Quick Facts
Biography
Very Rev Prof Hugh Meiklejohn DD (1765-1831) was a Scottish minister who served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1810.
Life
He was born in 1765 the only son of Rev Hugh Meiklejohn who had been a minister in the Carolinas in America. He studied Divinity at Glasgow University. He was licensed to preach by the Church of Scotland around 1786 and ordained as minister of Dunfermline in 1788. In 1791 he was translated to Abercorn in West Lothian and remained there until 1799 when he was created Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Edinburgh University.
From around 1810 he lived with his family at Merchant Street opposite Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh’s Old Town. Curiously, in 1825, he writes to support John Somerville, inventor of a safety catch for firearms.
He died on 11 June 1831. He is buried with his family in Abercorn churchyard. The grave lies to the east side of the church.
Family
In 1792 he married Anne Liston (d.1852), eldest daughter of Very Rev Robert Liston, Moderator in 1787/8. They had nine children including Cpt James Hope Johnston Meiklejohn (1795-1856) of the Gordon Highlanders, Hugh Cree Meiklejohn (1797-1847), Rev Robert Meiklejohn (1800-1859) minister of Strathdon, and Rev William Hope Meiklejohn (1811-1850) a missionary in Calcutta.
Publications
- Statistical Account of Abercorn (1799)