Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bruce, James (1765?-1806)

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1315098Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 07 — Bruce, James (1765?-1806)1886Alice Macdonell

BRUCE, JAMES (1765?–1806), essayist, was born in the county of Forfar in or about 1765. After an honourable career at the university of St. Andrews, he went thence to Emmanuel College Cambridge. He graduated B.A. in 1789, and took orders in the English church. About 1800 he was again in Gotland, where for a short time he officiated as a clergyman in the Scottish episcopal church. Towards the end of this period, in 1803, was published his only separate literary work, 'The Regard which is due to the Memory of Good Men,' a sermon preached at Dundee on the death of George Teaman.

In 1803 he came to London to devote himself to literature, and was soon a prolific contributor to the 'British Critic' and the 'Anti-Jacobin Magazine and Review,' the latter a weekly journal started almost contemporaneously with, and conducted on the same principles as, its more famous namesake the 'Anti-Jacobin' of Canning celebrity. A large proportion of the articles published in this review from 1803 to 1806 are from Bruce's pen. These articles, written with considerable ability, are chiefly on theological and literary subjects. The former are characterised by a keen spirit of partisanship, and are aimed especially against the Calvinistic and evangelical parties in the church. His contempt for the whole tendency of the thought of revolutionary France was most hearty, and helped to keep up the ' Anti-Jacobin ' tradition. For a list of the titles of the most important, see Anderson's 'Scottish Nation.'

Bruce's life in London was obscure, and probably unfortunate. He was found dead in the passage of the house in which he lodged in Fetter Lane, 24 March 1806.

[Anderson's Scottish Nation; Irving's Book of Scotsmen; Annual Register, 1806, p. 524.]

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