Critchton, Andrew, Lld

Critchton, Andrew, LL.D.

a minister and author in the Established Church of Scotland, was born in December 1790, in the parish of Kirkmahoe, Dumfrieshire. He received his education at the Dumfries Academy and the University of Edinburgh, became a licensed preacher, and was for some time engaged in teaching in Edinburgh and North Berwick. In 1823 he published his first work, the Life of the Reverend John Black-ader, which was followed by the Life of Colonel J. Blackader, and Memoirs of the Reverend Thomas Scott. To. Constable's Miscellany he contributed four volumes, viz., Conversion from Infidelity, and a translation of Koch's Revolutions in Europe. In the Edinburgh Cabinet Library he wrote the History of Arabia and Scandinavia, Ancient and Modern, each in two volumes. He commenced his connection with the newspaper press in 1828 by editing the Edinburgh Evening Post. In 1830 he conducted the North Briton, and in 1832 he undertook the editorship of the Edinburgh Advertiser, in which employment he continued till June 1851. He contributed extensively to periodicals; among others, to the Westminster, Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, the Dublin University, Frazer's Magazine, the Church Review, and the Church of Scotland Magazine and Review. He was a member of the Presbytery of Edinburgh, being ruling elder of the congregation of Trinity College Church, and sat in the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland as elder for the burgh of Cullen, for three years previous to his death, which occurred in Edinburgh, January 9, 1856. See Hardwicke, Annual Biography, 1856, page 198.