Author: Longmuir, John
Biography:
LONGMUIR, John (1803-83: ODNB)
The son of John Longmuir and his wife Christian (Paterson), he was born near Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, but the family moved to Aberdeen where he attended the grammar school and Marischal College. He graduated MA, studied divinity, and taught for a time before being licensed to preach at Forres in 1833. In 1840 he was ordained minister of Mariners’ Church, Aberdeen; in 1843 he (and most of his congregation) moved to the Free Church of Scotland. He was twice married: to Lillias Milne in 1835 and, after her death in 1854, to Dorothy Dixon in 1857. He had an abiding interest in both science (he lectured on geology at King’s College, Aberdeen) and lexicography (in 1864 he published a dictionary combining the definitions of Noah Webster and the pronunciations of John Walker). Three further books of poetry were published: Bible Lays (1838), Ocean Lays (1854), and Lays for the Lambs (1860). He died at Aberdeen. (ODNB 3 Oct 2019; ancestry.co.uk 3 Oct 2019)