Dictionary of National Biography
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Buccleuch 178 Buchan BUCCLEUCH, DUKES OF. [See SCOTT.] entered the house of a relation, by whom she was taught reading and sewing. During* EAKLS OP. [See COMYN and BUCHAN, a visit to Greenock she made the acquaintance EKSKINE.] of Robert Buchan, a working potter, whom* BUCHAN, ALEXANDER PETER she married. They quarrelled and separated, ! and in 1781 she removed with the children (1764-1824), physician, was born at Ack- to heard White, of werth, near Pontefract, in 1764, being the son I Glasgow. Having Hugh l the Relief church at in Glas- of Dr. William Buchan, author of Domestic Irvine, preach at ! at the sacrament of 1783, she wrote Medicine' [q. v.] He was educated the gow April him a letter her of high school and university of Edinburgh, expressing high approval his and that no she studied anatomy and medicine also in London sermons, stating preacher had ever listened to had so under the Hunters and Dr. George Fordyce, previously fully ! satisfied her needs. The result was and proceeded to Leyden, where he graduated spiritual that she removed to Irvine to the M.D. on 11 July 1793. Settling in London, { enjoy pri- : of his and converted both he became physician to the Westminster Hos- vilege ministry, < belief office in 1818. him and his wife to the that she was pital in 1813, but resigned that a saint endowed and He was re-elected in 1820, and died on 5 Dec. | specially privileged by that 1824. heaven, White's final conclusion being ' she was the woman mentioned in the Reve- Buchan's works include Enchiridion Sy- 1797 * Treatise on Sea lation of St. John, while she declared him philiticum,' ; Bathing, with Remarks on the Use of the Warm ; to be the man child she had brought forth. ' of these- or con- ! On account of his proclamation Bath,' 1801 ; Bionomia, Opinions Life and 1811 * peculiar doctrines White was deposed from Health,' ; Symptoma- cerning In 1784 1824 besides a translation of Dau- i the ministry by the presbytery. May tology,' ; ' sect the- on 1807 ! the magistrates banished the from benton's Observations Indigestion,' ; ' i and the an edition of Dr. Armstrong's Diseases of burgh, following supposed guidance- of the star which led the wise men to Beth- 1808 and the edition j Children,' ; twenty-first ' settled on the farm of New of his father's Domestic Medicine,' 1813. i lehem, they Cample, in the parish of Closeburn, Dum- Coll. of iii. [Munk's Phys. (1878), 5.] friesshire. were here one or- G. T. B. They joined by two persons in good positions in life, and their numbers reached BUCHAN, ANDREW OP (d. 1309 ?), ultimately forty-six. Mrs. named their ' bishop of Caithness, was, previous to his eleva- Buchan, whom they spi- ritual to have the tion to the bishopric, abbot of the Cistercian mother,' professed power the Ghost abbey of Cupar (Coupar) Angus, to which of conferring Holy by breathing, and also laid claim to certain he had been preferred in 1272. In the Rag- prophetic gifts. in the millennium as close at man roll his name appears as paying homage They believed to Edward at the church of Perth 24 July hand, and were persuaded that they would not taste of but would be taken to- 1291, and atBerwick-on-Tweed 28 Aug. 1296. death, up air. The ac- He was nominated to the bishopric of Caith- meet Christ in the following ness Boniface VIII, 17 Dec. 1296 count of them by Robert Burns, the poet, by Pope ' accurate : Their (THEINEK, Vet. Mon. ed. 1864, No. ccclix. may be accepted as strictly tenets are a of enthusiastic- pp. 163-4). Spotiswood affirms that he strange jumble others she to lived as bishop thirteen years, but wrongly jargon ; among pretends give them the Ghost on gives the date of his consecration as 1288. Holy by breathing them,, and The date of his death is usually given as which she does with postures gestures- that are indecent. have 1301, but this appears to be mere conjecture, scandalously They and there is no evidence to show that his likewise a community of goods, and liv& an idle on a farc& successor Ferquhard was bishop before 1309. nearly life, carrying great of pretended devotion in barns and woods,, [Rental Book of Cupar-Angus, ed. Charles where they lodge and lie together, and hold Rogers (Grampian Club), i. 15-29; Anderson's likewise a community of women, as it is Orkneyinga Saga, lxxxv-vi.] T. F. H. another of their tenets that they can com- BUCHAN or SIMPSON, ELSPETH mit no mortal sin' (Burns to J. Burness, (1738-1791), the head of a religious sect August 1784). It is affirmed that Burns ' generally known as Buchanites,' was the had an attachment to a young woman who> daughter of John Simpson and Margaret joined the