Malcolm MacColl (27 March 1831 – 5 April 1907) was a Scottish cleric and publicist, noted for his views on Islam and the Eastern Question.
Early life
MacColl was a native Scots Gaelic speaker, the son of a poor crofter or labourer in Glenfinnan. His father died when he was still a boy. Despite difficulties, MacColl succeeded in obtaining an education. He claimed Jacobite descent, and seems early to have adopted High Church Anglican views. He won a place at Trinity College, Glenalmond, for the Scottish Episcopal ministry, and was ordained a priest of the Episcopal Church in 1857.
In May 1858 MacColl approached William Ewart Gladstone in a letter warning him about measures against High Church bishops in the Scottish Episcopal Church, also alluding to his own financial circumstances. He tenaciously continued the correspondence, and eventually managed to meet Gladstone. There developed a lifelong friendship and political alliance. Gladstone secured preferment for his protégé, but MacColl never rose high in the Anglican Church. He refused to compromise his Anglo-Catholic theological views. Gladstone's first piece of assistance was to facilitate the young MacColl's transfer from Scotland to London and the Church of England.
MacColl was received as a priest of the Church of England in 1859, and then entered on a succession of curacies, in London and at Addington, Bucks. He also served between 1864 and 1867 as the Chaplain of the British Embassy in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Naples.
