{{Short description|Scottish historian}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}} {{Use British English|date=March 2018}} '''David Macpherson''' (26 October 1746 – 1 August 1816) was a Scottish historian.

==Life== The son of a tailor and clothier, Macpherson was born in Edinburgh, 26 October 1746. He was probably educated at [[Edinburgh High School]] and the [[University of Edinburgh]] and then trained as a land surveyor. Working in the UK and America, he was able to earn some money before 1790, about which time he settled with his wife and family in London making his living as a man of letters.<ref name="DNB">{{cite DNB|wstitle=Macpherson, David|volume=35|first=Thomas Wilson|last=Bayne}}</ref>

Losing money through bad loans, Macpherson was occasionally in straitened circumstance from then on, but continued to write, encouraged by antiquarians such as [[Joseph Ritson]] and [[George Chalmers (antiquarian)|George Chalmers]]. He died in London, 1 August 1816.<ref name="DNB"/>

==Works== For some time Macpherson was a deputy-keeper of the public records, and assisted in preparing for publication the first and part of the second volume of the ''Rotuli Scotiæ''. He edited [[Andrew Wyntoun]]'s ''Orygynal Cronykil of Scotland'', 2 vols., 1795; it was re-edited, in an enlarged form, by [[David Laing (antiquary)|David Laing]], for the ''Historians of Scotland'' series, 1879. Macpherson's other works were:<ref name="DNB"/>

* ''Geographical Illustrations of Scottish History'', 1796. * ''Annals of Commerce, Fisheries, and Navigation ... from the earliest Accounts to the Meeting of the Union Parliament in 1801'' (with the essentials of [[Adam Anderson (economist)|Adam Anderson]]'s ''History of Commerce''), 4 vols. 1805. * ''The History of European Commerce with India'', 1812.

==Notes== {{reflist}}

'''Attribution'''<!--Please do not reformat, for the sake of those using screen-readers-->

{{DNB|wstitle=Macpherson, David|volume=35|first=Thomas Wilson|last=Bayne}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macpherson, David (historian)}} [[Category:18th-century Scottish historians]] [[Category:Writers from Edinburgh]] [[Category:1746 births]] [[Category:1816 deaths]] [[Category:Scottish archivists]] [[Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh]] [[Category:People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh]] [[Category:19th-century Scottish historians]]