John Logan

Rev John Logan FRSE (1748–1788) was a minister in Leith, Scotland, a popular preacher known also as a historian. Self-destructive behaviour saw him end his life as a hack writer in London.

Early life He was born at a farm in Soutra, near Fala, Midlothian to George Logan, a farmer, and his wife Janet Waterston, daughter of John Waterston in the parish of Stow. The family moved to Gosford Mains, near Aberlady in East Lothian. In terms of their religious belief they were dissenters: members of the Burgher branch of the First Secession. They attended the church of John Brown in Haddington. John then went to the grammar school of Musselburgh; it may have been there that he encountered Alexander Carlyle, a continuing influence in his life.

Logan entered the University of Edinburgh in 1762, where he was taught by Hugh Blair. Lord Elibank, who then resided at Ballencrieff in the parish of Aberlady, interested himself in Logan's welfare, and gave him access to his library.

After he had completed his studies for the ministry of the Church of Scotland, Logan became, on the recommendation of Blair, tutor to John Sinclair, son of George Sinclair of Ulbster in Caithness.

Ministry

Logan was licensed as a preacher by the presbytery of Haddington, East Lothian on 27 September 1770. In 1771 he was presented to South Leith Parish Church for acceptance as their minister. A dispute intervened, not helped by Logan's writing a first and satirical drama, The Planters of the Vineyard. In April 1773 he was ordained and admitted as "second charge" minister of the parish of South Leith.

Resignation Logan's connection with the stage gave offence to his parishioners. He was also depressive, and drank. He fathered an illegitimate son by a servant girl, and went off to London in 1781. Logan was a founding fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1783.

A second pregnant parishioner in 1785 proved the last straw. There in 1787 he punctured the "Ayrshire ploughman" image of Robert Burns by pointing out that he was a tenant farmer.

In 1788 Logan published A Review of the Principal Charges against Warren Hastings, which involved the publisher John Stockdale in a libel action. It was a polemic defending Hastings against the Edmund Burke line, citing oriental despotism, Montesquieu and Edward Gibbon. Thomas Erskine defended Stockdale successfully, arguing that Logan's aspersions were made in good faith.

Logan died in London on 25 December 1788 and was buried on 28 December. His grave location is not known.

Works Logan was a historian of the "Robertsonian" school, with James Dunbar and Robert Henry. He also wrote poetry, two dramas, and sermons.

History During the college sessions of 1779–80, 1780–1, Logan read a course of historical lectures in Edinburgh, under the patronage of William Robertson, Hugh Blair, and other literati; and in 1781 published an analysis of the lectures, entitled Elements of the Philosophy of History. Walter Scott later wrote that the idea of the contrast drawn in Ivanhoe between Saxons and Normans was drawn from the staging of Runnamede with (anachronistic) Saxon and Norman barons on opposite sides of the theatre.

Sermons In 1790 and 1791 two volumes of his Sermons were published under the supervision of his friends, Thomas Robertson of Dalmeny, Hugh Blair, and Thomas Hardy.