Author: FORDYCE, James
Biography:
FORDYCE, James (1720-96: ODNB)
ODNB gives the date of his birth as 5 June 1720 although that is also recorded as the date of his baptism at St. Nicholas, Aberdeen, Scotland. His parents were George Fordyce, a landowner and merchant, and his wife Elizabeth Brown; they may have had as many as twenty children. He was educated at Aberdeen high school and at Marischal College, Aberdeen, where he trained for the Presbyterian ministry. He was licensed to preach in Aberdeen in Feb. 1743 and ordained as a Church of Scotland minister in 1745. Initially he was appointed to the church in Brechin, Angus, but in 1753 he moved to Alloa, Clackmannanshire, where he was widely admired as a preacher. He published The Eloquence of the Pulpit in 1753 and it was followed by other volumes of sermons. The University of Glasgow conferred a DD on him in 1760 in recognition of his powerful address to the general assembly of the church in the same year. Several of his brothers lived in London and he moved there where he preached to the Presbyterian congregation at Monkwell Street. His sermons were less concerned with religious matters than with morals and sentiment, and in London too he proved to be a very popular preacher. He was also welcomed into London's literary society and knew Samuel Johnson and Oliver Goldsmith (qq.v.). In May 1771 he married Henrietta Cumming, a governess; there were no children. Fordyce's popularity as a preacher waned in the 1770s and he resigned his ministry in 1782, moving first to Christchurch, Hampshire, and then to Bath, Somerset. He died at home in Bath on 1 Oct. 1796 and was buried at St. Mary, Bathwick, on 7 Oct. His will, proved on 14 Oct., left his estate to his wife who died in 1823. Poems (1786) is Fordyce's only book of verse and was not highly regarded. His best known works are Sermons to Young Women (1765) and Addresses to Young Men (1777). (ODNB 30 Apr. 2025; ancestry.co.uk 30 Apr. 2025) SR