Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/175

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
AND
151
AND

count of Travels in the East, by George Anderson and Volg. Iversen," was born at Tonderen, in the duchy of Schleswig. Between the years 1644 and 1650, he visited the Cape of Good Hope, Java, Sumatra, Arabia, Persia, India, China, Japan, Tartary, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine. He was a man of no special cultivation, but endowed with a very tenacious memory; and entering, on his return home, into the service of the duke of Holstein-Gottorp, he used to entertain that prince daily with the narrative of his experiences. His book was published at Schleswig in 1669. He died about 1675.—A. M.

ANDERSON, James, a Scotch genealogist, lived in the earlier half of the eighteenth century, and was pastor of a presbyterian church in Swallow Street, Piccadilly, London, and also chaplain to a lodge of Freemasons. It was, doubtless, his holding the latter office that led him to publish, in 1723, a book called "The Constitutions of Freemasons." His genealogical works, which are the result of some labour, but display little judgment, are—"Royal Genealogies, or the Genealogical Tables of Emperors, Kings, and Princes, from Adam to these times;" and "a Genealogical History of the House of Yvery," prepared and published at the expense of the earl of Egmont.—A. M.

ANDERSON, James, a Scottish archæologist of eminence, was born in 1662, and was the son of the Rev. Patrick Anderson, a clergyman who suffered persecution during the reign of Charles II. After studying at the university of Edinburgh, he adopted the profession of writer to the signet, but the success of a book which he published in 1705, induced him to turn his energies into a different channel. The work referred to was his "Historical Essay, showing that the Crown and Kingdom of Scotland is imperial and independent," which was enthusiastically received, as a complete and successful refutation of the work of William Atwood, "The Superiority and direct Dominion of the imperial Crown and kingdom of England over the Crown and Kingdom of Scotland." Honoured with a vote of thanks by the Scottish Parliament, and encouraged by promises of material aid, he commenced the great work of his life—a collection of fac-similes of ancient charters of the Scottish kings and nobles, with their seals and coins. Previously to the final dissolution of the Scottish Parliament, a sum of money had been granted him for carrying on his expensive undertaking, but he had already greatly exceeded it when the Union took place; and though he was recommended, by the afore-mentioned body, to the queen and to the parliament of Great Britain, it was long before any sufficient attention was paid to his claims. The unfortunate archæologist was, meanwhile, obliged to subsist as well as he could on empty promises and hope deferred. In 1715 he was made postmaster-general for Scotland, with a salary of £200 a year, which, though he held the office only for a year and a half, was continued till his death in 1728; but his outlay on the undertaking into which he had launched at the recommendation of the legislature of his country was never reimbursed. Such were his embarrassments that he had even been compelled to pawn the plates of his fac-similes, and had attempted to obtain subscribers for his work at the ruinously low rate of two guineas per copy. According to Wodrow the historian, he had completed his collections only three or four days before his death. The work was edited in 1739 by the celebrated Thomas Ruddiman, and sold at from ten to fifteen guineas per copy. It bears the title:—"Selectus Diplomatum et Numismatum Scotiæ Thesaurus, in duas partes distributus: Prior syllogen complectitur veterum Diplomatum sive Chartarum Regum et Procerum Scotiæ, una cum eorum Sigillis, a Duncano II. ad Jacobum I., id est, ab anno 1094 ad 1412. Adjuncta sunt reliquorum Scotiæ et Magnæ Britanniæ regum Sigilia, a prædicto Jacobi I. ad nuperam Duorum Regnorum in unum, anno 1707, Coalitionem; item Characteres et Abbreviaturæ in Antiquis Codicibus MSS. Instrumentisque usitatæ. Posterior continet Numismata, tam aurea quam argentea, singulorum Scotiæ regum, ab Alexandro I. ad supradictam Regnorum Coalitionem perpetua serie deducta; Subnexis quæ reperiri poterant eorundem regum Symbolis Heroicis." In the years 1724-1728, pending the completion and publication of his great work, Anderson gave to the world four quarto volumes of "Collections relating to the History of Mary Queen of Scots," a valuable series of documents, the trustworthiness of which, however, has been questioned.—A. M.

