James McKinnon

James McKinnon FRSE (1860-1945) was a writer on history and church history. He was Professor of Church History at the University of Edinburgh from 1908 to 1930.

Life

He was born on 15 July 1860 on the Ardmiddle estate near Turriff in northern Aberdeenshire, the son of Barbara Hay Black and her husband Alexander MacKinnon, the land steward of the estate.

He was educated at Ardmiddle Public School and Turriff Parish School and then went to the University of Edinburgh but initially did not complete his degree. He instead travelled to South Africa 1881 to 1884, for health reasons, where he studied Arts and Divinity at the Theological College of the Dutch Reformed Church at Stellenbosch University. He returned to Scotland to complete his degree at the University of Edinburgh eventually graduating with an MA in 1889. He undertook further postgraduate studies in Germany, at the University of Bonn and Heidelberg University gaining a PhD in the latter in 1891. In the same year he became a Director of the Royal Blind Asylum in Edinburgh and a Governor of Steill's Educational Trust. He was awarded a Doctor of Divinity by the University of St Andrews in 1912. 1887) Culture in Early Scotland (1892) The Union of England and Scotland (1896) The History of Edward III (1900) The Growth and Decline of the French Monarchy (1902) A History of Modern Liberty (1906) The Social and Industrial History of Scotland (1920) Constitutional History of Scotland to the Reformation (1924) Luther and the Reformation (1925)

Family

In December 1886 he married Pauline Klein, daughter of F. Klein from Cologne. They had one son, James Alexander Rudolph MacKinnon (b.1888) an advocate who later served as Sheriff Substitute for Forfarshire.