William Ritchie (1781 – 4 February 1831) was a Scottish lawyer, journalist and

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, 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 p ...

owner. Ritchie was born at Lundin Mill, Fife, where his father had a flax dressing business. At the age of 19 he moved to

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

, and after some years employment in the offices of two firms of

Writers to the Signet The Society of Writers to His Majesty's Signet is a private society of Scottish solicitors, dating back to 1594 and part of the College of Justice. Writers to the Signet originally had special privileges in relation to the drawing up of document ...

(solicitors), he became a member of the

Society of Solicitors in the Supreme Courts of Scotland The Society of Solicitors in the Supreme Courts of Scotland is a voluntary professional association of solicitors in Scotland, representing lawyers who practise in and around the College of Justice. The College of Justice comprises Scotland's t ...

in 1808. After contributing to various publications, including the '' Scots Magazine'', for a number of years, in 1816 he joined with Charles Maclaren, his elder brother John Ritchie and

John Ramsay McCulloch John Ramsay McCulloch (1 March 1789 – 11 November 1864) was a Scottish economist, author and editor, widely regarded as the leader of the Ricardian school of economists after the death of David Ricardo in 1823. He was appointed the first pr ...

in founding ''

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 pare ...

'' newspaper, the first number of which appeared the following year, Ritchie having suggest the title. Ritchie was joint editor of the paper with Charles Maclaren, concentrating on the literary content, with Maclaren attending to the political. During the fourteen years of his editorship, Ritchie himself contributed over one thousand articles to the newspaper, ranging across the law, biography, the theatre, literature and the natural world. Although not initially profitable, the newspaper rapidly established itself as a reforming journal. In his ''The Newspaper Press'' James Grant wrote

the ''Scotsman'' rendered greater service to the cause of reform than all its Scottish liberal contemporaries taken together.

In 1824 Ritchie published ''Essays on Constitutional Law and Forms of Process'' and in 1827 was appointed a commissioner under the Improvements Act. He campaigned for reform of policing and prison conditions, especially for poor debtors. On 4 February 1831, Ritchie died at his home in

George Square, Edinburgh George Square ( gd, Ceàrnag Sheòrais) is a city square in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is in the south of the city centre, adjacent to the Meadows. It was laid out in 1766 outside the overcrowded Old Town, and was a popular residential area for E ...

. After his death Charles Maclaren wrote

He possessed in the highest moral and physical courage, and while immersed in the common cares and business of life, he retained an elevation of sentiment worthy of a hero of romance, united with the purity, delicacy, and gentleness, which is rarely found except in the other sex.

Ritchie was buried in

Greyfriars Kirkyard Greyfriars Kirkyard is the graveyard surrounding Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located at the southern edge of the Old Town, adjacent to George Heriot's School. Burials have been taking place since the late 16th century, and a num ...

, Edinburgh, and commemorated on the Ritchie Findlay family memorial in Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh. Ritchie was survived by his wife Alison Sandeman.

References

;Attribution 1781 births 1831 deaths Scottish journalists Scottish newspaper editors 19th-century Scottish newspaper publishers (people) People from Fife Scottish solicitors Scottish legal writers The Scotsman founders The Scotsman people

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 ...

Burials at Greyfriars Kirkyard {{Scotland-writer-stub