James Playfair (minister)
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James Playfair (minister)
James Octavius Playfair FRSE (1736–1819) was a Scottish minister, academic and author and a figure in the Scottish Enlightenment. Life He was born on 7 December 1736 at Knowhead of Bendochy (a farm) in Perthshire the son of George Playfair (d. 1786), a farmer, and his wife, Jean Roger (d. 1804). He studied at St Andrews University and then was ordained as minister of Newtyle (1770–77) and then translated to Meigle (1777–1800). He was then appointed Principal of St Andrews University in 1800. During this period he was also minister of St Leonard's Church in St Andrews. In 1779 St Andrews awarded him an honorary doctorate (DD). In 1787 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were John Playfair (a distant cousin) and Alexander Fraser Tytler. He was the official histiographer of the then Prince of Wales. He died at Dalmarnock near Glasgow on 26 May 1819. He is buried in Glasgow but is also memorialised on the grave of his wife in ...
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The Memorial To Rev James Playfair, St Andrews Cathedral Churchyard
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with nouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of the archaic pron ...
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Dalmarnock
Dalmarnock (, gd, Dail Mheàrnaig) is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated east of the city centre, directly north of the River Clyde opposite the town of Rutherglen. It is also bounded by the Glasgow neighbourhoods of Parkhead to the north-east and Bridgeton to the north-west. History The area was once heavily industrialised.OS National Grid Maps, 1944-1967
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Sir William Arrol & Co. had its extensive engineering works at Dunn Street and Balti ...
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1819 Deaths
Events January–March * January 2 – The Panic of 1819, the first major peacetime financial crisis in the United States, begins. * January 25 – Thomas Jefferson founds the University of Virginia. * January 29 – Sir Stamford Raffles lands on the island of Singapore. * February 2 – ''Dartmouth College v. Woodward'': The Supreme Court of the United States under John Marshall rules in favor of Dartmouth College, allowing Dartmouth to keep its charter and remain a private institution. * February 6 – A formal treaty, between Hussein Shah of Johor and the British Sir Stamford Raffles, establishes a trading settlement in Singapore. * February 15 – The United States House of Representatives agrees to the Tallmadge Amendment, barring slaves from the new state of Missouri (the opening vote in a controversy that leads to the Missouri Compromise). * February 19 – Captain William Smith of British merchant brig ''Williams'' sights Williams ...
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1738 Births
Events January–March * January 1 – At least 664 African slaves drown, when the Dutch West Indies Company slave ship ''Leusden'' capsizes and sinks in the Maroni River, during its arrival in Surinam. The Dutch crew escapes, and leaves the slaves locked below decks to die. * January 3 – George Frideric Handel's opera ''Faramondo'' is given its first performance. * January 7 – After the Maratha Empire of India wins the Battle of Bhopal over the Jaipur State, Jaipur cedes the Malwa territory to the Maratha in a treaty signed at Doraha. * February 4 – Court Jew Joseph Süß Oppenheimer is executed in Württemberg. * February 11 – Jacques de Vaucanson stages the first demonstration of an early automaton, ''The Flute Player'' at the Hotel de Longueville in Paris, and continues to display it until March 30. * February 20 – Swedish Levant Company founded. * March 28 – Mariner Robert Jenkins presents a pickled ear, which he ...
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Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron Playfair
Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron Playfair (1 May 1818 – 29 May 1898) was a British scientist and Liberal politician who was Postmaster-General from 1873 to 1874. Early life Playfair was born at Chunar, Bengal, the son of George Playfair (1782-1846), the chief inspector-general of hospitals in that region, and Janet Ross (1795-1862), daughter of John Ross. The family was fairly middle class with strong academic roots in University of St Andrews, his grandfather being Rev Prof James Playfair, Principal of the University of St Andrews. All of Playfair's siblings were sent back to Scotland to avoid the hazards of an Indian upbringing. Playfair was named after his uncle, Sir Hugh Lyon Playfair, and was educated at the University of St Andrews, the Andersonian Institute in Glasgow, and the University of Edinburgh. After going to Calcutta at the end of 1837, he became private laboratory assistant to Thomas Graham at University College, London, and in 1839 went to work under Justus Liebig ...
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Sir Hugh Lyon Playfair
Sir Hugh Lyon Playfair (20 February 1787 – 19 January 1861) was a Scottish politician, army officer and photographic pioneer. He was Provost of St Andrews from 1842 until his death in 1861. Biography He was born in Meigle in Perthshire the third son of Margaret Lyon and the Reverend James Playfair. He was educated at Dundee Grammar School.Dictionary of National Biography: Hugh Lyon Playfair His later education was at the University of St Andrews. In 1804 he was commissioned in into the Bengal Horse Artillery. After his commission he was sent to the University of Edinburgh for three months for instruction in range-finding and ballistics. He served in India from 1805 to 1817 and from 1820 to 1834. He was initially based in Calcutta but in November 1806 had to undertake an 800-mile march with his brigade to Cawnpore. In March 1807 General Sir John Horsford placed him in charge of the troops at Bareilly and was required to suppress the robber-chief Tumon Singh in Oudh. In N ...
