Information on John Blair lacks details about his birthday,
family life, and early years but he is known to be a descendent of the Blairs
of Balthayock, Perthshire and was born in Edinburgh. Blair would remain in
Edinburgh where he was educated in theology so that he may join the Church of
Scotland. During this time, he encountered notable peers whose ideas would
later play a role in the Scottish Enlightenment, such as Hugh Blair, John Home,
William Carlyle, and William Robertson. Although Blair received his license to
preach in Scotland, he left Scotland for London with a decent patrimony and
took up a position in the Church of England. He supposedly replaced Andrew
Henderson, a Scottish writer notable for his work, The History of the Rebellion, 1745 and 1746, as usher at a school
on Hedge Lane. Blair would remain in London for the rest of his life.
Blair’s
first, and arguably greatest, publication was The Chronology and History of the World from the Creation to the Year
of Christ 1753, illustrated in fifty-six tables published in 1754. The original
work was dedicated to Lord Chancellor Hardwicke but other editions would be
dedicated to other figures, such as Augusta, the Dowager Princess of Wales. The
table system used in the book was originally the “invention of a student (Dr. Hugh
Blair) for his private convenience” but was “adopted, improved, and published”
by John Blair, a distance relation of Hugh Blair (Hill, 201). The work was sold
by subscription and its subscribers included George, Prince of Wales; the
Princess Dowager of Wales; William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland; and Prince
Edward. Blair’s preface ensures to personally acknowledge his “Great
Obligations to the Right Honourable William Earl of Bath” with whom it appears
Blair had been working closely with for many years. Blair’s book, unprecedented
it its form, became the standard for work of this kind. Due to its popularity,
the work was reprinted in 1756, 1768, and 1814. The 1768 edition included an
additional fourteen maps along with “A dissertation of the rise and progress of
geography.” Willoughby Rosse published another edition entitled Blair’s Chronological Tables, Revised and Enlarged
in 1856 but believed Blair’s general outline was all that survived of the
original work. The book was translated into French 1797 and American editions
began appearing in the 1820s.
Cover of Blair's The Chronology and History of the World |
Blair’s Chronology earned him a place in the
Royal Society of London in 1755. That same year, Blair published, “Agitation of
the waters near Reading” in the Royal Society’s Transactions. He became chaplain to the Princess Dowager of Wales in
1757 and was appointed the math tutor of Prince Edward. Blair’s relationship
with Edward must have been a positive one for Blair escorted the young Prince
on his continental tour in 1763-1764 and afterwards served as his secretary. Blair was selected as a fellow of the
Society of Antiquaries in 1761, the same year he was appointed prebendary of
Westminster (a position earned in part due to Edward’s influence). Shortly
after, the dean and the chapter of Westminster presented Blair with the
vicarage of Hinckley. His position would transferred twice, first to the
vicarage of St. Bride’s in London in 1771 and then to the rectory of St. John the
Evangelist in Westminster in 1776. Blair also held a post in Buckinghamshire as
rector of Horton.
A fellow Edinburgh classmate,
Alexander Carlyle, writes in his autobiography that Blair was “a lively agreeable
fellow, and one of the most friendly men in the world… a man of superior
understanding, and of a most gentlemanly address”” (Carlyle, 189). The author
notes how Blair took care of his friends, whether that be by purchasing a pair of
stockings to “providing them with a settlement for life” (Carlyle, 338).
Blair
passed away on 24 June 1782 in Dean’s Yard, Westminster reportedly from
influenza. His final publication,
Lectures on the canon of scriptures, comprehending a dissertation on the
Septuagint, was published three years after his death in 1785 and was
dedicated to George III.
Sources:
Blair, John. The Chronology
and History of the World from the Creation to the Year of Christ 1753,
illustrated in fifty-six tables. London: 1754. http://find.galegroup.com/ecco/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=Author&tabID=T001&prodId=ECCO&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchId=R1&searchType=BasicSearchForm¤tPosition=1&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28A0%2CNone%2C11%29John+Blair.%3AAnd%3ALQE%3D%28BA%2CNone%2C124%292NEF+Or+0LRH+Or+2NEK+Or+0LRL+Or+2NEI+Or+0LRI+Or+2NEJ+Or+0LRK+Or+2NEG+Or+0LRF+Or+2NEH+Or+0LRJ+Or+2NEM+Or+0LRN+Or+2NEL+Or+0LRM%24&retrieveFormat=MULTIPAGE_DOCUMENT&userGroupName=loyolau&inPS=true&contentSet=ECCOArticles&&docId=CW3302639099&retrieveFormat=MULTIPAGE_DOCUMENT&docLevel=FASCIMILE&workId=CW3302639099&relevancePageBatch=CW102639099&showLOI=Yes&contentSet=&callistoContentSet=ECLL&docPage=article&hilite=y.
Carlyle, Alexander and John Hill Burton, ed. Autobiography of the Rev. Alexander Carlyle,
Minister of Inveresk. Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1860. https://archive.org/stream/autobiographyre00burtgoog#page/n345/mode/2up/search/licence.
Hill, John. An Account
of the Life and Writings of Hugh Blair. Philadelphia: Humphreys, 1808. https://archive.org/stream/accountoflifewri1808hill#page/222/mode/2up.
Sher,
Richard B.. “Blair, John (d. 1782).” Richard B. Sher In Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography, online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/2567 (accessed July 6, 2015).
The Popular Scottish
Biography: Being Lives of Eminent Scotsmen. Edinburgh: The Edinburgh
Printing and Publishing Company, 1841. https://books.google.com/books?id=lLBVAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA218&dq=the+popular+scottish+biography&hl=en&sa=X&ei=LAubVePDG8PwsAWjnJmgBg&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=Blair&f=false.
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