house, but finding himself no better, he called at the house of one of the members of his congregation. In a few minutes after he entered the house, while kneeling in prayer beside a chair, he expired without a groan, in the sixty-fourth year of his age, and thirty-ninth of his professional career. His nephew, Dr John Barclay, was immediately sent for, who declared his death to have been occasioned by apoplexy. He was interred in the Calton Old Burying-ground, Edinburgh, where a monument has been erected to his memory. Mr Barclay was a very uncommon character, and made a great impression upon his contemporaries.
There are Berean churches in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Crieff, Kirkaldy, Dundee. Arbroath, Montrose, Brechin, Fettercairn, and a few other places.
BARCLAY, John, M.D., an eminent lecturer on anatomy, was the nephew of John Barclay, the Berean, after whom he was named. He was born in 1759, or 1760, at Cairn, near to Drummaquhance, in Perthshire. His father was a respectable farmer in that part of the country, and was characterized by great natural shrewdness and vivacity. His son, John, was educated at the parish school of Muthill, and early distinguished himself by his superior powers of mind, and by his application. Being destined for the church, he, in 1776, repaired to the university of St Andrews, where he became a successful candidate for a bursary. He made great proficiency in the Greek language, then taught by the late principal George Hill, and also discovered a partiality for the study of mathematics, although he does not appear to have prosecuted this important branch of science. After having attended the usual preliminary classes at the united college of St Salvador and St Leonard, Barclay studied divinity in St Mary's, attaching himself to the moderate party in the church. He studied divinity at St Andrews, under the professor, Dr Spence, for two or three sessions, but having engaged to teach a school, he found it more convenient to deliver the prescribed exercises before the professor in Edinburgh. On one of these occasions there took place a very singular occurrence, which the Doctor himself used to relate. Having come to Edinburgh for the express purpose of delivering a discourse in the hall, he waited upon his uncle, who was an excellent scholar. It was what is called "An Exercise and Addition," or a discourse, in which the words of the original are criticised—the doctrines they contain illustrated—and it is concluded by a brief paraphrase. He proposed to read it to his uncle before he delivered it—and when he was in the act of doing so, his respected relative objected to a criticism which he had introduced, and endeavoured to show that it was contrary to several passages in the writings of the apostle Paul. The doctor had prepared the exercise with great care, and had quoted the authority of Xenophon in regard to the meaning of the word. The old man got into a violent passion at his nephew's obstinacy, and seizing a huge folio that lay on the table, hurled it at the recusant's head, which it fortunately missed. Barclay, who really had a great esteem for his uncle, related the anecdote to a clergyman a few days after it happened, and laughed very heartily at it. Barclay wrote about this time, "A History of all Religions," but of this no trace was to be found among his manuscripts. Having delivered with approbation his trial discourses, he obtained license from the Presbytery of Dunkeld. Meanwhile he acted as tutor to the two sons of Sir James Campbell, of Aberuchill, whose daughter, Eleonora, in 1811, became his wife. In 1789 he accompanied his pupils to Edinburgh, where he preached occasionally for his friends. The medical school of Edinburgh was then at the height of its reputation. Cullen's brilliant career was drawing to a close, and he was succeeded by the celebrated Dr Gregory, Dr Black and the second Monro still shed lustre on their respective departments. Barclay was principally attracted to the anatomical class by the luminous prelections of Dr Monro, and appears to have thenceforward devoted himself to a complete course of medical study. In 1796 he took the degree of M.D., choosing as the subject of his
