William Garden Blaikie

William Garden Blaikie

Rev Prof William Garden Blaikie
Born 5 February 1820
Aberdeen, Scotland
Died 11 June 1899
Occupation Theologian
Writer
Temperance reformer

Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland (1892)
Spouse(s) Margaret Catherine Biggar (1823-1915)
Children 12
Parent(s) James Ogilvie Blaikie (1786-1836)
Jane Garden (1794-1857)
The grave of William Garden Blaikie, Rosebank Cemetery, Edinburgh

The Very Rev William Garden Blaikie DD LLD FRSE (5 February 1820, in Aberdeen – 11 June 1899) was a Scottish divine, writer, biographer, and temperance reformer.

Life

His father James Ogilvie Blaikie was the first provost in Aberdeen of the reformed corporation. After studying at Marischal College, where Alexander Bain and David Masson were among his contemporaries, he went in 1839 to Edinburgh to complete his theological studies under Thomas Chalmers. In 1842 he was presented to the living of Drumblade by Lord Kintore, with whose family he was connected. The Disruption of 1843 reached its climax immediately afterwards, and Blaikie was one of the 474 ministers who signed the deed of demission and gave up their livings. [1]

Blaikie was Free Church minister at Pilrig, between Edinburgh and Leith, from 1844 to 1868. Keenly interested in questions of social reform, his first publication was a pamphlet, which was afterwards enlarged into a book called Better Days for Working People. It received public commendation from Lord Brougham, and 60,000 copies were sold. He formed an association for providing better homes for working people, and the Pilrig Model Buildings were erected. He also undertook the editorship of the Free Church Magazine, and then that of the North British Review, which he carried on until 1863. In 1864 he was asked to undertake the Scottish editorship of the Sunday Magazine, and much of his subsequent writing was done for this magazine, especially in the editorial notes.[1]

In 1862, when he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh he was living at 9 Palmerston Road in the Grange, Edinburgh.[2]

In 1868, Blaikie was called to the chair of apologetics and pastoral theology at New College, Edinburgh. He subsequently was a Professor of Divinity there until 1897. In 1870 he was one of two representatives chosen from the Free Church of Scotland to attend the united general assembly of the Presbyterian churches of the United States. He prolonged his visit, made by a similar tour in Europe, and became the real founder of the Presbyterian Alliance. In 1892 he was elected to the chairmanship of the general assembly, the last of the moderators who had entered the church before the disruption. In 1897 he resigned his professorship.

He died at home, 2 Tantallon Terrace, North Berwick,[3] on 11 June 1899. He is buried in Rosebank Cemetery on Pilrig Street, Edinburgh, against the central north-facing retaining wall.[1]

Blaikie was a temperance reformer, and raised money for the relief of the Waldensian churches. He welcomed Dwight L. Moody to Scotland, and the evangelist made his headquarters with him during his first visit.[1]

His children included Walter Biggar Blaikie, engineer, printer and astronomer, and Robert Henry Blaikie, a surgeon.

Published works

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Chisholm 1911.
  2. ↑ http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=8367042
  3. ↑ http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf

Attribution

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