Author: Geddes, Alexander
Biography:
GEDDES, Alexander (1737-1802: ODNB)
Geddes was born to Roman Catholic parents, Alexander Geddes and his wife Janet Mitchel, in Rathven, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, on 4 Sept. 1737. His parents were tenant farmers. He was schooled initially by James Shearer and later by Catholic priests. In 1751 he attended a seminary in Scranton in the Braes of Glenlivet before going to the Scots college in Paris and the Sorbonne. Geddes returned to Scotland in 1764 and was appointed chaplain at Traquair House in Peebleshire. In 1768 he was removed from his post by Bishop George Hay for allegedly falling in love with one of the ladies of the house; Hay also caused Geddes’s dismissal from his next post as parish priest in Auchenhalrig, near Fochabers, in about 1780. Geddes published his Select Satires while at Auchenhalrig; they were admired by Samual Johnson and James Beattie (qq.v.) among others and prompted the University of Aberdeen to grant him the degree of LLD. He moved to London in 1781 where, under the patronage of Robert Edward Petre, baron Petre, he worked on a new translation of the Bible. His The Holy Bible, or, The Books Accounted Sacred by Jews and Christians was published in 1792 but by then Geddes was already regarded by some as an iconoclast and the book was prohibited by three Catholic bishops including the Right Rev. John Douglass who suspended him from holy orders. Geddes took a lively interest in politics and held what were considered radical views, for example on the urgent need for constitutional reform. He published in periodicals and the Morning Chronicle, and his poem Carmen Saeculare (1790) was written in support of the principles of the French Revolution. Other poems confirm his radical views and also his wit and humour. Part of the circle around the publisher Joseph Johnson, he was acquainted with other poets like William Blake and S. T. Coleridge (qq.v.). He died in London after a brief illness on 26 Feb. 1802. Bishop Douglass refused to have a requiem mass said for him. Geddes was buried on 4 Mar. 1802 in the churchyard at St. Mary, Paddington; a memorial to him was erected by Lord Petre’s son in 1804. (ODNB 27 Sept. 2024; ancestry.co.uk 27 Sept. 2024; David Irving, The Lives of Scottish Poets [1810]; GM 72 [1802], 279-80) SR