Laing, Malcolm (1762–1818), of Strenzie, Orkney, History of Parliament Online". Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  11. ISBN 978-0-8264-3453-1
    .
  12. ^ Transactions. W. Blackwood and sons, Limited. 1874. p. 15.
  13. ^ The Farmer's Magazine. 1814. p. 354.
  14. ISBN 978-1-107-64616-2
    .
  15. ISBN 978-0-521-52019-5
    .
  16. ^ John Colville; Malcolm Laing (1804). The Historie and Life of King James the Sext: Written Towards the Latter Part of the Sixteenth Century. James Ballantyne.
  17. ^ Colin Kidd, Teutonist Ethnology and Scottish Nationalist Inhibition, 1780–1880, The Scottish Historical Review Vol. 74, No. 197, Part 1 (Apr., 1995), pp. 45–68, at p. 51. Published by: Edinburgh University Press. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25530660
  18. ISBN 978-0-521-40747-2
    .
  19. ^ Robert P. Fitzgerald, The Style of Ossian, Studies in Romanticism Vol. 6, No. 1 (Autumn, 1966), pp. 22–33 at pp. 23–4. Published by: Boston University. DOI: 10.2307/25599674. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25599674
  20. ^ Colin Kidd, The Rehabilitation of Scottish Jacobitism, The Scottish Historical ReviewVol. 77, No. 203, Part 1 (Apr., 1998), pp. 58–76, at pp. 63–4. Published by: Edinburgh University Press. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25530805
  21. ISBN 978-0-521-40747-2
    .
  22. ^ Kay's Originals vol.2 p.419

External links

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons – via Wikisource.  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1892). "Laing, Malcolm". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 31. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Orkney and Shetland
1807 – 1812 		Succeeded by
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