Author: Tytler, H. W.
Biography:
TYTLER, Henry William (1752/3-1808: ODNB)
No birth record has been found but he was born at Fearn, Forfarshire, to Janet (Robertson) and the Rev. George Tytler, of the presbytery of Brechin. James Tytler (q.v.) was his older brother. Little is known about his education but Marischal College conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Medicine on 25 Dec. 1789 when he was working as a surgeon in Brechin. On 10 July 1776, he married Christian Gillies, daughter of a physician, at Brechin. They had two sons and a daughter. In 1797-1800 he is recorded as living in London and on 3 May 1797 he was elected to be a member of the Royal Society of Arts; his address is given in the record as Titchfield Street. He moved to India for a time but he died at Edinburgh, predeceasing his wife. He was buried in Greyfriars cemetery on 25 July 1808. On 23 Aug. 1808 his widow, who had been left unprovided for, applied for a pension from the armed forces on the grounds of his service as "apothecary to the forces"; it is not known if she was successful. BAM identifies him as the first Scotsman to translate into English the works of any Greek poet, saying that he did so “under a cloud of mental trouble.” His Miscellanies and his translation of Silius Italicus’s Punics (which in 1806 he had attempted to publish by subscription) were issued at Calcutta in 1828 and may have been edited by his son, John. (GM (ODNB 1 Dec. 2020; BAM; Scots Magazine 1 Jan. 1790; ancestry.co.uk 1 Dec. 2020)
Other Names:
- H. W. Tytler