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Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Campbell, Daniel (1665-1722)

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Donald Campbell of Duchernan in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

1323596Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 08 — Campbell, Daniel (1665-1722)1886Francis Watt

CAMPBELL, DANIEL (more correctly Donald) (1665–1722), Scotch divine, only son of Patrick Campbell of Quaycrook, Caithness, was born 1 Aug. 1665. On 15 July 1686 he graduated as M.A. in the university and King's College of Aberdeen, and thereafter studied divinity at Edinburgh (?). On 31 Dec. 1691 he was ordained minister of the parish of Glassary in Argyllshire. Of the forty-two who subscribed his call twenty-two were Campbells. In 1692 he married Jean, daughter of Patrick Campbell, minister of Glenary, and had issue several daughters, who all married in the county, and one son, James, afterwards minister of Kilbrandon. Campbell's father died in 1705, and he thereupon sold the Caithness property. The family had previously acquired the estate of Duchernan in Glassary, and they were henceforth designated by it till 1800, when it passed into other hands. The manse of Glassary was chiefly constructed at Campbell's expense. It was one of the first in Argyllshire, and was renowned for its ‘nineteen windows.’ Campbell died 28 March 1722. He was the author of several devotional works, of which one at least was very widely popular. This was ‘Sacramental Meditations on the Sufferings and Death of Christ’ (Edinburgh, 1698). It is announced as ‘the substance of some sermons preached before the communion in the Irish Language in Kilmichael, of Glasrie’ (title-page). This treatise went through a great many editions during the next hundred and twenty years. A Gaelic translation by ‘D. Macphairlain, A.M.,’ was published at Perth in 1800.

Campbell also wrote: 1. ‘The Frequent and Devout Communicant;’ to this is appended ‘A Dialogue between a private Christian and a Minister of the Gospel concerning preparation for the Lord's Supper,’ 1703. 2. ‘Meditations on Death,’ 1718 (reprinted Glasgow, 1741). 3. ‘Dæmonomachie, or War with the Devil, in a short treatise by way of dialogue between Philander and Theophilus,’ 1718. 4. ‘Man's Chief End and Rule; the substance of Catechetical Sermons on the first three questions of the Shorter Catechism,’ 1719; a continuation of this was announced, but apparently never published. 5. ‘Meditations on Eternity,’ Edinburgh, 1721. 6. Three manuscript volumes of sermons.

[Scott's Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ, iii. 8, Edinburgh, 1870; Notes and Queries, 27 Aug. 1864, pp. 171-2; Brit. Mus. Cat.]