Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/110

450 eect were afterwards modified by his son in-law, Mr Robert Sandeman, author of the letters on Thcron and Aspasio, and from whom the members of the body are sometimes denominated Sandemanians.

GLENNIE,, a distinguished geometrician, a native of Fife, was born in 1750. His father was an officer in the army, and saw much severe service. Glennie received the rudiments of his education at a parochial school, and was afterwards removed to the university of St Andrews, where he made considerable proficiency in the Greek and Latin languages, but early discovered a strong and peculiar propensity to the sciences in general, but more particularly to geometry, a branch which he pursued with such zeal and success as to carry off two successive prizes in the mathematical class, when he was only 19 years of age. Glennie was originally intended for the church, and with this view, attended the divinity class, where he also distinguished himself, becoming a keen polemic and theologian, and an acute and*able disputant. Whether, however, from his finding a difficulty in obtaining a church, or from the impulse of his own disposition, he abandoned the idea of entering into holy orders, and chose rather to seek his fortune in the army. Through the interest of the earl of Kinnoul, then chancellor of the university of St Andrews and of the professors of that university, to whom Glennie's talents had strongly recommended him, he obtained a commission in the artillery, a branch of the service for which his geometrical knowledge eminently fitted him. On the breaking out of the American war, in 1775, Glennie embarked for that country with the troops sent out by the mother country to co-operate with those already there, in the suppression of the insurgents. On his arrival, now a lieutenant of artillery, he was placed under the command of general St Leger ; his reputation however, as a promising officer and skilful engineer, was already so great, that he was left in full command of his own particular department. Throughout the whole campaign which followed, he conducted all his operations with such judgment and intrepidity, as to attract the notice of the marquis of Townshend, who, without solicitation or any interest whatever being made, transferred Glennie to the engineers; and this flattering circumstance, together with the reasons annexed, were certified in the London Gazette. In 1779, he was further gratified by being nominated one of the thirty practitioner engineers, and appointed -second, and soon after first lieutenant. So active and industrious were Glennie's habits, that even while engaged in the arduous and dangerous duties of his profession in America, he wrote a number of important papers on abstruse subjects. These he transmitted to the Royal Society, where they were read and deemed so valuable, as to procure him the honour of being elected a member, and that, as in the case of the celebrated Dr Franklin, without fees, and even without his knowledge.

On his return to England, Mr Glennie married Miss Mary Anne Locke, daughter of the store- keeper at Plymouth.

The good fortune, however, which had hitherto attended Glennie, and the prosperous career which apparently lay still before him, were now about to close in darkness and disappointment The first blow to Glennie's hopes of future promotion, proceeded from a circumstance sufficiently remarkable in itself. The duke of Richmond, who was at the time of Glennie's return from America, master general of the Board of Ordnance, in which he had displaced Glennie's early patron the marquis of Townshend, had conceived the absurd idea of fortifying all our naval arsenals, and of forming lines of defence on the coast, instead of increasing the navy, and trusting to that arm for protection against a foreign enemy. The Duke was much opposed on this point in parliament; but as it was a favourite idea, he persevered, and supported as he was