Gilfillan actively promoted mechanics' institutes, popular lectures, and free libraries. He brought distinguished men, such as Professor John Nicol, the astronomer, R. W. Emerson, and Dr. Samuel Brown, to lecture at Dundee and at mechanics' institutes elsewhere. In May 1841 he himself lectured against the corn laws; in January 1844, at the Watt Institution, on the reconciliation of geology and scripture; in 1846 on ‘literature and books’ and against American slavery. He actively sympathised with Kossuth and Garibaldi, and supported the Burns centenary and the Shakespeare tercentenary. In 1865 he lectured on Ireland, but ‘without hope that it would ever come abreast of Great Britain;’ he had visited it and examined its evils for himself. Lectures on America followed.
Gilfillan generously assisted his fellow-authors, among those he helped being Sydney Dobell, Alexander Smith, and John Stanyan Bigg. As an editor of the old poets, a labour that occupied much of his time, Gilfillan was not very successful. He wrongly disdained the minute rectification of texts by a careful collation of the earliest editions or manuscripts, and his introductory essays and memoirs are not remarkable for accuracy. He died suddenly on Tuesday morning, 13 Aug. 1878, at Arnhalt, Brechin. His funeral, 17 Aug., at Balgay cemetery, was attended by a procession two miles long. Gilfillan's many friends acknowledged that success never spoilt him, and all recognised his generosity and sincerity. Though living so busy a life, he found time in vacations for much foreign travel. In November 1836 he married Margaret Valentine of Mearns, who survived him. It was a happy marriage, although they had no children.
The following are his more important works: 1. ‘Hades,’ already mentioned, 1843. 2. ‘Gallery of Literary Portraits,’ first series, 1845 (Jeffrey, Godwin, Hazlitt, Robert Hall, Shelley, Chalmers, Carlyle, De Quincey, Wilson, Irving, Landor, Coleridge, Emerson, Wordsworth, Lamb, Keats, Macaulay, Aird, Southey, Lockhart, and others); second series, 1850; third, 1854; reissued 1856–7. 3. ‘Alpha and Omega’ (one of his best books), 2 vols. of scripture studies, 1850. 4. ‘Book of British Poesy,’ 1851. 5. ‘Bards of the Bible,’ 1851; 6th edition 1874. 6. ‘Martyrs and Heroes of the Scottish Covenant,’ 1852. 7. ‘The Fatherhood of God,’ 1854. 8. ‘Life of Robert Burns,’ 1856 and 1879. 9. ‘History of a Man; a semi-autobiographical Romance,’ 1856. 10. ‘Christianity and our Era,’ 1857. 11. ‘Remoter Stars in the Church Sky’ (short memoirs of preachers, among whom is his father, Samuel Gilfillan), 1867. 12. ‘Modern Christian Heroes, including Milton, Cromwell, and the Puritans,’ 1869. 13. ‘Life of Sir Walter Scott,’ 1870 and 1871. 14. ‘Comrie and its Neighbourhood,’ 1872. 15. ‘Life of the Rev. William Anderson of Glasgow,’ 1873. 16. ‘Edinburgh, Past and Present.’ His only poem of importance was the volume entitled ‘Night; a Poem,’ 1867, which found favour among his friends. His editions with lives of the poets in James Nicol's series appeared at Edinburgh between 1853 and 1860. Among his published lectures were the ‘Christian Bearings of Astronomy,’ 1848; the ‘Connection between Science, Literature, and Religion,’ 1849; ‘The Influence of Burns on Scottish Poetry and Song,’ 1855; an introduction (and probably much more) to ‘The Age of Lead, a Satire by A. Pasquin,’ 1858; ‘The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ,’ 1851; ‘Christian Missions,’ 1857; and ‘The Life and Works of David Vedder,’ 1878. He had completed the literary portion of a new ‘Life of Burns’ shortly before his death. At that time he was engaged on a ‘History of British Poetry,’ and on a memoir, intended to be his magnum opus, ‘Reconciliation, a Life History,’ a sequel to his ‘History of a Man.’ Selections from the critical and reflective, but not from the narrative, portions of this unpublished manuscript, were posthumously issued at Edinburgh, 1881, inadequately edited by Frank Henderson, M.P., under the title ‘Sketches, Literary and Theological.’
On 25 March 1878 there was signed the deed of investment of the 1,000l. ‘Gilfillan Testimonial Trust,’ the proceeds of a public subscription raised in Gilfillan's honour in 1877. After the death of his wife Margaret the money was to be devoted to founding Gilfillan scholarships for the deserving youth of either sex.
[Personal knowledge of many years; obituary notices in the Scotsman and Dundee newspapers, and his own works as enumerated above.]
GILFILLAN, JAMES, D.D. (1797–1874), Scotch divine, son of the Rev. Samuel Gilfillan [q. v.], a rather notable minister of the secession body, and brother of the Rev. George Gilfillan [q. v.], was born at Comrie, Perthshire, on 11 May 1797, and, having received his early education at a school in his native village, entered Glasgow College in 1808, when only eleven and a half years old. After spending six sessions there he entered the divinity hall of the antiburgher synod in Edinburgh, and in 1821 was licensed by the Edinburgh presbytery of the united secession church. He was ordained on 24 Dec. 1822 in Stirling secession congregation. He was an excellent preacher of the old type, but is
