Robert Haldane (1764-1842) BIOGRAPHY
Born 28th February 1764 in Queen Anne Street, Cavendish
Square, London, he was the eldest brother of James Alexander Haldane. Like his
brother he was brought up under the care of his grandmother, Lady Lundie, and
his uncles, and the two boys attended the grammar school of Dundee and the high
school of Edinburgh together.
After spending a very short time at Edinburgh
University, early in 1780 he joined H.M.S. Monarch as midshipman under his
uncle, Captain (afterwards Viscount) Duncan. Next year he was transferred to
the Foudroyant, commanded by Captain Jervis, afterwards Earl St. Vincent, on
board of which he saw some active service against the French. The peace of 1783
brought his naval career to a close.
Meanwhile he had come under the
influence of David Bogue of Gosport. On leaving the navy he spent some time
under Bogue's tuition, and then returned to Edinburgh University, where he
remained for two sessions, following up his studies by making 'the grand tour'
in the spring of 1785. In 1786 he settled down in his ancestral home of
Airthrey, where for ten years he led a country life. The outbreak of the French
revolution led him to take a keen interest in politics, but his mind became
more and more engrossed with religion. In 1796 he formed a project for founding
a mission in India, he himself to be one of the missionaries, and to supply all
the necessary funds. He proposed to sell his estates, and to invest
£25,000 for the permanent support of the work. His friend Bogue agreed to
accompany him to India, and a body of catechists and teachers and a
printing-press were to be taken out. But the East India Company refused to
permit the mission to be planted on any part of its territory, and the scheme
was abandoned.
He then turned his attention to the needs of Scotland. In
1798 he sold Airthrey, and began occasionally to preach. Leaving the Church of
Scotland in January 1799, and joining his brother in organising a
congregational church in Edinburgh, he set about establishing tabernacles in
the large centres of population, after the plan of Whitefield, he himself
supplying the necessary funds. To provide pastors he founded seminaries for the
training of students, whom he maintained at his own expense. It is said that in
the twelve years 1798-1810 he had expended over £70,000 on his schemes
for the advancement of religion in Scotland.
About 1798 he entered into a
plan for bringing twenty-four children from Africa to be educated and sent back
again to teach their fellow countrymen, and promised to bear the entire cost of
their transport, support, and education, estimated at £7,000. The
children were brought over, but for some reason or other were not placed under
Haldane's care, though he had arranged for their accommodation in Edinburgh. He
was suspected by many for his supposed democratic tendencies, as well as his
religious views. To vindicate himself he published in 1800 a pamphlet entitled
'Addresses to the Public by Robert Haldane concerning his Political Opinions
and Plans lately adopted to promote Religion in Scotland'. In 1808 his adoption
of baptist views and other circumstances created widespread discussion in the
congregational body. Among others a bitter controversy sprang up between
Haldane and the Rev. Greville Ewing in 1810.
In 1816 he published one of
his more important works, 'The Evidence and Authority of Divine Revelation'. In
the same year which saw the first appearance of this book he went to Geneva and
began a remarkable work of continental evangelisation. A large number of the
students of the university came to him daily for instruction, and he gained
over them a wonderful influence. In 1817 he removed to Montauban, where he
followed a similar course. Here he also procured the printing of two editions
of the Bible in French, amounting to sixteen thousand copies in all, which he
circulated along with a French translation of his 'Evidences' and a commentary
on the Epistle to the Romans in the same language, and many tracts.
In 1819
he returned to Scotland to an estate at Auchingray, Lanarkshire, which he had
purchased. In the end of 1824 he became involved in a controversy, which raged
for twelve years, regarding the circulation by the British and Foreign Bible
Society of the Apocrypha along with the Bible. His first 'Review of the Conduct
of the British and Foreign Bible Society relative to the Apocrypha and to their
administration on the Continent, with an Answer to the Rev. Charles Simeon, and
Observations on the Cambridge Remarks,' appeared in 1824. A second 'Review'
followed the first. The course of this controversy led him to issue one of his
best known works, 'The Authenticity and Inspiration of the Scriptures," which
at once reached a large circulation, and has passed through many editions.
In 1835 appeared the first volume of another work, which was also destined
to attain great popularity, an 'Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans,' the
beginnings of which had already appeared in French. The second volume was
published in 1837, and the third in 1839. In addition to the works mentioned he
was the author of many tracts and other fugitive publications.
He died in
Edinburgh on 12th December 1842, and was buried in Glasgow Cathedral. He
married in April 1786 Katherine Cochrane, daughter of George Oswald of
Scotstown.
[Adapted from Thomas Hamilton's article in The dictionary of
national biography: from the earliest times to 1900, 1917]
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