M’GAVIN,
WILLIAM, a modern controversial and miscellaneous writer, was born August 12th,
1773, on the farm of Darnlaw, in the parish of Auchinleck, Ayreshire, which
his father held on lease from lord Auchinleck, and afterwards from his son
James Boswell, the biographer of Johnson. A short attendance at the school
of that parish, when about seven years of age, constituted the whole
education of a regular kind, which the subject of this memoir ever enjoyed.
His parents having removed in 1783 to Paisley, and being in by no means
affluent circumstances, he was sent at an early period of life to earn his
bread as a draw-boy in one of the manufactories. Subsequently he tried
weaving of silk, but eventually was led by his taste for reading to become
apprentice to Mr John Neilson, printer and bookseller; a situation highly
congenial to his taste, and which afforded him the means of cultivating his
mind to a considerable extent. Among various persons of talent and
information who frequented Mr Neilson’s shop was the unfortunate Alexander
Wilson, poet, and afterwards the distinguished ornithologist, who, finding
it necessary to remove to America, was assisted to no small extent by Mr
M’Gavin. The popular opinions of that period were adopted in all their
latitude by Mr M’Gavin; many fugitive pieces by him upon the question of
parliamentary reform and other exciting topics, were received with
approbation by those who professed similar sentiments; but it is not known
that he took any more active part in the politics of the time.
The duty of reading
proof-sheets in his master’s shop was the circumstance which first led Mr
M’Gavin to study the English language carefully; and, considering the
limited nature of his education, it is surprising that he should have been
able to attract notice as an author under the age of twenty.
In 1793, having left Mr
Neilson’s shop, he was found qualified to assist his elder brother in the
management of a school, where writing, arithmetic, and mathematics were
taught. Of this seminary he afterwards became sole master; but he ultimately
abandoned teaching as a pursuit not agreeable to his genius or temper, and
in 1798, was engaged as book-keeper and clerk by Mr David Lamb, an American
cotton merchant, to whose two sons he at the same time acted as tutor. Some
years afterwards, on Mr Lamb removing to America, Mr M’Gavin became his
partner; the business was carried on in Glasgow. In 1805, Mr M’Gavin married
Miss Isabella Campbell of Paisley. As his business was of a light nature,
and Mrs M’Gavin brought him no children, he enjoyed more leisure for the
cultivation of his mind than falls to the lot of most merchants in the busy
capital of the west of Scotland. At a later period, after the death of his
original patron, he entered into partnership with the son of that gentleman,
and carried on what is called a West India business under the firm of
M’Gavin and Lamb. This ultimately proving unprofitable, he was induced, in
1822, to undertake the Glasgow agency of the British Linen Company’s bank,
which he conducted without intermission till his death.
Mr M’Gavin was brought up by
his parents in the strictest tenets of the presbyterian faith, as professed
by the congregations of original anti-burghers. About the year 1800, a
conscientious dissent from the views of this body respecting church
government induced him to join the Rev. Mr Ramsay in the formation of an
independent or congregational church. In this communion he began to exercise
a gift of preaching, with which he was endowed in a remarkable degree,
receiving from Mr Ramsey the ordination which was considered necessary for
the pastoral office by this body of Christians. Eventually, circumstances so
much reduced the society, as to make it cease to answer what he conceived to
be the design and use of a church—namely, "not only the edification of its
own members, but the public exhibition of their spirit and practice, for
manifesting the glory of the grace of God, and promoting the salvation of
men." For this reason, in 1808, he joined the kindred congregation of Mr
Greville Ewing in the Nile Street meeting-house, Glasgow, where he was soon
afterwards invested with the office of deacon. Here he might have also
continued to preach, if he had been willing; but he was now unable, from the
pressure of business, to give the duty that attention which he deemed
necessary, and accordingly resisted Mr Ewing’s frequent and urgent
solicitations, though he occasionally consented to perform public worship in
the neighbouring villages, or in places where he thought such ministrations
eminently necessary.
Being a man of uncommon
industry, and equally great benevolence, Mr M’Gavin found time, amidst his
numerous mercantile avocations, to write a number of religious tracts and
stories, for the improvement of the poorer and junior classes of society.
