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 …

1962 words

Citation: deGategno, Paul J.. "Hugh Blair". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 February 2017 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=433, accessed 28 March 2024.]

433 Hugh Blair 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.