Ireland, and the western countries of Europe. In 1820 he revisited St. Andrews, received the freedom of the city, and married the daughter of William Dalgleish, of Scotscraig, Fifeshire; and in the summer of that year he returned to India. He was offered the command of a troop of horse by the Marquis of Hastings, then governor-general, but declined it; soliciting and obtaining in it stead the appointment of superintendent of the great military road, telegraph towers, and post-office department between Calcutta and Benares. He discharged the duties of this post with great efficiency till June 1827, when he was promoted to be major, and was ordered to assume the command of the 4th battalion of artillery at Dum-Dum. He resigned his command on 4 July 1831, and in the autumn of that year set out for England, where he arrived on 14 March 1832. On 10 Feb. 1834 he resigned the service of the East India Company.
Playfair now settled down permanently at St. Andrews, with the municipal history of which place the rest of his life is exclusively concerned. In 1842 he was elected provost, an office he held without intermission till his death. He was an energetic reformer in municipal affairs, and the city of St. Andrews owes to him all its modern improvements. He was much interested in educational matters, established a public library, and by his personal exertions secured government grants which enabled the university of St. Andrews to carry out long-projected improvements. Lastly, Playfair enjoys the fame of having revived and put on a firm basis the celebrated golf club, to which St. Andrews owes its chief fame as a popular resort. Though the vast majority of Playfair's schemes were carried through, yet he encountered much obloquy and opposition. In 1847 his portrait, by Sir J. Watson Gordon, was placed in the old town hall; in 1856 the university of St. Andrews conferred on him the degree of LL.D., and in the same year he was knighted. Playfair died at St. Andrews on 21 Jan. 1861, and his remains were accorded a public funeral. The present Lord Playfair is the son of Sir Hugh's eldest brother, George.
[Louden's Biographical Sketch of Sir Hugh Lyon Playfair; Sir Hugh Playfair and St. Andrews (anon.); Gent. Mag. 1861, pt. i. p. 333; Dodwell and Miles's Indian Army List; St. Andrews Public Records; and numerous articles in the Scotsman and the Fifeshire Journal.]
PLAYFAIR, JAMES (1738–1819), principal of St. Andrews, second son of George Playfair, a farmer of West Bendochy in Perthshire, by his wife Jean Roger, was born on 19 Dec. 1738. After studying at the university of St. Andrews, he obtained license as a probationer on 1 Nov. 1770, and was ordained to the pastoral charge of Newtyle. On 19 June 1777 he was translated to the neighbouring parish of Meigle. He received the degree of doctor of divinity from the university of St. Andrews on 2 July 1779, and was repeatedly invited to preside as moderator of the General Assembly, an honour which he declined. On 20 Aug. 1800 he was appointed principal of the United College, St. Andrews, and minister of the church of St. Leonard's in that city. For many years he held the appointment of historiographer to the Prince of Wales. He died at Dalmarnock, near Glasgow, on 26 May 1819. He married, on 30 Sept. 1773, Margaret, elder daughter of the Rev. George Lyon of Wester Ogle in Forfarshire. She died at St. Andrews on 4 Nov. 1831. By her Playfair left four sons—of whom the three elder joined the H. E. I. C. S.—viz.: George, doctor of medicine, inspector-general of hospitals in Bengal, and father of Baron Playfair; Colonel William Davidson Playfair; Lieutenant-colonel Sir Hugh Lyon Playfair [q. v.] The youngest son, James, was a merchant in Glasgow. Of Playfair's two daughters the elder married Patrick Playfair; and Janet, the younger, James Macdonald, Anstruther Wester.
Playfair wrote accounts of the parishes of Meigle, Essie, and Nevay for Sir John Sinclair's ‘Statistical Account of Scotland.’ He was also the author of:
- ‘System of Chronology,’ Edinburgh, 1784, fol.
- ‘System of Geography Ancient and Modern,’ 6 vols. Edinburgh, 1810–14, 4to.
- ‘General Atlas, Ancient and Modern,’ London, 1814, fol.
- ‘Geographical and Statistical Description of Scotland,’ 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1819, 8vo.
[Rogers's Four Perthshire Families; Rogers's History of St. Andrews; Scott's Fasti, pt. iv. p. 401.]
PLAYFAIR, JOHN (1748–1819), mathematician and geologist, born at Benvie, near Dundee, on 10 March 1748, was eldest son of James Playfair, minister of Liff and Benvie, by his wife, Margaret Young. William Playfair [q. v.] was his brother. He was educated at home till the age of fourteen, when he was sent to St. Andrews. He graduated in 1765. In 1766, being only eighteen, he contended for the mathematical chair in the Marischal College, Aberdeen, and came out third in the competition. He then completed his theological course at St. Mary's College, and was licensed by the presbytery as a minister in 1770. In 1769
