Charles Maclaren (7 October 1782 – 10 September 1866) was a Scottish journalist and geologist. He co-founded ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...

'' newspaper, was its editor for 27 years, and edited the 6th Edition of the ''

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various time ...

'' and the first to suggest that

Hisarlik Hisarlik (Turkish: ''Hisarlık'', "Place of Fortresses"), often spelled Hissarlik, is the Turkish name for an ancient city located in what is known historically as Anatolia.A compound of the noun, hisar, "fortification," and the suffix -lik. The s ...

was the site of

Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in prese ...

Grave of Charles MacLaren, Grange Cemetery

Life

He was born at

Ormiston Ormiston is a village in East Lothian, Scotland, near Tranent, Humbie, Pencaitland and Cranston, located on the north bank of the River Tyne at an elevation of about . The village was the first planned village in Scotland, founded in 1735 ...

Haddingtonshire East Lothian (; sco, East Lowden; gd, Lodainn an Ear) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In 1975, the histo ...

, 7 October 1782, the son of John McLaren, a farmer, and his wife, Christian Muckle. Charles received his education at

Fala The Armed Forces of the Liberation of Angola ( pt, Forças Armadas de Libertação de Angola) or FALA was the armed wing of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), a prominent political faction during the Angolan Civil ...

and

Colinton Colinton ( gd, Baile Cholgain) is a suburb of Edinburgh, Scotland situated south-west of the city centre. Up until the late 18th century it appears on maps as Collington. It is bordered by Dreghorn to the south and Craiglockhart to the north ...

, but was also partly

self-taught Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) or self-education (also self-learning and self-teaching) is education without the guidance of masters (such as teachers and professors) or institutions (such as schools). Generally, autodidacts are individua ...

. Around 1797 he moved to Edinburgh, where he served as clerk and book-keeper to several firms, he joined the Philomathic Debating Society, where he made the acquaintance of John Ritchie and William Ritchie. He established the ''Scotsman,'' 26 January 1817, with William Ritchie and

John M'Diarmid John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

, and was joint editor of the first few numbers. When he obtained a position as a clerk in the custom house, he yielded the editorial chair to John Ramsay M'Culloch. In 1820, Maclaren resumed the editorship and held it till 1846, when he resigned it to

Alexander Russel Alexander Russel (or sometimes Russell) FRSE (1814–1876) was a Scottish newspaper editor, who spent nearly 30 years as the editor of ''The Scotsman''. Early life Russel was born on 10 December 1814 in Edinburgh; his father, a solicitor an ...

. The paper rapidly became the leading political journal of Scotland; its tone was throughout decidedly whiggish, and in church matters it advocated much freedom of opinion. In 1822 Maclaren was the first person to successfully identify the correct position of the lost city of Troy, in his ''Dissertation on the Topography of the Plain of Troy''. In the 1830s ''Charles Maclaren of the Scotsman newspaper'' is listed as living at 58 George Square on the south side of the city. The property is a double level flat over 57 George Square. 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 ...

in 1837. His proposer was Sir

Thomas Dick Lauder Sir Thomas Dick Lauder of Fountainhall, 7th Baronet, FRSE FSA(Scot) LLD (13 August 178429 May 1848) was a Scottish author. He served as Secretary to the Board of Manufactures (1839–), on the Herring Fisheries Board, at the Royal Instituti ...

. In 1846 he was elected a Fellow of the

Geological Society of London The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

(FGS), and he was President of the

Edinburgh Geological Society The Edinburgh Geological Society (EGS) was founded in 1834 in Edinburgh, Scotland, with the aim of stimulating public interest in geology and the advancement of geological knowledge. It was a time of debate and controversy surrounding the emergi ...

from 1864 to his death. He died at Moreland Cottage on Grange Loan, Edinburgh, 10 September 1866. He was interred at the

Grange Cemetery The Grange (originally St Giles' Grange) is an affluent suburb of Edinburgh, just south of the city centre, with Morningside and Greenhill to the west, Newington to the east, The Meadows park and Marchmont to the north, and Blackford Hil ...

. His monument is a large Celtic cross facing the north path.

Publications

*''Dissertation on the Topography of the Plain of Troy'' *''The Geology of Fife and the Lothians'' In 1820,

Archibald Constable Archibald David Constable (24 February 1774 – 21 July 1827) was a Scottish publisher, bookseller and stationer. Life Constable was born at Carnbee, Fife, son of the land steward to the Earl of Kellie. In 1788 Archibald was apprenticed to Pe ...

employed Maclaren to edit the sixth edition of the ''

,'' (1823) and to revise the historical and geographical articles. McLaren contributed the articles 'America,' 'Europe,' 'Greece,' 'Physical Geography,' and 'Troy'. His ''Selected Works'' (1869) were edited by Robert Cox and James Nicol.

Family

In 1842, late in life, he married Jane Veitch Somner (d.1871), a farmer's daughter, who was the widow of the jurist

David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) – 25 August 1776) Cranston, Maurice, and Thomas Edmund Jessop. 2020 999br>David Hume" ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 18 May 2020. was a Scottish Enlightenment philo ...

. They had no children.

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Maclaren, Charles 1782 births 1866 deaths 19th-century British geologists 19th-century British journalists British male journalists Burials at the Grange Cemetery 19th-century Scottish scientists People from Ormiston Contributors to the Encyclopædia Britannica Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows of the Geological Society of London Scottish encyclopedists Scottish journalists Scottish geologists Scottish civil servants Scottish newspaper editors Customs officers The Scotsman founders 19th-century British male writers