Library in 1794. He died on 25 March 1821 leaving, by his wife Marjory Maitland (to whom he was married in March 1797), five sons and three daughters. He was author of the article on ‘Posts’ in ‘Encyclopaedia Britannica,’ 1794; the articles on ‘Alphabet Characters,’ ‘Etymology,’ ‘Excise,’ ‘Hieroglyphics,’ &c., in ‘Edinburgh Encyclopædia,’ 1808–18; ‘Disquisition on the Origin and Radical Sense of the Greek Prepositions,’ 1804; he edited the new edition of ‘Ewing's Greek Grammar,’ and contributed many articles to the ‘Edinburgh Magazine,’ ‘Missionary Magazine,’ and ‘Scottish Register,’ 1790-5. He published an English edition of Holbein's ‘Dance of Death,’ 1788, and wrote the memoir of his brother, Archibald Bonar [q. v.], which is prefixed to the second volume of his sermons.
[Family papers in possession of Horatius Bonar, W.S., Edinburgh; History of the Speculative Society (1845); manuscript Life, with list of his writings, written by his son.]
BONAR, JOHN, the elder (1722–1761), Scottish divine, was born at Clackmannan on 4 Nov. 1722. His father—also John Bonar—was then tutor at Kennet. His mother was Jean Smith, daughter of William Smith of Clackmannan. His father was ordained minister of the united parishes of Fetlar and North Yell, in Shetland, in 1729, and John was sent to his grandfather's manse at Torphichen, Linlithgowshire. There he received the usual parish-school education, and then proceeded to the university of Edinburgh where he matriculated 27 April 1742. He was licensed as a preacher of the gospel 5 June 1745, and ordained 22 Aug. 1746 as the minister of the parish of Cockpen, near Dalkeith. Whilst there he married, November 1746, Christian, daughter of Andrew Currier, W.S., Edinburgh (she died 22 Nov. 1771). In 1756 he received and declined a presentation to the parish or abbey church of Jedburgh. He was called to the second or collegiate church of Perth, and was settled there 29 July 1756. He came to the front as a persuasive preacher of the gospel on the old evangelical lines. In 1750 he printed anonymously ‘Observations on the Conduct and Character of Judas Iscariot’ (reprinted in 1822); and in 1752 a noticeable sermon on the ‘Nature and Necessity of Religious Education,’ which was preached before the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge. In 1755 he published anonymously ‘An Analysis of the mural and religious Sentiments contained in the writings of Sopho [i.e. Lord Kames] and David Hume, Esq.’ It was addressed to the ‘General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.’ This work is sometimes wrongly attributed to Rev. George Anderson. It was replied to angrily in ‘Observations upon the Analysis,’ but never answered. In 1760 he preached his ‘Nature and Tendency of the Ecclesiastical Constitution in Scotland’ before the synod of Perth and Stirling, which afterwards formed an important publication, and was reprinted in the ‘Scots Preacher.’ He was at his death engaged on a work, which he left unfinished, to have been entitled ‘The Example of Tyre, a Warning to Britain.’ He died at Perth 21 Dec. 1761, in the fortieth year of his age.
[Dr. Hew Scott's Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ; Memoir prefixed to vol. ii. of Sermons of the Rev. Archibald Bonar of Cramond, and Memoir prefixed to ‘Judas Iscariot,’ 1822; communications from Rev. Andrew Whyte, M.A., Clackmannan, the Rev. John Calder, presbytery clerk of Stirling. and Horatius Bonar. Esq., of Edinburgh. Rev. Dr. Andrew A. Bonar, Glasgow, grandson of John Bonar, possesses a manuscript of his grandfather, which contains interesting jottings of two visits paid by him to the scenes of the scenes of revival in Kilsyth and Cambuslang.]
BONAR, JOHN, the younger (1747–1807), solicitor of excise, eldest son of John Bonar the elder [q. v.], minister of Cockpen, was born on 22 Aug. 1747, and died 1 April 1807. He was educated at the university of Edinburgh, entered the government service, and became first solicitor of excise in Scotland. He, along with William Creech, John Bruce (afterwards professor of logic in Edinburgh University), Henry Mackenzie (author of the ‘Man of Feeling’), and Mr. Belcher Invermay, founded the Speculative Society, now the chief debating society in the Edinburgh University. Lord Melville had a high opinion of his abilities, and placed great confidence in his judgment on all revenue questions. He wrote ‘Considerations on the proposed Application to His Majesty and parliament for the Establishment of a Licensed Theatre in Edinburgh,’ 1767. He was joint editor of a volume entitled ‘Miscellaneous Pieces of Poetry selected from various Eminent Authors, among which are interspersed a few Originals,’ 1765.
[Family papers in possession of Horatius Bonar, W.S., Edinburgh; History of the Speculative Society (1845).]
BONAVENTURA, THOMASINE (d. 1510?), Cornish benefactress, was a peasant girl, born at Week St. Mary, five or six miles south of Baile, soon after the middle of the fifteenth century. She arrived, successively,
