MACPHERSON, DAVID (1746–1816), historian and compiler, son of a tailor and clothier, was born at Edinburgh, 26 Oct. 1746. He was probably educated at the Edinburgh High School and University, and was afterwards trained as a land surveyor. Prosecuting his business in Great Britain and America, he earned a small competence before 1790, about which time he settled with his wife and family in London as a man of letters. Losing money through unfortunate loans, he was occasionally in straitened circumstances afterwards, but worked manfully, receiving encouragement from writers like Joseph Ritson and George Chalmers [q. v.] of the 'Caledonia.' For some time Macpherson was a deputy-keeper of the public records, and assisted in preparing for publication the first and part of the second volume of the 'Rotuli Scotiæ.' He died in London 1 Aug. 1816.
Macpherson edited with adequate scholarship and skill Andrew Wyntoun's 'Orygynal Cronykil of Scotland,' 2 vols. 4to, 1795. This was re-edited, in an enlarged form, by David Laing, for the 'Historians of Scotland' series, 1879. Macpherson's other works are:
- 'Geographical Illustrations of Scottish History,' 4to, 1796.
- 'Annals of Commerce, Fisheries, and Navigation … from the earliest Accounts to the Meeting of the Union Parliament in 1801' (embodying the essence of Anderson's 'History of Commerce'), 4 vols. 4to, 1805.
- 'The History of European Commerce with India,' 4to, 1812.
[Biographical Sketch of Macpherson, by David Laing, in Historians of Scotland, vol. ix.; Anderson's Scottish Nation.]
MACPHERSON, DUNCAN (d. 1867), army surgeon and writer, was appointed surgeon to the army in Madras in 1836. During 1840-2 he served with the 37th grenadier regiment in China, and published a narrative of the expedition under the title 'Two Years in China, with an Appendix of General Orders and Despatches;' the work was well received, and passed to a third edition in 1843. On his return from China he served chiefly with the irregular horse in the Hyderabad contingent, acquiring in this way a thorough insight into the manner of treatment needed by a Mahommedan soldiery. On the outbreak of the war with Russia, Macpherson was in 1855, on the strong recommendation of his former commander, Lord Gough, appointed head of the medical staff of the Turkish contingent, a force of twenty thousand of the sultan's subjects who received British pay and were placed under British officers, the latter being drawn for the most part from the Indian army. During his sojourn on the Bosphorus he prepared his 'Antiquities of Kertch and Researches in the Cimmerian Bosphorus,' London, 1857, a very handsome imperial 4to, dedicated to Lord Panmure, and containing a sketch of the history and archæology as well as of the physical and ethnological features of the country. Besides woodcuts it contains a number of highly finished and artistic coloured lithograph plates, chiefly of vessels in terra-cotta, glass, or bronze. Most of the pottery described and depicted was subsequently transmitted to the British Museum (cf. Athenæum, 1857, p. 561). Returning to India, Macpherson was at once promoted inspector-general of the medical service of Madras. This infraction of the hitherto sacred rule of seniority, together with the feverish activity of the new inspector in the performance of his duties and his large schemes of reorganisation, rendered him not a little 'repugnant to the older official class,' It was, however, generally admitted that he anticipated progress in several important departments of military sanitation. Macpherson died at Merkára, Coorg, being then honorary physician and honorary surgeon to her majesty, on 8 June 1867. At the time of his death he was about to be gazetted president of the Madras sanitary commission.
[Macpherson's Works in Brit. Mus. Library; Gent. Mag. 1867, ii. 397; Indian Army and Civil Service Lists; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.; Lancet, 13 July 1867, p. 56.]
MACPHERSON, EWEN (d. 1756), of Cluny, Jacobite, was the hereditary chief of the Macphersons, a branch of the ancient clan Chattan. They claimed the chieftaincy of the clan Chattan against the Mackintoshes, tracing their descent to Gillicattan Mor, progenitor of the clan in the eleventh century. Andrew Macpherson of Cluny, in 1609, with others of the clan Chattan, recognised Mackintosh as chief, but in 1665 the Macphersons declined to assist the Mackintoshes against Lochiel except from motives of friendship, and in 1612 Donald Macpherson obtained from the Lyon office the right to have his arms matriculated as laird of Cluny Macpherson and 'the only and true representative of the ancient and honourable family of the Clan Chattan.' On objections raised by the Mackintoshes, the armorial bearings were changed to those of 'cadets of Clan Chattan,' and the
