Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/29

Findlater parish, Newlands, where he lived until 1835, and then retiring from duty, died at Glasgow 28 May 1838, aged 84. His appointment at Newlands, like his father's at West Linton, was opposed, and led to the establishment of a seceding congregation, which yet exists. He married (26 July 1791) Janet Hay Russell (who was accidentally burnt to death in 1828). He was father of the synod of Lothian and Tweeddale, and was buried at Newlands. A marble bust of him, executed at the cost of many admirers, is in the Peebles Art Gallery. Himself of the moderate theological school, Findlater's liberal opinions and neglect of conventionalities, united with much kindness of heart and intellectual power, marked him among his brother clergy. The cordiality of his friendship and correctness of his life were universally acknowledged. He established one of the first local savings banks, and used to carry his account-book for it regularly with him on his pastoral visitations. He would sing a song at a cottar's wedding, and on many wintry Sundays gather his congregation round him in his kitchen and give them dinner afterwards.

Findlater's books show him to have been well read in moral and political economy. He published: 1. 'Liberty and Equality; a Sermon or Essay, with an Appendix on Godwin's system of society in his "Political Justice,"' 1800. This sermon, preached at Newlands, was directed against the 'new doctrine of French philosophy, the monstrous doctrine of equality.' Few of his parishioners could have understood a word of it. Yet some sympathisers with the obnoxious doctrine attacked Findlater, and he was obliged to hide himself until the lord advocate, Sir James Montgomery, was able to appease the outcry. The sermon was dedicated to Montgomery when printed. 2. 'General View of the Agriculture of the County of Peebles,' Edinburgh, 1802. This is descriptive rather than didactic. Restates that pigeons and bees are rather disadvantageous than otherwise to the Peebles farmers from their impoverishing the ground, and, curiously enough, never mentions in his survey either the game or the fish of the county. The industry and sobriety of the inhabitants are commended, 'with the exception of a few instances of perversion of principle, occasioned by the introduction of the French philosophy, and these chiefly confined to the county town.' 3. 'Sermons or Essays, as the Reader shall chuse to design them, upon Christian Duties,' 1830. In these are contained 'a plain statement of some of the most obvious principles of political economy.' 4. Accounts of West Linton and of Newlands in Sinclair's 'Statistical Account' and in the new 'Statistical Account.' [Findlater's Works in the British Museum ; Dr. Hew Scott's Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanse, pt. i. 247, 253 ; Presbytery and Synod Records at Newlands; private information from the Rev. J. Milne, minister of Newlands.]  FINDLATER and SEAFIELD, fourth. [See, 1664–1730.] FINDLAY, ALEXANDER GEORGE (1812–1875), geographer and hydrographer, born in London, 6 Jan. 1812, was a descendant of the Findlays of Arbroath, Forfarshire. His grandfather was a shipowner of that port, who transferred his business to the river Thames about the middle of last century. Findlay's father, Alexander Findlay, also a geographer, was born in London in 1790, and became one of the original fellows of the Royal Geographical Society on its foundation in 1830. Among his numerous undertakings successfully completed was an atlas sheet of the environs of London (1829) to a distance of thirty-two miles from St. Paul's (upon a half-inch scale), every line of which was his own handiwork. He died in 1870. The son early devoted himself to the compilation of geographical and hydrographical works, and his atlases of 'Ancient and Comparative Geography' are known all over the world. In 1851 he completed the revision of Brookes's 'Gazetteer,' and the same year published his earliest important work, on the 'Coasts and Islands of the Pacific Ocean,' in 2 vols. of 1,400 pages. By the death of John Purdy, the hydrographer, in 1843, he succeeded to the foremost position in this branch of nautical research and authorship. His researches in the kindred science of meteorology further attracted the attention of Admiral Fitzroy, who in the earlier days of meteorological investigation invited him to join an official department then about to be established, but Findlay preferred an independent career. In the course of years of immense labour he prepared and issued six large nautical directories, which have proved invaluable to the maritime world. These directories are accompanied by illustrations, charts, &c., and include 'the North Atlantic Ocean,' 'The South Atlantic Ocean,' 'The Indian Ocean,' 'Indian Archipelago, China, and Japan,' 'The South Pacific Ocean,' and 'The North Pacific Ocean.' 'These works,' observes Sir Henry Rawlinson, 'constitute a monument of industry and perseverance, and are accepted as standard authorities in every quarter of the globe.' As a cartographer Findlay exhibited a wide practical knowledge of the sailor's requirements which even the hydrographic 