ANDERSON, James, an agricultural writer, was born at Hermiston, near Edinburgh, in 1739. He was brought up amidst farming operations, and seems early to have imbibed a taste for them; but he prosecuted the study of chemistry and other sciences at the same time that he was engaged in practical agricultural work. He took a lease of a large extent of barren ground at Monkshill, in Aberdeenshire, for the purpose of carrying on his agricultural improvements. In 1771 Mr. Anderson commenced a series of essays on Planting, in the Edinburgh Weekly Magazine, under the signature of Agricola, and he subsequently published them in a separate form. In 1780 the university of Aberdeen conferred on him the degree of LL.D. He settled afterwards near Edinburgh, and took a deep interest in the improvement of fisheries, on which he made a report to government. His literary labours were continued in two periodicals, one entitled "The Bee," and the other, "Recreations in Agriculture." He died 15th October, 1808, at the age of 69.—J. H. B.

ANDERSON, James, physician-general to the army of the East India Company in Madras, distinguished himself towards the close of the eighteenth century by the energy and talent with which he advocated the introduction of various new branches of industry into British India. In 1787 he published at Madras a volume of letters addressed to Sir Joseph Banks, treating principally of an insect resembling the cochineal, which Dr. Anderson had discovered at Madras, and which was considered capable of producing a dye similar to that of the insect already in use. Actual trial, however, convinced the experimenters that the dye produced by the new insect was inferior to that of the cochineal; and a similar result was arrived at in the case even of cochineal insects brought from Brazil. Dr. Anderson did not confine his attention to the cochineal culture only, as appears from the title of a book which he published in 1791, at Madras: "Correspondence for the introduction of Cochineal Insects from America, the Varnish and Tallow trees from China, the discovery and cultivation of white lac, the culture of red lac, and also for the introduction, cultivation, and establishment of mulberry trees and silk-worms, with a description and drawing of an improved Piedmontese reel for the manufacture of raw silk, together with the cultivation of the finest cinnamon trees of Ceylon, indigo, &c." The culture of the mulberry, rearing of silk-worms, and manufacture of silk in British India, do not appear to have met with much greater success than the introduction of the cochineal, either because the method of procedure adopted was incorrect, or for reasons connected with climate and soil. To Dr. Anderson, however, belongs the merit, and it is no small one, of having personally exerted himself, and of having induced others, to put these matters to the test. He discusses in his correspondence the possibility of introducing into Hindostan various other valuable natural products, such as American cotton, the cultivation of which in our East India possessions is exciting much interest at the present time (1857). His other publications not yet mentioned are:—"Miscellaneous Communications," Madras, 1795; "An Account of the Importation of American Cochineal Insects into Hindostan," Madras, 1795, 8vo.; "State of the Silk Manufacture at Vellout and Panniwaddy," Madras, 1795; "Communications from the 1st of October, until the 12th of December, 1795: Letters, &c.," Madras, 1796, two series; "An Attempt to Discover such Minerals as Correspond with the Classification of Cronstedt, and thus lead to a more extensive Knowledge of the Mineralogy of this Country" (Coromandel); The Phœnix, 1797, pp. 14—17, 80—84, 116, 117; "Journal of the Establishment of Napal and Tuna for the Prevention and Cure of Scurvy, Dysentery, and Ulcers on Shipboard and Navigation; of Famine on Shore," Madras, 1808. The precise date of Dr. Anderson's death is not ascertained; it was probably about 1809.—A. M.

ANDERSON, Johann, was born at Hamburg in 1674. He was educated for the law at Halle, and took his doctor's degree at Leyden in 1697. On his return to Hamburg he commenced practising as an advocate, and his ability soon attracted attention and esteem. He filled various municipal offices of trust and dignity; was made syndic in 1708; and in 1732 became senior burgomaster of his native city, retaining the office till his death in 1743. As syndic of Hamburg, Johann Anderson distinguished himself by the ability with which he conducted the foreign relations of the city; and he acquired so high a reputation for statesmanship in North Germany, that George I. of England, and August Wilhelm, duke of Brunswick, both invited him to enter their service; but he refused to leave that of his native town. Besides being a skilful diplomatist and an able man of business, Anderson possessed great general cultivation, was fond