Author: Campbell, Hugh Young
Biography:
CAMPBELL, Hugh Young (c. 1790-1828: ancestry.co.uk) pseudonym Carolan
Hugh Young Campbell is an elusive figure. Likely he was born in Scotland in about 1790. In 1828 The Naval and Military Magazine published a memorial by Campbell which states that he joined the navy at 14 and served during the Napoleonic wars and in North America. After publishing two books in Kilmarnock, Scotland, Campbell moved to London where he sought to establish himself as a writer with expertise in Scottish history and literature. He began using “F.A.S.” (i.e. FSA) after his name; later he added “LL.D.” and claimed to be registered with the Middle Temple. No evidence has been found to support his fellowship with the Society of Antiquaries, his doctorate in laws, or his association with the Middle Temple. He travelled in the north of Ireland to research his Ossiano [sic]: Being an Attempt to Establish the Battlegrounds of Fingal in Ulster (1818). Another version appeared in 1819 as Ossiana, or, Fingal Ascertained and Traced in Ulster. In 1822 he issued a two-volume edition of The Poems of Ossian…Authenticated, Illustrated, and Explained. Campbell received £15 from the RLF when he applied in 1823, giving his address as 16 Royal Row, Westminster Bridge, London. His letters state that he is severely ill and threatened with imprisonment for debt. He subsequently found a new subject in Mary, Queen of Scots, and published The Love Letters of Mary Queen of Scots to James Earl of Bothwell in 1824. This purported to be based on a bundle of manuscripts and is dedicated to Walter Scott (q.v.) to whom he wrote twice and sent a copy of the book in 1825. Reaction was swift: in 1825 John Murray published A Detection of the Love Letters…Wherein his Plagiarisms are Proved and his Fictions Fixed; the author may have been George Chalmers. Undeterred, in 1825 Campbell published The Case of Mary Queen of Scots and of Elizabeth Queen of England. He died in Apr. 1828 and was buried at St. Clement Danes, London, on 16 Apr.; his name is in the parish record as Hugh Young Campbell and his birth year as c. 1790. At the time of his death he was living at 4 Burleigh Street, Strand; this matches the address on his two 1825 letters to Scott. (ancestry.co.uk 15 Oct. 2023; Naval and Military Magazine 3 [1828]; Millgate; RLF file 491; Greenock Telegraph 24 Apr. 1871) SR
Other Names:
- Hugh Campbell
- Hugh Y. Campbell