Author: Macpherson, James
Biography:
MACPHERSON, James (1736-96: ODNB)
His Ossian poems have attracted controversy ever since their first publication; they have also been widely influential. Fingal was first published in 1762 as Macpherson’s translation of an ancient and long-lost Gaelic original by Ossian, son of Fingal. In fact it and a subsequent work, Temora (1763), were composed by Macpherson himself who drew on a range of ballad sources—plots, themes, descriptions—to create original works of poetic prose. Macpherson was born in Ruthven, Badenoch, Scotland, on 27 Oct. 1736 to Andrew Macpherson, a farmer, and his wife Ellen, also a Macpherson from birth. He grew up in a Gaelic speaking area that was involved with the 1715 and 1745 Jacobite. He was educated at King’s College and at Marischal College in Aberdeen; there he began to write verse, contributing to periodical publications. In 1758 he published anonymously The Highlander, A Poem; although unsuccessful it indicated the future direction of his thinking about the the Highlands as a poetic source. Contact with various Scottish thinkers and writers—Thomas Blackwell, Adam Ferguson, John Home (q.v.), and Hugh Blair—was also formative. The publication of his Fragments of Ancient Poetry Collected in the Highlands of Scotland (1760) led to funding from an enthusiastic public for two further research trips into the Highlands where he collected material which eventually led to both Fingal and Temora. These works—particularly Fingal—took on a vivid life of their own after publication. They were admired both in Britain and in Europe where they encouraged the production of other national epics but they were also viewed sceptically and Macpherson was accused at best of fabricating the originals and at worst of outright fraud. Although he continued writing, producing history books and journalism, his career shifted into politics. He became secretary to George Johnstone, governor of the Western Provinces, and travelled to America (1764-66). Sir John Macpherson, governor-general in India, made him his London agent. In 1780 he was elected MP for a seat in Cornwall which he held for the rest of his life. He was now wealthy and purchased land near his birthplace for a large home, Belleville. Macpherson never married but he had five children—three sons and two daughters—and the estate passed to his eldest son after his death there on 17 Feb. 1796. He was buried in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey. (ODNB 22 Feb. 2023; Fiona Stafford, “Romantic Macpherson”, Edinburgh Companion to Scottish Romanticism [2011]) SR
Other Names:
- Macpherson
- Ossian