[219] The Rev. William Blair was son of John Blair, burgess of Irvine, and great-grandson of Blair of that ilk; his youngest brother was the celebrated Robert Blair, minister of St. Andrews. Born in 1586, he became a regent in the University of Glasgow, and in 1620 was ordained minister of Dumbarton. He died in December, 1632, bequeathing a house for a residence to his successors.
[220] Mr. Blair’s wife was Barbara Robertson, probably of the family of Orbiston.
[221] Bishop Warburton, author of “The Divine Legation of Moses,” published in 1739 a series of letters in defence of Pope’s “Essay on Man,” against Mons. de Crousaz, who had accused the poet of favouring the doctrines of Spinoza. These letters led to a close intimacy between the poet and his vindicator. Bishop Warburton died at Gloucester on the 7th June, 1779.
[222] Afterwards Sir Joseph Banks.
[223] Sir William Meredith, M.P., published a work entitled “Historical Remarks on the Taxation of Free States.” Lond., 1788, 8vo.
[224] See supra, p. 17.
[225] Sir George Colebrooke was chairman of the East India Company’s Court of Directors. He represented Arundel in three successive parliaments. He married Mary, only daughter and heiress of Patrick Gaynor, Esq., of Antigua. Sir George Colebrooke died 5th August, 1809.
[226] David Charles Solander, the eminent naturalist, was born in Sweden in 1736. He was a companion of Sir Joseph Banks in Captain Cook’s first voyage. In 1771 he received the degree of D.C.L. from the University of Oxford, and in 1773 became assistant librarian in the British Museum. He died in 1782.
[227] James Hamilton of Bangour, son of the poet, William Hamilton of Bangour.
[228] Thomas Alexander Erskine, sixth Earl of Kellie, was celebrated as a musician. Addicted to convivial pleasures, he made sacrifice of his genius, and expended in social humour talents which might have brought him eminence in the literary or political world. He died at Brussels, on the 9th October, 1781, aged forty-nine.