Hugh Blair (1718-1800), Church of Scotland clergyman, rhetorician, and literary critic, was born in Edinburgh on 7 April 1718, the only son of John Blair, an excise clerk in reduced circumstances having lost his merchant business in the ambitious Darien scheme, and his mother, Martha Ogston Blair, daughter of an Edinburgh bookseller. Hugh Blair’s family was prominent in church and academic circles with connections to the Presbyterian reform movement and the University of Glasgow and St. Andrews University, and later relations became Moderate ministers in Scotland. His education at the High School of Edinburgh focused on the regular curriculum of modern Latin writers, especially Cicero, Horace, and Virgil with constant practice on grammar and rhetorical studies. Aged thirteen, he…
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Citation: deGategno, Paul J.. "Hugh Blair". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 February 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=433, accessed 21 November 2024.]
