David Buchanan, who has written on the learned men of Scotland in excellent Latin. Here he probably refers to the manuscript entitled ‘De Scriptoribus Scotis,’ preserved in the university library at Edinburgh, and attributed to David Buchanan, which was for the first time edited by Dr. David Irving, and printed for the Bannatyne Club in 1837. In the appendix to this work there is inserted the last testament of a David Buchanan. Among the ‘Miscellanies’ of the Bannatyne Club (vol. ii.) is to be found a Latin ‘Urbis Edinburgi Descriptio per Davidem Buchananum,’ dated circa 1648. The date of his death can be more nearly fixed than that of his birth, for it appears to lie between 1652 and 1653. Most of the authorities agree in assigning the first year; but in a note to the ‘Descriptio Edinburgi’ it is stated that according to the registers of wills he must have died in 1653.
[Anderson's Scottish Nation (articles ‘Buchanan,’ ‘David Buchanan,’ ‘Sir Robert Gordon of Straloch’); Bannatyne Club Publications, notes and prefaces (Descriptio Urbis Edinburgi; De Scriptoribus Scotis); Scottish Historical Library; William Buchanan's Essay on the Family and Surname of Buchanan; Baillie's Letters.]
BUCHANAN, DAVID, the elder (1745–1812), printer and publisher, a descendant of the ancient family of Buchanan of Buchanan, was born at Montrose in 1746, and studied at the university of Aberdeen, where he graduated M.A. He began the business of printing in his native town at a time when the art was practised in few of the provincial towns of Scotland, and his enterprise as a publisher was also shown by the issue of good editions of the dictionaries of Johnson, Boyer, and Ainsworth. He abridged Johnson's dictionary for the earliest pocket edition ever printed. Among his other publications special mention may be made of his miniature series of English classics, also revised and corrected by himself. He died in 1812.
[Anderson's Scottish Nation.]
BUCHANAN, DAVID, the younger (1779–1848), journalist and author, son of David Buchanan, printer and publisher [q. v.], was born at Montrose in 1779. He learned the business of his father, and, like him, also possessed intellectual tastes and sympathies. At an early period of his life he contributed to Cobbett's ‘Political Register’ a reply to the editor on a question of political economy. He also became a contributor to the ‘Edinburgh Review’ shortly after its commencement. In 1807 he published a pamphlet on the volunteer system originated by Pitt, which attracted considerable attention. The following year he accepted an invitation to start in Edinburgh a liberal newspaper, the ‘Weekly Register.’ The paper did not live above a year, and on its discontinuance he transferred his services to the ‘Caledonian Mercury,’ which he continued to edit from 1810 to 1827, when he accepted the editorship of the ‘Edinburgh Courant.’ This paper he edited until his death at Glasgow, 13 Aug. 1848.
Amidst his editorial duties Buchanan found time to devote his attention to a variety of literary projects. He made political economy his special study, and in 1814 he brought out an edition of Adam Smith's works, with life, notes, and a volume of additional matter, in which some of the more important subjects treated of by Smith were examined in the light of further progress and experience. A considerable portion of the volume was afterwards utilised by him in ‘Inquiry into the Taxation and Commercial Policy of Great Britain, with Observations on the Principles of Currency and of Exchangeable Value,’ published in 1844. Of this book the more noticeable features are its arguments against taxes on manufactured goods, its opposition to the income-tax as inconsistent with the spirit of freedom, and its attempted refutation of Ricardo's theory of rent. Buchanan also brought out an edition of the ‘Edinburgh Gazetteer,’ in six volumes, contributed numerous geographical and statistical articles to the seventh edition of the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ and supplied a large portion of the letterpress for the ‘Edinburgh Geographical Atlas,’ published in 1835.
[Montrose Standard, 18 Aug. 1848; Anderson's Scottish Nation.]
BUCHANAN, DUGALD (1716–1768), Gaelic poet, was born at the mill of Ardoch in the valley of Strathtyre and parish of Balquihidder, Perthshire, in 1716. After conducting a small school in a hamlet in his native county, he procured, in 1755, the situation of schoolmaster and catechist at Kinloch Rannoch in the parish of Fortingale, on the establishment of the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge in Scotland. His accurate acquaintance with the Gaelic language enabled him to render essential service to the Rev. James Stewart of Killin in translating the New Testament. He died on 2 July 1768, and was interred at Little Leny in the parish of Callander, the burial-place of the Buchanans of Leny and Cambusmore.
His ‘Laoidhibh Spioradail’ (Spiritual Hymns) were first published in 1767, and
