Author: Tennant, William
Biography:
TENNANT, William (1784-1848: ODNB)
The son of Anna (Watson) and Alexander Tennant, a merchant and farmer, he was born at Anstruther, Fife. In childhood he lost the use of both feet and walked with crutches for the rest of his life. He attended the Anstruther school and, for two years, St Andrews University. When lack of money forced him to return home, he worked for his brother, a corn factor, in Glasgow and Anstruther. His brother ran away rather than face his financial difficulties, leaving Tennant to be imprisoned for his debts. In 1813 with Charles Gray (q.v.) he formed the Anstruther “Musomanik Society” to promote appreciation of Scottish verse. His Anster Fair, in ottava rima, was immediately successful (it was favourably reviewed by Francis Jeffrey, q.v., in the Edinburgh Review) and earned him the support of Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee (q.v.) who introduced him to Archibald Constable, later to become Tennant’s publisher. When he was appointed schoolmaster at Dunino, he made use of nearby St. Andrews to continue studying Hebrew and classical languages. His efforts paid off: in 1816 he was appointed to a school in Lasswade, Midlothian; in 1819 became professor of classical languages at Dollar Academy, Clackmannanshire; and in 1834, through the offices of Francis Jeffrey, was appointed professor of Hebrew and Oriental languages at St. Mary’s College, St. Andrews. Ill-health forced his retirement in 1848 and he died in the same year. He was buried in the churchyard at Anstruther. His later books of poetry mostly failed to live up to the promise of Anster Fair but he also edited The Poems of Allan Ramsay (1819), contributed to the Edinburgh Literary Journal, and published Synopsis of Chaldaic and Syriac Grammar (1840). His correspondence with James Hogg (q.v.) on translating the psalms was published as Critical Remarks on the Psalms of David in 1830. (ODNB 16 Nov. 2020; Matthew Forster Conolly, Memoir of the Life and Writings of William Tennant [1861]; WorldCat) SR