Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 54.djvu/437

  Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Macleane's Hist. of Pembroke Coll. (Oxford Hist. Soc.) 1897.]

 STORY, ROBERT (1790–1859), Scottish writer, was born on 3 March 1790 at Yetholm, Roxburghshire, where his father, George Story, was parish schoolmaster. His mother was Margaret Herbert, of a Northumbrian family. After receiving elementary education at home he entered Edinburgh University in 1805, associating with Thomas Pringle (1789–1834) [q. v.], the son of a neighbouring farmer. He was a good student, earning distinction in the debating societies as well as the class-rooms. From July 1811 to the beginning of 1815 he was tutor in several families, preparing at the same time for entrance into the church of Scotland. One of his tutorial posts was in the family of Lord Dalhousie, his youngest pupil being James Andrew Broun Ramsay [q. v.], afterwards governor-general of India, whose warm friendship he enjoyed through life. Licensed as a preacher in July 1815, Story was in December appointed assistant at Rosneath, Dumbartonshire. In 1817 Carlyle, on a walking tour with a common friend, sojourned with him several days, which days, he says, are ‘all very vivid to me and marked in white’ (Reminiscences, ii. 50, ed. Norton). Ordained minister of the parish on 26 March 1818, Story was introduced to his congregation by Dr. Chalmers.

Devoting himself mainly to his professional work and the improvement of a somewhat demoralised parish, Story stoutly defended his friend and neighbour, M'Leod Campbell of Row, who was deposed in 1831 by the general assembly for his views on the Atonement. He was himself threatened for a time with trouble on the same grounds, but the prejudice passed, and in both cleric and lay circles he came to be called ‘Story the beloved.’ In 1830 his parishioner, Mary Campbell, professed to have received the ‘gift of tongues;’ and, though Story exposed her imposture, she found disciples in London, and was credited by Edward Irving [q. v.], then in the maelstrom of his impassioned fanaticism. On the basis of her pretensions arose the ‘Holy Catholic Apostolic Church’ (see, Life, ii. 213, and Reminiscences, ed. Norton, ii. 204). Story remained in his charge at the secession in 1843, and in 1853 saw a new parish church erected and a supplementary church placed on his southern borders—the expenses largely defrayed through his own exertions—to meet the needs of a young community when Lochlongside was feued. After a period of weak health, he died on 22 Nov. 1859. He was buried in Rosneath churchyard, and a monument to his memory, from a design by the sculptor William Brodie [q. v.], was placed on the wall of the chancel in the parish church. Story married, in 1828, Helen Boyle, daughter of Mr. Dunlop of Keppoch, Dumbartonshire, and was survived by her and two children.

In 1811 appeared ‘The Institute,’ an heroic poem in four cantos, written conjointly by Story and Thomas Pringle. Its youthful satire is direct and pungent, and the couplets display ingenuity and ease. In 1829 he published, under the title of ‘Peace in Believing,’ a memoir of a devout girl named Isabella Campbell, sister of the Mary Campbell who later professed the ‘tongues.’ The book ran into three editions in a few weeks. Wilberforce said that the narrative filled him ‘with reverence and admiration.’ Story wrote on his parish for the ‘Statistical Account’ of 1841.

 STORY, ROBERT (1795–1860), Northumberland poet, born at Wark on 17 Oct. 1795, was the son of Robin Story (d. 14 May 1809), a Northumbrian peasant, by his wife, Mary Hooliston, a native of Lauder. He was educated at Wark school under Mr. Kinton, with whom he made rapid progress, and then at Crookham, where he was tempted to play truant by a lame fiddler. About 1807 he commenced work as a gardener, but found more congenial service as a shepherd, an occupation commemorated in one of his best lyrics, ‘Pours the spring on Howdsden yet.’ In the summer of 1810 he began to teach the elements in a school at Humbleton, and studied with ardour the verses of Dr. Watts and Mrs. Barbauld. He subsequently served in various schools, where his accent excited derision. He was ambitious to follow the plough, like Burns, but after some intermittent field labour, in the intervals of which he corrected the proofs of his ill-conceived poem on ‘The Harvest’ (1816), he returned to teaching. In 1820 he eventually started a successful school on his own account at Gargrave in Yorkshire, his home for over twenty years. There, on 17 May 1823 (having discarded in turn several ‘rustic loves’ apostrophised in early poems), he married Ellen Ellison, by whom he had a large family. About 1825 he made the acquaintance of John Nicholson [q. v.], the Airedale poet, in emulation of whom he issued a small volume of verse entitled