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Longforgan
Longforgan is a village and parish in the Carse of Gowrie, in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It lies west of Dundee on the main A90 road. History A record survives of Sir Patrick Gray, as Baron of Longforgan, holding a baronial court here in 1385 on the Longforgan or Hund Hill; a moot hill. The officials present were the same as those at of the sovereign's courts. The village was created a burgh of barony in 1672. Castle Huntly, established in the 14th century and developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, is located south-west of the village. It is now an open prison. A woodland, Huntly Woods, is situated away from the village. There is evidence that a Roman Camp was built in Huntly woods. St Modwenna, who died in 521, is said to have founded a church at Longforgan. The present church, which probably stands on its site, was practically rebuilt in 1794, but during renovation about 1900, 15th century mouldings were discovered. A probably 13th century cross and a tombstone dated ...
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St Andrews Cathedral
The Cathedral of St Andrew (often referred to as St Andrews Cathedral) is a ruined cathedral in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. It was built in 1158 and became the centre of the Medieval Catholic Church in Scotland as the seat of the Archdiocese of St Andrews and the Bishops and Archbishops of St Andrews. It fell into disuse and ruin after Catholic mass was outlawed during the 16th-century Scottish Reformation. It is currently a monument in the custody of Historic Environment Scotland. The ruins indicate that the building was approximately long, and is the largest church to have been built in Scotland. History Founding and development The cathedral was founded to supply more accommodation than the older church of St. Regulus (St. Rule) afforded. This older church, located on what became the cathedral grounds, had been built in the Romanesque style. Today, there remains the square tower, 33 metres (108 feet) high, and the quire, of very diminutive proportions. On a plan of th ...
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Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 635,640. Straddling the border between historic Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire, the city now forms the Glasgow City Council area, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and is governed by Glasgow City Council. It is situated on the River Clyde in the country's West Central Lowlands. Glasgow has the largest economy in Scotland and the third-highest GDP per capita of any city in the UK. Glasgow's major cultural institutions – the Burrell Collection, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Ballet and Scottish Opera – enjoy international reputations. The city was the European Capital of Culture in 1990 and is notable for its architecture, cult ...
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Alexander Fraser Tytler
Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee FRSE (15 October 17475 January 1813) was a Scottish advocate, judge, writer and historian who was a Professor of Universal History, and Greek and Roman Antiquities at the University of Edinburgh. Life Tytler was born in the Old Town of Edinburgh, the eldest son of Ann Craig of Costerton (1722–1783) and her husband William Tytler of Woodhouselee (author of ''Inquiry into the Evidence against Mary Queen of Scots''). He was educated at Edinburgh High School and Kensington Academy in London (1763/64), and then studied law at the University of Edinburgh, qualifying as an advocate in 1770. In 1773 he was living and working with his father, also an advocate, at Campbells Close on the Royal Mile. In 1780 he was appointed joint professor of Civil History at the University of Edinburgh. He then moved to Browns Square. He became sole professor in 1786. In 1790 he became Judge Advocate of Scotland. In 1802 he became a Lord of Session in the S ...
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Royal Society Of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established in 1783. , there are around 1,800 Fellows. The Society covers a broader selection of fields than the Royal Society of London, including literature and history. Fellowship includes people from a wide range of disciplines – science & technology, arts, humanities, medicine, social science, business, and public service. History At the start of the 18th century, Edinburgh's intellectual climate fostered many clubs and societies (see Scottish Enlightenment). Though there were several that treated the arts, sciences and medicine, the most prestigious was the Society for the Improvement of Medical Knowledge, commonly referred to as the Medical Society of Edinburgh, co-founded by the mathematician Colin Maclaurin in 1731. Maclaurin was unhappy ...
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John Playfair
John Playfair FRSE, FRS (10 March 1748 – 20 July 1819) was a Church of Scotland minister, remembered as a scientist and mathematician, and a professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known for his book ''Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth'' (1802), which summarised the work of James Hutton. It was through this book that Hutton's principle of uniformitarianism, later taken up by Charles Lyell, first reached a wide audience. Playfair's textbook ''Elements of Geometry'' made a brief expression of Euclid's parallel postulate known now as Playfair's axiom. In 1783 he was a co-founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He served as General Secretary to the society 1798–1819. Life Born at Benvie, slightly west of Dundee to Margaret Young (1719/20 – 1805) and Reverend James Playfair (died 1772), the kirk minister of Liff and Benvie. Playfair was educated at home until the age of 14, when he entered the University of St Andrews to ...
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