Though these productions are of a class which do not usually attain a high
place in literature, the reader, however indifferent to the subjects, or of
however highly cultivated intellect, could peruse them, without remarking
the extraordinary conciseness of style and moral force by which they are
characterized. The most distinguished of all Mr M’Gavin’s writings is his
"Protestant," a series of papers, designed to expose the errors of the
church of Rome, commenced in 1818, and finished in 1822. In the general
decline of religious controversial writing, the celebrity acquired by this
work, is a strong testimony to the powers of the author. In its collected
form, in four volumes octavo, it went through no fewer than seven editions
in the first ten years. According to Mr Greville Ewing, in a funeral sermon
upon Mr M’Gavin, "the commencement of the work was casual, and the whole
executed with hasty preparation. While engaged in a mercantile business of
his own, he had at that time the winding up of an old concern of his
partner, the heavy charge of another concern, which in the end proved a
severe loss to him, besides other business matters, as factorships,
references, as sole arbiter, in cases both from private parties and from The
Court of Session, which he decided in a manner satisfactory to all
concerned; and many other things were devolved on him, which none but a man
of clear judgment, and unusually industrious habits, could have undertaken.
A work which, otherwise, would have been extremely irksome, was rendered
pleasant by the continued and increasing favour with which it was received
by the public in general, and by the approbation of distinguished
individuals in each of the three kingdoms. One of the most eminent bishops
of the church of England offered to give him holy orders. That, however,
which was most gratifying to the author, was the interest which he was
honoured to excite in the public mind, with regard to the subject of popery.
I make no attempt to give a particular account of the contents of this work.
It is impossible, they are so extensive: it is unnecessary, they are so
generally known. It is matter of notoriety, that Mr M’Gavin was prosecuted
for certain articles in the Protestant, and had a verdict against him,
imposing on him a fine of £100, which, with expenses, amounted to above
£1200. Into the merits of these things I shall not enter, further than to
state, in round numbers, that £800 of the £1200, was raised by public
subscription, and that the whole, it was believed, would have been more than
paid, had not each subscriber been limited to a certain sum. As the case had
been so arranged, Mr M’Gavin was obliged, in the mean time, to pay the
balance out of his own pocket; of which, great as the amount was, I never
heard him complain. The publishers afterwards very handsomely came forward
to reimburse the author, which, from the sale of the work, they were enabled
to do without loss to themselves, though he had no claim upon them."
Mr M’Gavin, in 1827,
superintended a new and improved edition of "The Scots Worthies," a work
commemorating the lives of the most eminent Scottish clergy of the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries, and originally written by an unlettered
individual named John Howie, of Lochgoin. The book was greatly improved by
the notes of Mr M’Gavin. He soon after published a refutation of the
peculiar views of Mr Cobbett in his History of the Reformation; and a
similar exposure of the principles of Mr Robert Owen. Being a decided enemy
to the connexion of the church and state, he was induced to embody his
sentiments on that subject in a pamphlet, entitled "Church Establishments
considered; in a Series of Letters to a Covenantor." Not long before his
death, Mr M’Gavin superintended a new and improved edition of Knox’s History
of the Reformation; and aided with an introduction, a work by the Rev. Mr
John Brown of Whitburn, entitled "Memorials of the Nonconformist Ministers
of the Seventeenth Century." In the midst of his divers labours, he suddenly
died of apoplexy, August 23, 1832.
Of the intellectual vigour
and religious fervour of Mr M’Gavin, his published writings afford a
sufficient and lasting memorial. His personal qualities are not, however,
fully shown in that mirror. His diligence in his ordinary secular
employments, his zeal in promoting the religious and worldly interests of
all who came under his notice, his mild and amiable character in private
society, are traits which must be added. Two of his most conspicuous
qualities—the power of a satirist, and a certain precision which appeared in
all he either spoke or wrote—might be supposed incompatible with the
tenderer lights of a domestic character. But in him the one set of qualities
was not more conspicuous than the other. "His personal disposition," says Mr
Ewing, "was that of the publican, who pleaded with God for mercy, when he
went up into the temple to pray, and returned justified, because he that
humbleth himself shall be exalted. Like Nathanael, he was an Israelite
indeed in whom there was no guile. Like Paul, he was ready to call himself
less than the least of all saints, and to ascribe his salvation to Jesus
Christ having come into the world to save sinners, of whom he was a chief.
He had, even in his natural temper, much tenderness of heart, much sincere
and generous benevolence. If conscious of any quickness, which I have heard
him acknowledge, but never saw, it was guarded by the vigilance of Christian
meekness, and by the genuine modesty of superior good sense. Those, who knew
him only from feeling the lash of his controversial writings, may have been
tempted to think of him as an austere man. In truth, however, he was the
very reverse.—The profits of the Protestant he once offered as a
subscription to the society in this city for the support of the Catholic
schools. The offer was declined, because some of the Roman catholic
persuasion regarded it as an insult. I do not wonder at the
misunderstanding. But had they known him as I did, and as he was known by
all his familiar friends, they would have accepted of his offer, as a mark
of his cordial good-will to a valuable institution." |