John Ritchie (3 February 1778 – 21 December 1870) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

owner. He was born at

Kirkcaldy Kirkcaldy ( ; sco, Kirkcaldy; gd, Cair Chaladain) is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south-southwest of Dundee. The town had a recorded population of 49,460 in 2011, ...

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

, and at an early age went in service to a small farmer near Largo. Later he returned to Kirkcaldy, working as a hand-loom weaver. In around 1800 he moved to Edinburgh (where his younger brother

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

was training in the law), and established himself as a draper. In 1816 he helped to finance his brother's new venture, ''

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. Following his brother's death in 1831, he became much more involved with the newspaper, giving up the drapery business. Within a few years he was the sole proprietor, having bought out the other shareholders. He turned the paper into a daily in 1855, selling at the price of 1d. In 1842, Ritchie's great-nephew

John Ritchie Findlay John Ritchie Findlay (21 October 1824 – 16 October 1898) was a Scottish newspaper owner and philanthropist. Life John Ritchie Findlay was born at Arbroath, Angus, son of Peter Findlay and was educated at Edinburgh University. In 1842, follo ...

came to live with Ritchie, and entered the business. In addition to his newspaper activities, Ritchie was a town councillor in Edinburgh, a magistrate, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and one of the founders of the United Industrial School. On Ritchie's death in 1881, John Ritchie Findlay succeeded him in the ownership of ''The Scotsman''. They are buried in the same family plot at the south end of "Lords Row" on the western wall of

Dean Cemetery The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and on ...

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 ...

Poetry

John Ritchie encouraged the appearance of poems by the young Isa Craig (1831-1903) in ''The Scotsman'' and when these were collected in her first volume, "Poems" (1856), he was the dedicatee. From 1860 onwards, he began to publish poems of both a religious and patriotic tendency. Among the former were ''The Life of Jonah the Prophet'' (1860); ''The Church, Mammon, and the People'' (1861); a

Sabbatarian Sabbatarianism advocates the observation of the Sabbath in Christianity, in keeping with the Ten Commandments. The observance of Sunday as a day of worship and rest is a form of first-day Sabbatarianism, a view which was historically heralded ...

plea, ''The Sabbath Bell, A Poem for the People'' (1861); and the biblical verse drama, ''The Captive Maid, Dramatised'' (1868). Most of the patriotic poetry centred about

Prince Albert Prince Albert most commonly refers to: *Albert, Prince Consort (1819–1861), consort of Queen Victoria *Albert II, Prince of Monaco (born 1958), present head of state of Monaco Prince Albert may also refer to: Royalty * Albert I of Belgium ...

. The first anniversary of his death was commemorated by the 16 pages of ''Royal soliloquies: the royal Highland home and other poems'' (1863), which also contained tributes to heroes of the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

. The royal poems from this were later reprised in another 16-page booklet, ''Royal Episodes'' (1868), together with other poems on royal occasions. In between had come ''Dialogue between a popular Prince and an old Chancellor'' (1864).Google Books
/ref> One of his longer works, its contains a versified posthumous conversation between

Lord Palmerston Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865) was a British statesman who was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century. Palmerston dominated British foreign policy during the period ...

and the late Prince Consort, surveying the state of England.

Notes

References

* ''Dictionary of National Biography'' Elder Smith 1896 * ''Obituary of John Ritchie'' The Scotsman, 22 December 1870 * ''The Centenary of The Scotsman 1817-1917'' J. Ritchie & Co, Edinburgh 1917 {{DEFAULTSORT:Ritchie, John 1778 births 1881 deaths The Scotsman founders The Scotsman people 19th-century Scottish newspaper publishers (people) People from Kirkcaldy Councillors in Edinburgh Politics of Edinburgh Ritchie Findlay family, John