Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Horsburgh, John

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1397039Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 27 — Horsburgh, John1891Lionel Henry Cust ‎

HORSBURGH, JOHN (1791–1869), historical engraver, born in 1791 at Prestonpans, near Edinburgh, was left an orphan early, and studied drawing at the Trustees' Academy in Edinburgh. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to Robert Scott [q. v.] the engraver, and worked under him for some years. Horsburgh was a good engraver in line, and engraved several plates after J. M. W. Turner, R.A., for ‘England and Wales,’ Cooke's ‘Southern Coast of England,’ Scott's ‘Poetical’ and ‘Prose’ works, and other publications. He engraved several single plates, including ‘Prince Charlie reading a Despatch,’ after W. Simson, ‘Sir Walter Scott,’ after Sir Thomas Lawrence, and another portrait of Scott after Sir J. Watson Gordon. At the age of about sixty Horsburgh retired from active work, and undertook gratuitously the duties of pastor in the Scottish baptist church. He died at 16 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh, on 24 Sept. 1869. His pastoral addresses were published with a short memoir prefixed immediately after his death.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Scotsman, 28 Sept. 1869.]

L. C.