Thomas MacKnight (minister)

South Leith Parish Church
Watercolour from the early 1840s depicting Trinity College Church
Old Kirk of St Giles (St Giles Cathedral)
The grave of Very Rev Thomas MacKnight, St Cuthberts Churchyard, Edinburgh
12 London Street, Edinburgh

Very Rev Dr Thomas MacKnight DD FRSE FSA MWS (1762–1836) was a Scottish minister based in Edinburgh who rose to its highest rank, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1820. He is also remembered as a gifted physicist, mathematician and geologist.[1]

Life

He was born on 15 August 1762 in Edinburgh, the fourth son of Rev Dr James MacKnight DD (1721–1800), minister of the Old Kirk of St Giles, and his wife, Elizabeth McCormick. His parents were originally from Irvine. His father served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1769.[2] Thomas was educated at the High School in Edinburgh 1772–74 then studied divinity at Edinburgh University.

He was licensed to preach in 1788 and in February 1791 took over South Leith Parish Church in the harbour area of Edinburgh.[3] In 1804 he translated to Trinity College Kirk sitting between the Old Town and New Town. The church was demolished 30 years after he left to allow the building of Waverley Station. In 1810 he moved his final move to the Old Kirk of St Giles.

He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1799. His proposers were John Playfair, Andrew Dalzell, and James Bonar. Edinburgh University awarded him an honorary doctorate (DD) in 1808.[4]

In January 1805, following the death of Prof John Robison, he filled the chair as professor of natural philosophy (physics) on an informal basis until a replacement was found. When John Playfair filled this role, he applied for Playfair’s previous post as professor of mathematics but lost to John Leslie. This all indicates his eminence as a mathematician and physicist. He had stated that he would leave the church if given the chair, but it was still an issue of great debate in both the university and the church at the time.[5][6]

In 1820 he lived at 12 London Street, a large mid-terraced Georgian townhouse in Edinburgh’s New Town[7]

He died on 12 January 1836. He is buried against a main dividing wall in St Cuthberts Churchyard at the west end of Princes Street in Edinburgh. He lies too the right of his parents immediately north of the church. The original marble slab is entirely lost, and his name only remains on the base of the monument.

Publications

  • The Means of National Security Considered as a Ground of Thankfulness to Divine Providence (1795)
  • The Life of James MacKnight (c.1810)
  • Mineralogical Notices and Observations (1817)
  • New Literal Translation of the Apostolic Epistles (1821)

Family

He was married to Christian Crauford MacKnight (1780–1862). Their children included Thomas MacKnight,[8] James MacKnight WS (1810–1878)[9] and Alexander Edward MacKnight (1817-1899).

References

  1. ↑ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783 – 2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
  2. ↑ Dictionary of National Biography: James MacKnight
  3. ↑ Memoirs of the Late Rev Robert Stephen Hawker (1876)
  4. ↑ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783 – 2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
  5. ↑ The Life and Times of Rev Robert Burns, by Robert Ferrier Burns
  6. ↑ The Collected Works of Dugald Stewart, by Sir William Hamilton
  7. ↑ Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1820–21
  8. ↑ http://www.clanmacfarlanegenealogy.info/genealogy/TNGWebsite/getperson.php?personID=I13529&tree=CC
  9. ↑ http://waeve.co.uk/genealogy/sourcefiles/St.Cuthbert%27s_Cemetry.pdf
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