The Bryson family grave, New Calton Cemetery

Alexander Bryson

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

FGS

FRSSA The Royal Scottish Society of Arts is a learned society in Scotland, dedicated to the study of science and technology. It was founded as The Society for the Encouragement of the Useful Arts in Scotland by Sir David Brewster in 1821 and dedicated ...

FSAScot FRPSE (12 October 1816 – 7 December 1866) was a Scottish biologist, geologist and horologist who served as president of the

Royal Scottish Society of Arts The Royal Scottish Society of Arts is a learned society in Scotland, dedicated to the study of science and technology. It was founded as The Society for the Encouragement of the Useful Arts in Scotland by David Brewster, Sir David Brewster in 182 ...

(1860–61) and as president of the

Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh The Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh was a learned society based in Edinburgh, Scotland "for the cultivation of the physical sciences". The society was founded in 1771 as the Physico-Chirurgical Society but soon after changed its name to the ...

(1863).

Life

He was born on 12 October 1816 in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, the son of Janet Gillespie (1788-1858) and Robert Bryson

(1778-1852), a watchmaker. He attended the

High School A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

in Edinburgh then trained as a watchmaker and entered the family business, then renamed Robert Bryson & Son. With his first wife, Elizabeth Waterstone Gillespie (possibly a cousin) he had two children who died in infancy, and a daughter and son (

William Alexander Bryson William Alexander Bryson FRSE (2 March 1855 – 9 July 1906), was a Scottish electrical engineer. Life He was born on 2 March 1855, the son of Alexander Bryson a clockmaker with Robert Bryson & Son, and his wife Elizabeth Waterstone Gillespie. ...

) and died 10 April 1855 aged 44. His second wife, Catherine McDonald Cuthbertson, also died young in September 1859, aged 32. Together they had a son. With his third wife, Jane Thomson, he had another son, Leonard Horner Bryson, who survived him and remarried. He was President of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 1860–1861. He was President of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh in 1863. He was also a member of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh and the Edinburgh Geological Society. In 1858 he was elected a Fellow of the

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 i ...

. He was President of the

Royal Scottish Society of the Arts The Royal Scottish Society of Arts is a learned society in Scotland, dedicated to the study of science and technology. It was founded as The Society for the Encouragement of the Useful Arts in Scotland by Sir David Brewster in 1821 and dedicated ...

1860–61. He died on 7 December 1866 at Hawkhill House, a country villa between

Leith Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by '' Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world. The earliest ...

and

. He is buried in

New Calton Cemetery New Calton Burial Ground is a burial ground in Edinburgh. It was built as an overspill and functional replacement to Old Calton Burial Ground and lies half a mile to its east on Regent Road in Edinburgh, Scotland, on the south-east slopes of Ca ...

with his two wives next to his parents.

Works

* ''On a Method of rendering Baily's Compensation Pendulum insensible to Hygrometric Influences'' (1854) * ''On an improved method of preparing siliceous and other fossils for microscopic investigation: with a description of a new pneumatic chuck'' (1856) * ''On a new method of measuring watch-glasses'' (1860) * ''Memoir of Rev. John Fleming, D.D., F.R.S.E.'' (1861) * ''Memoir of General Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, G.C.B., & C. president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh'' (1861) * ''Notes of a trip to Iceland in 1862'' (1864)

References

1816 births 1866 deaths 19th-century Scottish scientists Scientists from Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Scottish antiquarians 19th-century Scottish businesspeople Scottish biologists Scottish geologists Scottish watchmakers (people) Scottish photographers Scottish inventors Scottish biographers Scottish zoologists Scottish mineralogists People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Burials at the New Calton Burial Ground British scientific instrument makers {{UK-geologist-stub