AITKEN, JOHN (1793–1833), editor of ‘Constable's Miscellany,’ was born at the village of Camelon, Stirlingshire, 25 March 1793. After a good elementary school education, he became clerk in the East Lothian Bank, whence he was transferred to the bank of Mr. Park (brother of Mungo Park, the traveller) at Selkirk. Subsequently he became teller in the East Lothian Bank, but on its failure he, in 1822, removed to Edinburgh, where he commenced business as a bookseller, and published the ‘Cabinet,’ a selection of miscellaneous pieces in prose and verse, which extended to three volumes, and met with considerable success. Shortly after this he was appointed editor of ‘Constable's Miscellany.’ On the death of Constable he, in conjunction with Messrs. Hurst, Chance, & Co., of London, and Mr. Henry Constable, purchased the work, but his connection with it ceased after the failure of the London firm in 1831. He had established a printing-office, with the view of starting a publication similar to the ‘Miscellany,’ when he died somewhat suddenly, 15 Feb. 1833. Aitken took an active part in founding the ‘Edinburgh Literary Journal.’ He was an occasional contributor to periodicals, and wrote verse with elegance and taste.
[The Cabinet of Friendship, a Tribute to the Memory of the late John Aitken, edited by W. C. Taylor, London, 1834.]
AITKEN, ROBERT (1800–1873), popular preacher, was born at Crailing, near Jedburgh, 22 Jan. 1800. Almost before he had attained to manhood he became a school-master in Sunderland, and, whilst living in the village of Whitburn near that town, was ordained as deacon in 1823 by Bishop Van Mildert. He was for some time resident in the Isle of Man, and was married there; but in consequence of some irregularities in preaching, he fell under the displeasure of the Bishop of Chester, and withdrew from the church of England. Although he was never properly received into the Wesleyan ministry, he was permitted to occupy the pulpits of that body, and remained in sympathy with them until the Warren controversy arose. Subsequently he preached at Liverpool and elsewhere in chapels of his own, but finally, on 20 Dec. 1840, took leave of his congregation at Zion Chapel, Waterloo Road, Liverpool, and returned to the church of England. Mr. Aitken officiated from 1842 to 1844 as curate of the little parish of Perranuthnoe, near Marazion, in Cornwall, and then became the first incumbent of the new parish of Pendeen in the same county. In this remote district, on the borders of the Atlantic, there was erected, from his own designs and under his own personal supervision, a fine cruciform church on the model of the ancient cathedral of Iona, the labour being supplied entirely by the people of the neighbourhood, and chiefly in their own leisure hours. He never held any other preferment, but his services were often sought by the incumbents of other churches in large towns, and he was well known throughout England as a preacher of almost unrivalled fervour. A fine presence and a commanding voice, combined with untiring zeal and sympathy for others, concealed his rashness of judgment. His religious creed was taken partly from the teachings of the methodist church, and partly from the views of the tractarians: he wished the one class to undergo the process of ‘conversion,’ the other to be imbued with sacramental beliefs. Whether his opinions were in accord with the principles of the established church or not, was fiercely disputed both before and after his death. His sermons and pamphlets, as well as the replies which they provoked, are described at considerable length in the first and third volumes of the ‘Bibliotheca Cornubiensis.’ Worn out with labour Mr. Aitken died suddenly on the Great Western Railway platform at Paddington 11 July 1873.
[Church Times, 6 Aug. to 24 Sept. 1875: Guardian, 23 July 1873; Parochial Hist, of Cornwall (1868), ii. 294.]
AITKIN, JOHN, M.D. (fl. 1770–1790), surgeon, the date of whose birth is not recorded, must have studied medicine at Edinburgh, where he became M.R.C.S. in 1770. In 1779 he is described as surgeon and lecturer on surgery in Edinburgh. Either at that time or later, his lectures included besides the practice of physic, anatomy, midwifery, and chemistry. He appears to have been a successful teacher, and wrote several books, chiefly as text-books for his lectures. They are said, and truly, to ‘contain much valuable information and to be well written;’ but to a reader of the present day they are of little value, having shared the unfortunate fate of most text-books written for purposes of instruction, and having become rapidly superannuated.
John Aitkin made certain practical improvements in surgery. He introduced an alteration in the mode of locking the midwifery forceps. He also invented a flexible blade to the lever. He likewise invented and described in his ‘Essays and Cases in Surgery’ a pair of forceps for dividing and diminishing the stone in the bladder, when too large to remove entire by lithotomy.
