Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/678

* BUCHAN. 600 BUCHANAN. grade of lieutenant in 1810, that of commander in 1816. In 1818 he was appointed to the com- mand of the expedition dispatclifd that year by the Admiralty for the discovery of the North Pole. With the ships Trent and Dorothea he reached latitude 80° 34' N., but after futile at- tempts to gain a more northerly point was obliged by stress of weather and floating ice to make for Deptford. During a second expedition his ship was lost at sea. lie made some interest- ing contributions to science with regard to the compression of the earth at its poles, deep-sea and surface temperatures, and other subjects. BUCHAN, or Simpson, Elspeth (1738-91). A Scottish religious enthusiast. She was born near Banff, and was the daughter of John Simpson, an inn-keeper and member of the sect known as 'Burgher Seeeders.' Shortly after lier separation from her husband, slie went to Glasgow, where she was so impressed by a lec- ture delivered in 1783 by Hugh White, of the Kelief Church at Irvine, that she removed thither, and persuaded Mr. White to believe that she was the woman mentioned in Rev. xii., through whom the divine light was restored to men, and further converted liim to the belief that he was the man child she had conceived. Thus arose the sect known as Buchanites, which, banished from Irvine in 1784 by a popular up- rising, removed with about forty-six converts to Xew Cample. The doctrine of the Buchanites was based upon the earh' expectation of the end of the world. They did not marry, renounoed all sensual pleasures, and lived like one family, en- joying community of goods. The sect became e.xtinct in 1848. See Buchanites. BUCHAN, William (1729-1805). A Scottish physician, born at Ancrum. He published a work on Domestic Mcdieine (1769), which reached its nineteenth edition during his lifetime, and has been translated into many European languages. Buchan died in London, and was buried in W'est- minster Abbey. BUCHANAN, bfl-k.nn'an, Frankli.v (1800- 74). .ii American naval officer, prominent in the Confederate service during the Civil War, born in Baltimore, Md. He entered the United States Navy at the age of fifteen ; became a lieu- tenant in 1825, and in 1H41 was promoted to the rank of master-commandant. In 1845 he organ- ized the United States Naval Academy at An- napolis under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, and for two years acted as its first superintendent. He then served in the Jlexican War, commanding the Qerinantown during the siege of Vera Cruz, and in 1852-53 connnanded Commodore Perry's flagship, the Susfjuehaniia, in that officer's famous expedition to Japan. He was promoted to be captain in 1855, and was placed in command of the Wasliington Navy Yard in 1859, but in 1861 (April 22) he resigned on the assumption that his State would soon secede from the Union. Maryland remained loyal, however, and he asked to be restored, but his request was refused by Secretary of the Navy W'elles, and in September, 1861, he received a captain's commission in the Confederate Navy. He commanded the Merrimac in the attack upon the Federal fleet in Hampton Roads, and was severely wounded. Soon afterwards he was promoted to the rank of admiral, and for some time wus senior officer in the Confederate Navy. In 1863 he became commander of the naval defenses of Mobile, Ala., and in this canacity constructed the iron-clad ram Tennessee. In August, 1864, lie commanded the Confederate fleet in Mobile Bay, so thorouglily defeated by Farragut (see Mobile Bay and Farragut, David Glasgow), and on this occasion lost a leg and was taken jirisoner, though he was soon after- wards exchanged. After the war he was for some time president of the Marjdand Agricultural Col- lege. BUCHANAN, George (1506-82). A Scot- tish liistoriau and poet, noted as tutor of James I. He was liorn of poor parents in Killeani, Stirling, Feliruary, 1506. He was sent to the University of Paris by his uncle, who died two years afterwards, leaving Buchanan without the means of prosecuting his studies. He returned home and, at the expense of liis health, fought against the English, being present at the siege of Werk, October, 1523. He entered Saint Andrews University as a pauper student in 1524, in the following year taking his degree of B.A. In 1526 he went to Paris, was admitted B.A. at the Scots College on October 10, 1527, and attained his M.A. degree in Jlarch. 1528. He subse- quently obtained a professorship in the College of Saint Barl)e, but returned to Scotland about 1537. During liis residence on the Continent Buchanan adopted the Reformed faith. A satire entitled ffomniuin, arraigning the Franci.scans, aroused their indignation, and he resolved ujioii seeking safety in his old college in Paris, when King James V. took him under his protection and intrusted him with the education of one of his illegitimate sons. At the request of the King, Buclianan wrote another satire against the monks, entitled Franeisciinus (1504), increas- ing their natural resentment and bringing upon himself the powerful displeasure of Cardinal Beaton, who had him arrested and imprisoned for his diatribe. Though the publication of the satire was due to James, he did not protect the poet, wlio escaped to Paris. After spending some years in Bordeaux and Paris in tuition, he accom- panied the learned Portuguese Govea to the [uni- versity of Coimbra, in Portugal. After the death of Govea Buchanan was arrested as a heretic, and was for some time detained in a monastery, where he began his splendid Latin metrical ver- sion of the Psalms. Restored to liberty in 1551, he went to England, but soon afterwards again sought Paris, .bout 1560 he returned to Scot- land, and made confession of Protestantism. His reputation as a scholar gained liim a good re- ception at the Court of Mary, whose classical tutor lie became. But liis religious and political principles attached him to the party of the Re- gent Moray, by whose influence he was appointed principal of Saint Leonard's College, in Saint .An- drews University, in 1566, the complimentary inscription on the register reading. "Hujus sa>culi poetaruni facile princeps," In the following year he was chosen Moderator of the General Assemlily — a rare honor for a layman. Siding as lie did with the Reform party, Buchanan arrayed himself against Mary, and he accompanied Aloray to England, to give evidence before the commission- ers a])pointed by Elizabeth to inquire into lier guilt. His Deteetio Mnriir Repina: laid before these functionaries, was industriously circulated by the English Court. It. however, contains gross exaggerations, which have been condemned