Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Maclaurin, John (1693-1754)
MACLAURIN, JOHN (1693–1754), presbyterian divine, born in October 1693 at Glendaruel, Argyllshire, was eldest son of John Maclaurin, minister at Kilmodan, and brother of Colin Maclaurin [q. v.] the mathematician. The family is said to have been at one time chiefs of Tiree. His parents died while he was still young, and Maclaurin was brought up by his uncle, Daniel Maclaurin, minister of Kilfinan, Argyllshire. He studied at Glasgow University, where he graduated in 1712, and afterwards studied divinity at Leyden. Returning to Scotland he was ordained, 7 May 1719, to the parish of Luss, Dumbartonshire. Here he remained until January 1723, when he went to the northwest parish of Glasgow. In Glasgow he had special charge of the highlanders, and took a leading part in the attempts then being made all over the country to reform the poor laws and improve social conditions. He was active in the establishment of the Glasgow Town Hospital, which, built in 1733, became a model asylum for the poor and insane. He corresponded with Jonathan Edwards, the American metaphysician, and the help which Edwards obtained from Scotland, while living in poverty after his dismissal from his church at Northampton, Connecticut, was largely owing to Maclaurin's exertions.
In his later years Maclaurin took a keen interest in the affairs of the church, which were disturbed by disputes regarding the appointment of ministers. He was one of the leaders of the party which gradually became the non-intrusionists, and wrote, and engaged others to write, on the controversy. He died in Glasgow on 8 Sept. 1?54.
Maclaurin was twice married: first in 1712 to Lilias, daughter of John Rae, Little Govan, by whom he had nine children, and secondly in 1749 to Margaret, daughter of Patrick Bell, Cowcaddens, who survived him.
He was a famous preacher in his day. Dr. John Brown (1784–1858) [q. v.] calls him 'the most profound and eloquent Scottish theologian of the last century.' After his death some of his manuscripts disappeared, but sermons and essays have been published, including: 1. 'Sermons and Essays,' Glasgow, 1755. Edited and prefixed by a memoir of Maclaurin by his son-in-law, Dr. John Gillies, several times reprinted and enlarged, latest edit. 1860, Edinburgh, 2 vols. 2. 'An Essay on the Prophecies relating to the Messiah,' &c, Edinburgh, 1773, which is said to have suggested to Bishop Hurd his 'Introduction to the Study of the Prophecies,' His sermons were also collected by Dr. John Brown, Glasgow, 1824.
[Hew Scott's Fasti Ecclesiæ, iii. 26, 366 ; Memoir by Dr. Gillies; Fish's Pulpit Eloquence, ii. 244; Brit. Mos. Cat.]