Thomas Blackwell

Thomas Blackwell the younger (4 August 17016 March 1757) was a classical scholar, historian and "one of the major figures in the Scottish Enlightenment." Life He was born on 4 August 1701 in the city of Aberdeen, son of Rev Dr Thomas Blackwell (1660–1728), ministers of the Kirk of St Nicholas in Aberdeen and later Principal of Marischal College and his wife Christian Johnston (d.1749). His father was Patron of the Seven Incorporated Trades of Aberdeen from 1714 to 1728. He attended the Grammar School of his native place and studied Greek and philosophy at Marischal College, graduating M.A. in 1718. He was presented to the chair of Greek at Marischal in 1723, becoming the college's principal on 7 October 1748. Blackwell was a well regarded professor and taught a number of important Enlightenment figures including Principal George Campbell, Robert Chambers, Alexander Gerard, and James Beattie, He strongly influenced James Macpherson, the godfather as it were of Ossian, Lord Monboddo and Adam Ferguson. In May 1751, he married Barbara Black, third daughter of James Black, Dean of Guild of Aberdeen, and his wife Agnes Fordyce, daughter of Provost George Fordyce. They had no children but they educated Alexander Fordyce, her brother. Thomas Blackwell died of a consumptive illness in Edinburgh on 6 March 1757. His remains were buried in Greyfriars Churchyard.