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FINLAYSON, JAMES, D.D.,
an eminent divine, was born February 15, 1758, at Nether Cambusnie, a
small farm in the parish of Dunblane, Perthshire, where his ancestors had
been settled for several centuries. He was sent first to the school of
Kinbuck in the neighbourhood, and about the age of ten to that of Dunblane.
In his fourteenth year he went to the university of Glasgow, to study for
the ministry, and during the summer vacations he occupied himself in
instructing his younger brothers at home. To assist in defraying the
expense of his attendance on the classes, he became a private tutor, and
was engaged for two years in teaching the children of Mrs. Campbell of
Carie, and afterwards acted in the same capacity to the family of Mr.
Cooper, Glasgow. He was next employed by Professor Anderson, founder of
the Andersonian university, as his amanuensis; and, in 1782, he resumed
the duties of a tutor by taking charge of two sons of Sir William Murray
of Ochtertyre, baronet, these being the fifth baronet, Sir Patrick Murray,
and his younger brother, Sir George. As Mr. Finlayson resided with the
family in Edinburgh during the winter, he had an opportunity of pursuing
his studies at the divinity hall, and of attending other classes in the
university of that city.
In 1785 he was
licensed to preach, and in the summer of that year he received an offer of
the living of Dunkeld from the duke of Athol, which he was induced to
decline, on being informed, by Sir William Murray, that an arrangement was
in progress for procuring for him the professorship of logic and
metaphysics in the university of Edinburgh. More than a year elapsed,
however, before the negociation, which had been set on foot for securing
him this appointment, was brought to a satisfactory conclusion; and, in
the meantime, he accepted of the living of Borthwick, in the neighbourhood
of Edinburgh, which Sir William Murray, by his interest with Dundas of
Arniston, had obtained for him. He commenced his duties as professor of
logic in the winter session of 1786-7, and was ordained minister of
Borthwick in the succeeding April. From his knowledge of the laws and
constitution of the Church of Scotland, he soon became a leader, on the
moderate side, in the church courts; and as it was deemed advisable that
he should have a metropolitan charge, he was, in 1790, translated to Lady
Yester’s church, Edinburgh, where he remained till 1793, when he succeeded
Dr. Robertson in the Old Greyfriars. A vacancy having occurred in the High
church in 1799, he was chosen by the town council to fill it, when he
became the colleague of Dr. Hugh Blair, whose funeral sermon he was called
upon to preach in little more than a year. Mr. Finlayson, not long after,
received from the university of Edinburgh the degree of D.D. He was also
elected fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 1802 he was elected
moderator of the General Assembly. The remaining years of his life were
only distinguished by the quiet and unostentatious discharge of his
duties. In the beginning of 1805 his constitution began to decline. On the
25th of January 1808, while conversing with Principal Baird, he
was seized with a paralytic affection, and died on the 28th of
the same month, in the fiftieth year of his age. His only publications
were two occasional sermons, and a short account of Dr. Blair, annexed to
the posthumous volume of his sermons. He likewise printed, but did not
publish, the ‘Heads of an Argument’ on a question depending before the
ecclesiastical courts. A volume of his own sermons, with a memoir
prefixed, was published the year after his death. |
