Author: Finlay, John
Biography:
FINLAY, John (1782-1810: ODNB)
DNB and ODNB state that he was born in Glasgow of poor parents in Dec. 1782. No corresponding public record has been located but it is possible he was the son of John Findlay and his wife Margaret Harvie, born at Glasgow on 24 May 1782. He commenced studying at the University of Glasgow when he was fourteen; one of his classmates and friends was John Wilson (“Christopher North”). Wallace was published when he was just nineteen and he dedicated it to Frances Anna Dunlop, Burns’s friend. In 1807 he moved to London in search of employment but returned to Scotland after just a year. The original ballads included in his 1808 collection were admired by Scott with whom he corresponded (1803-06). John Wilson’s account of him and his writings (Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine [November 1817]) states that he also prepared editions of Robert Blair’s The Grave and of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, and a biography of Cervantes but there is no evidence that these were ever published. He died at Moffat on 8 Dec. 1810 while on his way to visit Wilson. (ODNB 3 Dec. 2018; ancestry.co.uk 12 Dec. 2025; findmypast.co.uk 12 Dec. 2025; MS letters to Walter Scott, NLS; Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine 2 [1817], 186-92) SR