A Scottish clergyman, distinguished as a pulpit orator and a philanthropist, born in Brechin; was minister at Arbirlot, near Arbroath, and then in Edinburgh; left the Established Church at the Disruption, and became minister of St. John's; traversed the country (1845-46) to raise a fund to provide manses for the Disruption ministers, and realised £116,000 for the object; came forward as an advocate for ragged schools, and founded one in Edinburgh; he was a warm-hearted man as well as an eloquent, who could both move his audience to tears and rouse it to enthusiasm (1803-1873).