Author: Macleay, Kenneth
Biography:
MACLEAY, Kenneth (fl 1789-1829: ODNB)
A self-styled surgeon (possibly he never obtained a medical degree) and antiquarian about whom little is known. He is first recorded as a student of medicine in Edinburgh in 1789, the year he married Agnes Dawson; they had at least three children. By 1800 he was living in Oban where he became surgeon to the Oban militia and made the observations leading to his 1811 book. A second marriage to Flora MacDonald produced five children, including the painter Kenneth Macleay the younger. Around 1813 he moved to Crieff and then to Glasgow. His controversial account of Rob Roy, published in Blackwood’s Magazine in 1817, was issued as a book in 1818. A further sighting of him is in December 1819 when he wrote to Walter Scott sending a highland story which he wished to dedicate to Scott; he also asked for money and a recommendation to Scott’s tailor. Scott sent him £5. No subsequent record of him, including of his death, has been located. (ODNB, under Kenneth Macleay the younger, 14 Nov 2019; NLS, letters to Walter Scott; ancestry.co.uk 14 Nov 2019) SR
Other Names:
- K. Macleay