Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 21.djvu/110

 late Dr. Geddes, and finish'd by Mr. Ozell,’ London, 1716, 8vo.

[Cat. of Printed Books in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, iii. 348; Anderson's Scottish Nation, ii. 285; Birch's Tillotson, p. 333; Burnet's Hist. of the Reformation; Chambers's Biog. Dict. of Eminent Scotsmen; Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. 377; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy), ii. 653; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn); Cat. of Oxford Graduates (1851), p. 254; Preface to Geddes's Tracts on Popery; Watt's Bibl. Brit.] 

GEDDES, WILLIAM (1600?–1694), Scottish presbyterian divine and author, was a native of Moray, and graduated at the university and King's College, Aberdeen, in 1650. On 13 Nov. of the same year he became schoolmaster of Keith; was governor to Hugh Rose of Kilravock in 1652; and gave 20l. to the new buildings of King's College, Aberdeen, in 1658. He was admitted presbyterian minister of Wick about April 1664, was transferred to the parish of Urquhart, Elginshire, in 1677, resigned on refusal to take the test of 1682, returned to Wick, where he was readmitted minister in 1692, and died in 1694, aged about 94. Geddes published a volume of pious verse entitled ‘The Saint's Recreation; (third part) upon the Estate of Grace,’ Edinburgh, 1683, 4to, dedicated to Anna, duchess of Hamilton, and Margaret Lesley, countess-dowager of Weems, i.e. Wemyss, with prefatory verse by many hands. The imprimatur at the beginning of the volume (18 March 1683) states that Geddes had received permission from the privy council to print ‘Memoriale Historicum, or An Historical Memorial concerning the most remarkable occurrences and periods of Scripture; the Universal Histories of the Four Monarchs: the Scottish, English, French, and Turkish Histories;’ as well as ‘three other books which he intends for the press, viz. “Geographical and Arithmetical Memorials,” “Memoriale Hebraicum for facilitating the Hebrew Language,” “Vocabularium Latino-Hebraicum in Hexameter Verse,” and “Familiæ Famigeratæ.”’ In an ‘Apology for the Author's delay,’ which follows the imprimatur, Geddes acknowledges having received ‘the price’ of the books, and excuses himself for not having issued them. Hew Scott mentions the ‘Memoriale Historicum,’ which Geddes promises in his ‘Apology’ at an early date, as a published work. But no copy seems known. None of Geddes's other literary projects were carried out. George Park edited at Glasgow in 1753 a second edition of ‘The Saint's Recreation,’ adding ‘fifteen select poems on divine subjects from other approven authors.’

[Hew Scott's Fasti Eccl. Scot. v. 174, 370; Geddes's Saint's Recreation.] 

GEDEN, JOHN DURY (1822–1886), Wesleyan minister, son of the Rev. John Geden, Wesleyan minister, was born at Hastings on 4 May 1822. In 1830 he was sent to Kingswood school. In 1836 he left school and devoted himself to study and teaching. In 1844 he became a candidate for the Wesleyan ministry, and was sent to Richmond College, Surrey. After the usual three years' course Geden was appointed assistant-tutor at the college. By the conference of 1851, which met at Newcastle-on-Tyne, Geden was stationed in that town, having Dr. Punshon as one of his colleagues. After a year each in this and the neighbouring circuit of Durham, he removed to Manchester, where he spent three years in the Oxford Road circuit. His ministry won the esteem of some of the most cultivated congregations of his church. On the death of Jonathan Crowther (1794–1856) [q. v.] in January 1856, Geden was requested to fill provisionally the vacant post of tutor in the sacred and classical languages at the theological college, Didsbury, Lancashire, and by the conference of the same year was formally appointed Crowther's successor. Geden's favourite field of study was oriental literature and philology, but he also studied various branches of philosophy and natural science. Soon after his appointment to Didsbury he became joint-editor of the ‘London Quarterly Review,’ established in 1853, and contributed to its pages many valuable papers, among them a review of Robertson's sermons (October 1861). Meanwhile Geden's services as an occasional preacher were in request over a wide surrounding district, and his reputation became established as one of the leading thinkers and writers of methodism, though he was not often a prominent figure in public ecclesiastical assemblies.

In the autumn of 1863 Geden made a journey to the East, and passed through parts of Egypt, the Sinaitic peninsula, and the Holy Land. A dangerous attack of dysentery at Jerusalem permanently injured his delicate constitution. Some memorials of this tour appeared subsequently in the ‘City Road Magazine’ during 1871–3. In 1868 Geden was elected into the legal hundred.

In 1870 Geden was invited to become a member of the Old Testament Revision Company, then first formed, and for many years he regularly attended the sessions of the company at Westminster. When no longer able to travel to London, and to face the discomforts of the Jerusalem Chamber, Geden still made many suggestions to his colleagues; he was specially anxious to preserve the dignity and rhythm of the authorised version. In