LOVE, JOHN,
an eminent scholar, and controversial writer, the son of a
bookseller, was born at Dumbarton, in July 1695. After completing
his studies at the university of Glasgow, he became usher to his old
master at Dumbarton, whom he succeeded in 1720. In 1733 he published
a small tract in Defence of the Latin Grammar of Ruddiman, which had
been attacked by Mr. Robert Trotter, schoolmaster at Dumfries. Soon
after he was brought before the judicatories of the Church, on a
charge of brewing on a Sunday, preferred against him by the Rev. Mr.
Sydserf, minister of Dumbarton; but his innocence being
satisfactorily established after a judicial trial, his accuser was
obliged to make him a public apology for malicious calumniation. In
October 1735 Mr. Love was, after a competition, appointed by the
magistrates of Edinburgh one of the masters of the High School of
that city. In 1737, in conjunction with Mr. Robert Hunter, then one
of the masters of Heriot’s hospital, and afterwards professor of
Greek in the university of Edinburgh, he published ‘Buchanani
Paraphrasis Psalmorum Davidis Poetica,’ printed by the Ruddimans.
His erudition having recommended him to the notice of the duke of
Buccleuch, he was, in October 1739, appointed rector of the grammar
school of Dalkeith. During the succeeding year he engaged in a
controversy with the notorious Lauder, about the comparative merits
of Buchanan and Johnston, as translators of the Psalms, when he, of
course, defended Buchanan’s version. He afterwards entered into an
angry contest with Ruddiman, concerning Buchanan’s alleged
repentance and ingratitude towards Mary queen of Scots, having, in
May 1749, published ‘A Vindication of Mr. George Buchanan,’ which
produced, in the ensuing July, a pamphlet in reply from Ruddiman.
Mr. Love died at Dalkeith, after a lingering illness, September 20,
1750. He was twice married, and by his first wife, the daughter of a
surgeon in Glasgow, he had thirteen children.
LOVE, JOHN, D.D.,
an eminent divine, was born in 1756 in Paisley, and received the
rudiments of his education at the grammar school of that town. At
ten years of age he was sent to the university of Glasgow, where he
distinguished himself in every department of the regular course,
particularly in those of classical literature and mathematics. He
studied for the Church of Scotland, and soon after being licensed,
he became assistant, first to the Rev. Mr. Maxwell of Rutherglen,
and afterwards to the Rev. David Turner, of the Old parish of
Greenock, where he attracted much attention as a preacher. After Mr.
Turner’s death, he was called to be minister of a Presbyterian
chapel in London. During his residence there he took an active share
in forming the London Missionary Society, and he often mentioned
with interest that he wrote the first note which brought the friends
of the long neglected heathen together, and laid the foundation of
the Society, which proved the parent of many similar institutions,
both in this country and America. For several years he discharged
the duties of secretary to it with much acceptance. “His zeal for
the success of this momentous undertaking,” says one of his
biographers, “which he bore on his heart to his dying hour, was not
exhausted by the many labours of his official situation, difficult
and delicate as they were, in the infancy of his splendid
enterprise, For the assistance of the first missionaries sent to the
South Sea Islands, he published a small volume of Addresses to the
inhabitants of Otaheite (now called Tahiti) containing a system of
Christian theology, and characterized by the striking and seemingly
opposite peculiarities of his devout and original mind.”
In 1800 he was chosen minister of the chapel of case at
Anderston, Glasgow, where he continued to fulfil his pastoral duties
till about six months before his death. His zeal in the cause of
missions continued unabated, and he was for a long period secretary
to the Glasgow Missionary Society. He died at Anderston, December
17, 1825, in his 69th year. His Sermons, preached on
public occasions, with fifteen addresses to the people of Otaheite,
and a serious call respecting a mission to the river Indus, were
published at Glasgow, in 1826, in 3 vols. 8vo.
