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Bannerman Henry Mackenzie, with whom, and with Blair, Cullen, Erskine, and Craig, he lived on terms of intimate friendship. Much of his spare time was spent in the gratification of his literary tastes, and his papers in the ‘Mirror’ and ‘Lounger’ display much genial wit and sprightliness. He was one of the originators of the Highland Society in 1784, and he was an original member of the Bannatyne Club, which, at its institution, was limited to thirty-one members. For some years he remained the sole survivor of the old literary society of Edinburgh, whose mild splendours were eclipsed by the brilliant achievements of the succeeding generation with whom he mingled during the latter period of his life. He was among the last of the Scotch gentlemen who combined in their manners dignity and grace with a homely simplicity now for ever lost, and could make use of the graphic and strong vernacular Scotch in the pure and beautiful form in which, for many years after the union, it continued to be the current speech of the Scotch upper classes.

[Kay's Series of Original Portraits and Caricature Etchings, edition of 1877, ii. 370–71; Gent. Mag. New Series, i. 105.]  BANNERMAN, ANNE (d. 1829), Scottish poetical writer, published at Edinburgh in 1800 a small volume of ‘Poems,’ which was followed in 1802 by ‘Tales of Superstition and Chivalry.’ In December 1803 she lost her mother, and about the same time her only brother died in Jamaica. She was thus left without relatives, and in a state of destitution. Dr. Robert Anderson, writing to Bishop Percy 15 Sept. 1804, says: ‘I have sometimes thought that a small portion of the public bounty might be very properly bestowed on this elegantly accomplished woman. I mentioned her case to Professor Richardson, the confidential friend and adviser of the Duke of Montrose, a cabinet minister, who readily undertook to co-operate in any application that might be made to government. The duke is now at Buchanan House, and other channels are open, but no step has yet been taken in the business. … Perhaps an edition of her poems by subscription might be brought forward at this time with success.’ The latter suggestion was acted upon, and about 250 subscribers of a guinea were obtained for the new edition of the ‘Poems,’ including the ‘Tales of Superstition and Chivalry,’ which was published at Edinburgh in 1807, 4to, with a dedication to Lady Charlotte Rawdon. Shortly afterwards Miss Bannerman went to Exeter as governess to Lady Frances Beresford's daughter. She died at Portobello, near Edinburgh, on 29 Sept. 1829 (Glasgow Courier).

[Nichols's Illustrations of Literary History, vii. 97, 112, 123, 129, 133, 135, 138, 164, 181, 182; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Biog. Dict. of Living Authors (1816), 13.]  BANNERMAN, JAMES, D.D. (1807–1868), theologian, son of Rev. James Patrick Bannerman, minister of Cargill, Perthshire, was born at the manse of Cargill, 9 April 1807, and after a distinguished career at the university of Edinburgh, especially in the classes of Sir John Leslie and Professor Wilson, became minister of Ormiston, in Midlothian, in 1833, left the Established for the Free church in 1843, and in 1849 was appointed professor of apologetics and pastoral theology in the New College (Free church), Edinburgh, which office he held till his death, 27 March 1868. In 1850 he received the degree of D.D. from Princeton College, New Jersey. He took a leading part in various public movements, especially in that which led in 1843 to the separation of the Free church from the state, and subsequently in the negotiations for union between the nonconformist presbyterian churches of England and Scotland. His chief publications were: 1. ‘Letter to the Marquis of Tweeddale on the Church Question,’ 1840. 2. ‘The Prevalent Forms of Unbelief,’ 1849. 3. ‘Apologetical Theology,’ 1851. 4. ‘Inspiration: the Infallible Truth and Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures,’ 1865. 5. ‘The Church: a Treatise on the Nature, Powers, Ordinances, Discipline, and Government of the Christian Church,’ 2 vols. 8vo; published after his death in 1868, and edited by his son. 6. A volume of sermons (also posthumous) published in 1869. In 1839 he married a daughter of the Hon. Lord Reston, one of the senators of the College of Justice.

[Preface to The Church, by his son; Omond in Disruption Worthies, 1876; Scott's Fasti Eccl. Scot. pt. i. 303.]  BANNERMANN, ALEXANDER (fl. 1766), engraver, was born in Cambridge about 1730. He engraved some plates for Alderman Boydell, ‘Joseph interpreting Pharaoh's Dream,’ after Ribera; the ‘Death of St. Joseph,’ after Velasquez; and ‘Dancing Children,’ after Le Maire. For Walpole's ‘Anecdotes of Painters’ he also engraved several portaits. In 1766 he was a member of the Incorporated Society of Artists; in 1770 he is known to have been living in Cambridge. In Nagler's dictionary (ed. 1878) is a long list of his works; there are good specimens in the print room of the British Museum.