created LL.D. of Aberdeen in 1786, and was also fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, honorary member of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle-on-Tyne, mathematical examiner to the corporation of Trinity House (1805-9) and to the East India Company. In his later years he took pupils in London at his house in George Street, Trinity Square; he taught mathematics and natural philosophy, navigation, architecture, and engineering. He died on 3 Aug. 1809, leaving a widow and children, and was buried in Allhallows Barking.
He made important contributions to the science of navigation, and was a skilful, accurate, and indefatigable calculator of mathematical tables. His principal works are: 1. 'The Theory and Practice of finding the Longitude at Sea or on Land: to which are added various Methods of Determining the Latitude of a Place by Variation of the Compass: with new Tables,' published by subscription, 1793, 2 vols.; 2nd edit., with author's portrait, 1801, 3rd edit. 1810. In this work is given an account of a new method of finding the longitude and latitude of a ship at sea, together with the apparent time, from the same set of observations; for which the author had received the thanks of the boards of longitude of England and France. 2. 'A Collection of Mathematical Tables,' 1804. 3. 'The Complete Navigator,' 1804; 2nd edit. 1810. The preface contains severe criticism of the books on navigation then in current use.
His minor works are: 1. 'A Comparison of different Methods of Solving Halley's Problem' (Masebes, Scriptores Logarithmici, vol. iv.; see also Preface, p. ix). 2. 'Description and Use of the Sliding Rule in Arithmetic and in the Mensuration of Surfaces and Solids,' &c, 1799; 2nd edit. 1806. 3. 'The Commencement of the Nineteenth Century determined upon unerring Principles,' Aberdeen, 1800. The object of this tract was to explain that the century began on 1 Jan. 1800 and not on 1 Jan. 1801. 4. 'Description and Use of the Sliding Gunter in Navigation,' Aberdeen, 1802; 2nd edit. Leith, 1812, edited by Alexander Ingram, with portrait of author prefixed. He also contributed articles to the 'Encyclopædia Britannica,' 3rd edit. 1797 (see Preface, xv), on 'Navigation,' 'Parallax,' 'Pendulum,' 'Projection of the Sphere,' 'Ship-building,' and (naval) 'Tactics,' and he was a contributor to Rees's 'Cyclopædia.' He published a paper on the latitude and longitude of Aberdeen in the 'Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh,' vol. iv. For examples of Mackay's skill as a computer reference may be made to Maseres's 'Scriptores Logarithmici,' vol. vi.
[Works; European Mag. 1809, lvi. 157; Fasti Acad. Mariscallanæ, ed. P. J. Anderson, i. 450; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. iii. 153.]
MACKAY, ANGUS (1824–1886), colonial journalist and politician, born at Aberdeen on 26 Jan. 1824, was son of Murdoch MacKay of the 78th highlanders. His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Macleod. His father on receiving his pension in 1827 emigrated with his family to New South Wales.
Young MacKay was educated for the presbyterian ministry at the Australian college in Sydney, and he became for a time a school-master. But he soon turned his attention to journalism, and before he was twenty years of age he was a contributor to the 'Australian Magazine' and the 'Atlas' (a paper established by Robert Lowe, afterwards Viscount Sherbrooke). In 1847 MacKay became editor of the 'Atlas,' In 1850 he migrated to Geelong in Victoria, which is at once an industrial centre and a seaside resort, and there became manager of a general business for Mr. (afterwards Sir Henry) Parkes. But the gold rush in the following year took him back to his old calling in New South Wales, and he went to the gold-fields as a special correspondent for Mr. Parkes's new radical paper 'The Empire.' In 1853 he returned to Victoria as a digger, and took a leading part in the agitation for the alleviation of miners' grievances, heading a deputation to Melbourne, and giving important evidence before the committee to inquire into the matter. A little later he became the proprietor and editor of the 'Bendigo Advertiser.' In 1879 he returned to Sydney, and launched the 'Sydney Daily Telegraph.'
Meanwhile MacKay had entered political life. He had already, in 1849, taken an active part in the agitation for the reduction of the franchise (Fifty Years in the Making of Australian History, i. 14). In 1868, after repeated invitations, he stood for and won the seat of Sandhurst Burghs, Victoria, which he represented in three successive parliaments. Two years later he was minister of mines in the ministry of Sir James McCulloch [q. v.], and resumed the post in that of James Goodall Francis [q. v.], subsequently joining to his duties those of minister of education. His speeches as a minister were always business-like, and straightforward (Victorian Parliamentary Debates, 1870, &c.) As minister for mines, he carried through the colonial parliament several measures of benefit to the mining population. By his Mining Regulation Act accidents were reduced by one half