Buchanites, and that he spent a Gordon, who kept a wayside inn at Fat- whole night and day in vainly endeavouring * macken, between Banff and Portsoy. She to persuade her to return. His song As I ' was born in 1738. In early life she was was a walking was set to an air to which,, ' employed in herding cows, and afterwards according to him, the Buchanites had set Buchan i 79 Buchan some of their nonsensical the rhymes,' for the claimed minerals on the estate, compelled composition of hymns was one of the gifts him to sell the property in 1852. For the of Mrs. Buchan. In 1785 White issued next two years he lived in Ireland with a ' The Divine Dictionary,' written by him- younger son at Stroudhill House, Leitrim. self and 'revised and approver! by Elspeth In 1854 he came to London on business, and Simpson/ The death of Mrs. Buchan in died there suddenly on 19 Sept. He was May 1791 dissipated the faith of most of her buried at Norwood. His eldest son, Charles followers. White that she was Forbes Buchan pretended only ; D.D., became minister of in a trance, and had her buried clandestinely, Fordoun, Kincardinesbire, in 1846. but he afterwards renounced his belief in her Buchan owes his reputation to his success promise to return and conduct them to the as a collector and editor of Scottish ballads, New Jerusalem. The last survivor of the and in this work he spent large sums of money. sect was Andrew Innes, who died in 1848. In 1828 appeared in two volumes his 'Ancient Ballads and of the North of [Four Letters between the people called Bu- Songs Scotland, hitherto with notes.' ehanites and a teacher near Edinburgh, together unpublished, explanatory with two letters from Mrs. Buchan and one from The book was printed and published for him Mr. White to a clergyman in England, 1785; in Edinburgh. More than forty ballads were Train's The Buchanites fromFirst to 1846 there for the first and Last, ; printed time, many Works of Eobert Burns.] T. F. H. others were published in newly discovered versions. Scott interested himself from the BUCHAN, PETER (1790-1854), collec- first in Buchan's labours, and speaks highly tor of of their Scottish ballads, born at Peterhead in value (' Introductory Remarks on 1790, traced his descent from the Comyns, Popular Poetry' (1830), prefixed to later earls of Buchan. His parents discouraged editions of the Border Minstrelsy}. In 1834 his desire to enter the navy, and an early was advertised a second collection of Buchan's marriage completely estranged his father. 'North Countrie Minstrelsy,' but Mr. Jerdan In 1814 he published an original volume of apparently purchased Buchan's manuscript for verse ('The Recreation of Leisure Hours, the Percy Society, and in 1845 James Henrj being Songs and Verses in the Scottish Dixon edited it for that society under the ' Dialect,' Peterhead, 1814), taught himself title of Scottish Traditional Versions of copper-plate engraving, and resolved to open Ancient Ballads.' a printing-office for the first time at Peter- Buchan's other works were very numerous. ' head. in 1816 he went to The chief of : 1. Early Edinburgh them were Annals of < with an empty purse and 'a pocketful of Peterhead,' Peterhead, 1819, 12mo. 2. An flattering introductory letters.' His kinsman, Historical Account of the Ancient and Noble the Earl of Buchan, sent him to Dr. Charles Families of Keiths, Earls Marischals of Scot- at ' Wingate Stirling, where he learnt the art land,' n. d., Peterhead. 3. Treatise proving of in the short of ten that Brutes have souls and are printing space days. immortal/ his return 4. ' On to Edinburgh, a gift of 50/. Peterhead, 1824. The Peterhead Smug- from a friend of the Earl of Buchan enabled of the Last William glers Century ; or, and him to purchase the business plant of a print- Annie, an original melodrama, in three acts/ ing-office, and on 24 March 1816 he set up Edinburgh, 1834. 5. 'The Eglinton Tour- his press at Peterhead. In 1819 he con- nament and Gentlemen Unmasked/ Glasgow, ' structed a new press on an original plan. 1839 (republished as Britain's Boast, her It was worked with the feet instead of and her Shame a Mirror for all with Glory ; or, the and as well Ranks 6. ' of the hands, printed from stone, '). An Account Chivalry ' copper, and wood as from ordinary type. Bu- of the Ancients/ Glasgow, 1 840. 7. Man- chan also invented an index-machine showing Body and Soul as he was, as he is, and as the number of sheets worked off by the press, he shall be/ 1849. Buchan was also the but an Edinburgh press-maker borroAved this author of many detached poems and stories, invention, and, taking it to America, never re- and of anti-radical political pamphlets, and turned it to the inventor.