Gilbert Stuart

Gilbert Stuart (1742–1786) was a Scottish journalist and historian.

Early life He was born in Edinburgh, the only surviving son of George Stuart (1715-1793), professor of the Latin language and Roman antiquities in Edinburgh University.

Gilbert was educated at the High School in Edinburgh and then studied Classics and Philosophy at Edinburgh University, followed by a course in jurisprudence there; but he never followed the law as profession.

Journalist In 1768 Stuart went to London, hoping for preferment through Lord Mansfield. In 1769 he lodged with Thomas Somerville in the house of Murdoch the bookseller, writing for the newspapers and reviews. He worked for the Monthly Review from 1768 to 1773. By June 1773 Stuart was back with his father at Musselburgh, working to launch the Edinburgh Magazine and Review. The first number came out about the middle of October 1773, and it was discontinued after the publication of the number for August 1776. In the end, an article by Stuart and Alexander Gillies, written over the protests of William Smellie, attacked Lord Monboddo's Origin and Progress of Language over several numbers. The magazine was stopped. Stuart nursed his resentment of Robertson over this supposed intervention.

In 1782 Stuart settled once more in London, and went back to reviewing. The English Review was established by John Murray I in January 1783, and Stuart was one of the principal writers on its staff. During 1785–6 he edited, with William Thomson (1746–1817), twelve numbers of The Political Herald and Review. It opened with a criticism of Pitt's administration, which was still not finished in the final number, and dealt out severe addresses to Henry Dundas and several other Pittites. These diatribes may have prompted the suggestion that Stuart was Junius.

In 1779 Stuart brought out, with a dedication to Lord Mount Stuart, Observations on the Public Law and Constitutional History of Scotland; and in 1780 he published his History of the Establishment of the Reformation in Scotland (reissued in 1796 and 1805). It was followed in 1782 by The History of Scotland from the Establishment of the Reformation till the Death of Queen Mary, which had a second edition in 1784, when he added to it his Observations on the Public Law of Scotland. These works were written with a narrative in the "balancing style" adopted from Samuel Johnson and Edward Gibbon. Stuart trailed his coat for Robertson, whom he openly challenged to reply to his defence of Queen Mary. Robertson retorted with a charge of plagiarism.

Stuart did have a public ally in David Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan, who made a point of praising him in a speech at the founding of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, in 1780. Stuart's Whig views were not unacceptable to Buchan. Another historian on the Whig side, whom Stuart found tolerable, was Sir John Dalrymple of Cousland.