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ANDERSON, JAMES, an eminent
antiquary, was the son of the Rev. Patrick Anderson, who had been ejected
for non-conformity at the Restoration, and afterwards suffered imprisonment
in the Bass, for preaching in a conventicle at Edinburgh. The subject of
this memoir, whose brother, Adam, has already been commemorated, was born,
August 5th, 1662, and in 1677, is found studying philosophy in the
university of Edinburgh, where, after finishing a scholastic education, he
obtained the degree of Master of Arts, on the 27th of May, 1680. He chose
the law for his profession, and, after serving an apprenticeship under Sir
Hugh Paterson of Bannockburn, was admitted a member of the society of
writers to the signet in 1691. In this branch of the legal profession, the
study of written antiquities in some measure forces itself upon the
practitioner; and it appears that Anderson, though a diligent and able man
of business, became in time too fond of the accessory employment to care
much for the principal. A circumstance which occurred in 1704, decided his
fate by tempting him into the field of antiquarian controversy. The question
of the union of the two countries was then very keenly agitated - on the one
side with much jealous assertion of the national independency - and on the
other, with not only a contempt for the boasts of the Scots, but a revival
of the old claims of England for a superiority or paramouncy over their
country. A lawyer named Attwood, in 1704, published a pamphlet in which all
the exploded pretensions of Edward I. were brought prominently into view,
and a direct dominion in the crown of England, asserted over that of
Scotland. For this work, Mr Anderson, though altogether unknown to Mr
Attwood, was cited as an evidence and eye-witness, to vouch some of the most
important original charters and grants by the kings of Scotland, which
Attwood maintained were in favour of the point he laboured to establish. Mr
Anderson, in consequence of such an appeal, thought himself bound in duty to
his country, to publish what he knew of the matter, and to vindicate some of
the best of the Scottish kings, who were accused by Attwood of a base and
voluntary surrender of their sovereignty. Accordingly, in 1705, he published
"An Essay, showing that the crown of Scotland is imperial and
independent;" Edinburgh, 8vo. which was so acceptable to his country,
that; besides a reward, thanks were voted to him by parliament, to be
delivered by the lord Chancellor, in presence of her Majesty's high
Commissioner and the Estates; at the same time that Attwood's book, like
others of the same nature, was ordered to be burnt at the cross of Edinburgh
by the hands of the common hangman. Mr Anderson's publication is now of
little value, except for the charters attached to it in the shape of an
appendix.
This affair was the crisis of
Anderson's fate in life. He had, in the course of his researches for the
essay, collected a large mass of national papers; the study of charters was
just then beginning to be appreciated by antiquaries; the enthusiasm of the
nation was favourable, for the moment, to any undertaking which would show
the ancient respectability of its separate system of government. Under all
these circumstances, Anderson found it easy to secure the patronage of the
Scottish estates towards a design for engraving and publishing a series of
facsimiles of the royal charters, previous to the reign of James I., and of
seals, medals, and coins, from the earliest to the present time. In
November, 1706, he had a parliamentary grant of three hundred pounds towards
this object. He then proceeded vigorously with the work, and in March, 1707,
had not only expended the three hundred pounds granted by parliament, but
five hundred and ninety pounds besides, which he had drawn from his own
funds. A committee reported the facts; and the estates, while they approved
of his conduct, recommended to the Queen to bestow upon him an additional
contribution of one thousand and fifty pounds sterling. Another
parliamentary act of grace - and one of the very last proceedings of the
Scottish estates - was to recommend him to the Queen "as a person
meriting her gracious favour, in conferring any office or trust upon him, as
her Majesty in her royal wisdom, shall think fit."
Quite intoxicated with this
success, Anderson now gave up his profession, and, resolving to devote
himself entirely to the national service as an antiquary, removed to London,
in order to superintend the progress of his work. The event only added
another proof to what is already abundantly clear - that scarcely any
prospects in the precarious fields of literature, ought to tempt a man
altogether to resign a professional means of subsistence. The money voted by
the expiring parliament is said to have never been paid; - the British
senate perhaps considering itself not the proper heir of the Scottish
estates. Apparently in lieu of money, he was favoured, in 1715, with the
appointment of postmaster general for Scotland; but of this he was deprived
in little more than two years. What progress he now made, with his great
work is not very clearly known. He is found, in 1718, advertising that those
who might wish to encourage it "could see specimens at his house, above
the post-office in Edinburgh." As the expense of engraving must have
borne hard upon his diminished resources, he would appear to have digressed
for some years into an employment of a kindred nature, attended with greater
facilities of publication. In 1727, he published the two first volumes of
his well known "Collections relating to the History of Mary, Queen of
Scotland," Edinburgh, 4to, which was speedily completed by the
addition of two other volumes. This work contains a large mass of valuable
original documents connected with the Marian controversy; but George
Chalmers, who went over the same ground, insinuates that there is too much
reason to suspect his honesty as a transcriber. If the prejudices of the two
men are fairly balanced against the reputations which they respectively bear
as antiquaries, we must acknowledge that the charge may not be altogether
groundless.
Anderson died in 1728 of a
stroke of apoplexy, leaving his great work unfinished. The plates were sold,
in 1729, by auction, at £530, and it was not till 1737 that the work
appeared, under the title of "Selectus Diplomatum et Numismatum Scotiae
Thesaurus," the whole being under the care of the celebrated Thomas
Ruddiman, who added a most elaborate preface. |
