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GILLESPIE, (REV.) WILLIAM,
minister of Kells in Galloway, was the oldest son of the Rev. John
Gillespie, who preceded him in that charge; and was born in the manse of
the parish, February 18, 1776. After receiving the rudiments of education
at the parish school, he entered the university of Edinburgh, in 1792, and
was appointed tutor to Mr Don, afterwards Sir Alexander Don, bart., in
whose company he was introduced to the most cultivated society. While
acting in this capacity, and at the same time prosecuting his theological
studies, he amused himself by writing verses, and at this time commenced
his poem entitled the "Progress of Refinement," which was not
completed or published till some years afterwards. Among other clubs and
societies of which he was a member, may be instanced the Academy of
Physics, which comprehended Brougham, Jeffrey, and other young men of the
highest abilities, and of which an account has already been given in our
article, Dr Thomas Brown. In 1801, having for some time completed
his studies, and obtained a license as a preacher, he was ordained helper
and successor to his father, with the unanimous approbation of the parish.
Soon after, he was invited by his former pupil, Mr Don, to accompany him
in making the tour of Europe; and he had actually left home for the
purpose, when the project was stopped by intelligence of the renewal of
the war with France. In 1805, Mr Gillespie published "the Progress of
Refinement, an allegorical poem," intended to describe the advance of
society in Britain, from its infancy to maturity, but which met with
little success. It was generally confessed that, though Mr Gillespie
treated every subject in poetry with much taste and no little feeling, he
had not a sufficient draught of inspiration, or that vivid fervour of
thought which is so called, to reach the highest rank as a versifier. In
1806, by the death of his father, he succeeded to the full charge of the
parish of Kells. For some years afterwards, he seems to have contented
himself in a great measure with discharging his duties as a clergyman,
only making occasional contributions to periodical works, or communicating
information to the Highland Society, of which he was a zealous and useful
member. At length, in 1815, he published, in an octavo volume,
"Consolation and other Poems," which, however, received only the
same limited measure of applause which had already been bestowed upon his
Progress of Refinement. Mr Gillespie, in July 1825, married Miss Charlotte
Hoggan; but being almost immediately after seized with erysipelas, which
ended in general inflammation, he died, October 15, in the fiftieth year
of his age. As the character of this accomplished person had been of the
most amiable kind, his death was very generally and very sincerely
mourned: his biographer, Mr Murray, in his Literary History of Galloway,
states the remarkable fact, that, amidst the many wet eyes which
surrounded his grave, "even the sexton – a character not in general
noted for soft feelings – when covering the remains of his beloved
pastor, sobbed and wept to such a degree that he was hardly able to
proceed with his trying duty." |
