John Laing (1809 – 3 April 1880) was a minister of the Free Church of Scotland, known as a

bibliographer Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ...

Life

He was born in Edinburgh, but spent his early youth at

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, where his father was for factor to the

Earl of Rosebery Earl of Rosebery is a title in the Peerage of Scotland created in 1703 for Archibald Primrose, 1st Viscount of Rosebery, with remainder to his issue male and female successively. Its name comes from Roseberry Topping, a hill near Archibald's wif ...

; his mother was Mary Fyfe, of a Banffshire family. After taking the course at

Edinburgh University The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted ...

in arts and theology, he was, in 1842, ordained assistant and successor to John M. Robertson, minister of Livingston, Linlithgowshire. At the

disruption of 1843 The Disruption of 1843, also known as the Great Disruption, was a schism in 1843 in which 450 evangelical ministers broke away from the Church of Scotland to form the Free Church of Scotland. The main conflict was over whether the Church of S ...

he withdrew from the establishment, joined the newly formed Free Church, and for a time continued his ministry in the same parish. On 29 August 1843, he married at Livingston Catherine Fyfe, daughter of a West India proprietor, and had three daughters, the eldest of whom predeceased him. In 1846 Laing became chaplain to the Presbyterian soldiers at

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and afterwards at

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

. Failing health, together with a reluctance to appear in public, caused him to resign his charge. In 1850, he was appointed

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time ...

New College, Edinburgh New College is a historic building at the University of Edinburgh which houses the university's School of Divinity. It is one of the largest and most renowned centres for studies in Theology and Religious Studies in the United Kingdom. Students ...

, where his work into bibliography began. He died 3 April 1880.

Works

Laing published the ''Catalogue of the Printed Books and Manuscripts in the Library of New College, Edinburgh'', 1868. After the death of Samuel Halkett in 1871, the materials Halkett had collected for a dictionary of anonymous literature were given to Laing, who more than doubled the collection. He died before the work went to press; with the exception of the indices, it was arranged and edited by his elder surviving daughter, and appeared in four volumes entitled ''A Dictionary of Anonymous and Pseudonymous Literature of Great Britain'', between 1882 and 1888.

Attribution

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laing, John 1809 births 1880 deaths Scottish librarians Scottish bibliographers 19th-century Ministers of the Free Church of Scotland Clergy from Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Curators from Edinburgh