Author: Aikman, James
Biography:
AIKMAN, James (1779-1860: ancestry.co.uk)
Most likely James Aikman, author of three books of verse included in this bibliography, was the man of that name who was a bookseller and historian in Edinburgh. The title pages of his history books do not list the books of verse but an obituary in The Bookseller and the Stationery Trades’ Journal states that James Aikman, historian, also published poems. He was a son of Andrew Aikman and his wife Janet Nimmo (married 6 Dec. 1766) and was born at Bo’ness, West Lothian, Scotland, on 13 Dec. 1779 and baptised on 26 Dec. He was apprenticed to Peter Hill, a prominent Edinburgh bookseller, on 25 July 1804 and later operated his own business from an address on Charles Street, Edinburgh. With a brother, Andrew, he published the Edinburgh Star from about 1809 to 1816. No marriage record that can be linked to him with any certainty has been located. In 1841 the Census shows him living at 11 Charles Street with two unmarried sisters, Janet and Mary, and in 1851 he was at the same address with Mary. He died at home on 21 May 1860 and was buried in the Dean cemetery, Edinburgh. His The Cenotaph establishes that he was a fervent Scottish nationalist and his history books include The History of Scotland Translated from the Latin of George Buchanan (1827-29), Annals of the Persecution in Scotland (1842), and An Historical Account of Covenanting in Scotland (1848). Aikman also published A Natural History of Beasts, Birds, and Fishes (1847), with colour illustrations. (ancestry.co.uk 16 Dec. 2024; findmypast.co.uk 16 Dec. 2024; DWS; The Bookseller and Stationery Trades’ Journal [1860]; Belfast Newsletter 28 May 1860; SBTI)