Author: Gillies, Robert Pearse
Biography:
GILLIES, Robert Pearse (1789-1858: ODNB)
The son of Thomas Gillies and Jean (Cruikshank) Gillies, he was born on 9 Nov. 1789 at Brechin, Angus, Scotland, and baptised there on 23 Nov. He studied law at the University of Edinburgh and was called to the Scottish bar in 1813. On 1 Feb. 1815 he married Amelia Mary McDonald (or MacDonnell) at Edinburgh; they had a son and a daughter. Gillies was a major contributor to Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, and he was on friendly terms with many literary men, including Wordsworth and, particularly, Scott. His translations from German and Danish were published in the magazine under the pseudonyms “Horae Germanica” and “Horae Danica.” Gillies translated a play by Adolphus Mullner (q.v.) as Guilt; Or, The Anniversary in 1819 and had a small number of copies printed for his friends. Gillies had inherited the family property on his father’s death in 1808 but he lost much of it through unfortunate speculation. When he continued to suffer financial difficulties, Scott suggested that he start a foreign literary journal; accordingly, he successfully established the Foreign Quarterly Review in July 1827. However, moving to London compounded his financial woes and on 20 June 1831, after what he described as “numberless” arrests for debt, he first applied to the RLF and was awarded £30. Subsequent applications in 1838, 1846 (from Boulogne, France), and 1850 led to awards totalling £95. In 1840 Gillies fled to France to escape mounting debts but on his return in 1847 he was imprisoned for two years. Thomas Roscoe, Henry Stebbing, and William Beattie (qq.v.) started a public subscription for his relief in 1848. In his final years Gillies worked on his Memoirs of a Literary Veteran (1851) which includes anecdotes of other contemporary writers. He died at home, 4 Upper Holland Street, Kensington, London, on 28 Nov. 1858, leaving effects of under £100; Amelia had died shortly before him in 1858. He was buried in a common grave in the Catholic cemetery at Kensal Green. His daughter, Eliza Maria Gillies, was awarded £20 by the RLF on her application in 1859. Gillies’s other publications include novels. (ODNB 31 Jan. 2019; ancestry.co.uk 31 Jan. 2019, 5 Sept. 2024; findmypast.co.uk 5 Sept. 2024; RLF file 708)
Other Names:
- R. P. Gillies