Josiah Walker

Josiah Walker (1761–1831) was a Scottish writer, from 1815 Professor of Humanity at Glasgow University. He is known as a biographer of Robert Burns.

Life Walker was the son of Thomas Walker, minister at Dundonald, and his third wife Annie Shaw. He was educated at Edinburgh High School and Edinburgh University. At university he formed a group with James Finlayson and George Husband Baird, for extra-curricular linguistic researches. He took notes on Dugald Stewart's course of 1778–9.

After graduating, Walker spent seven years in Edinburgh as a tutor. He joined the Speculative Society in 1783. In 1787, he took the position as tutor to the Marquess of Tullibardine, eldest son of John Murray, 4th Duke of Atholl, and accompanied him to Eton College. In 1809 he was vice-president of the Literary and Antiquarian Society of Perth.

Walker's biography of Burns. "Miscellaneous Remarks on the Writings of Burns", was published in an 1811 edition of the poems, Poems by Robert Burns with an Account of his Life. It was then printed separately. Walker had first met Burns at the Edinburgh house of Thomas Blacklock. The book was put out by the trustees of James Morison (1762–1809) of Perth.

In 1815 Walker became Professor of Humanity at Glasgow University. George Milligan (died 1856), later minister of Elie, acted as his assistant.

Works Walker wrote The Defence of Order – A Poem (1802), which defended the policy of William Pitt the Younger and was dedicated to the Duke of Atholl. It sold well, and was attacked by Henry Brougham in the Edinburgh Review.

He also contributed articles to the Encyclopaedia Britannica and Edinburgh Encyclopaedia.

Family Walker married in 1795 Margaret Bell, daughter of Richard Bell of Cruvie in Dumfriesshire; they had three sons and a daughter. The second son Richard Graham Walker practised as a solicitor in Glasgow and Hendon. The daughter, Russel (died 1886 at age 89 ), married in 1827 Thomas Grierson, a cousin and minister of Kirkbean.