# James MacLagan

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{{Use British English|date=October 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}}
{{Infobox writer
| name        = James McLagan
| image       = 
| caption     = 
| birth_date  = 8 September 1728
| birth_place = [Ballechin](/source/Ballechin), [Perthshire](/source/Perthshire), Scotland
| death_date  = 3 May 1805
| death_place = [Blair Atholl](/source/Blair_Atholl), Scotland
| alma_mater  = [University of St Andrews](/source/University_of_St_Andrews)<br>(no degree)
| occupation  = Folklorist, minister 
| spouse      = Catherine Stuart
| language    = Scottish Gaelic, English
}}

'''James MacLagan''' or '''McLagan''' ({{langx|gd|Seumas MacLathagain}}; 1728–1805) was a [Church of Scotland](/source/Church_of_Scotland) minister and collector of Scottish Gaelic poetry and song.<ref name=":0">{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-54067|title=McLagan, James (1728–1805), folklorist|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/54067}}</ref> His manuscript collection, known as the McLagan Collection, comprises some 250 manuscripts of primarily Gaelic song and poetry collected in the second half of the eighteenth century. The collection includes works by many of the best-known 17th- and 18th-century Gaelic poets such as [Iain Lom](/source/Iain_Lom), [Màiri nighean Alasdair Ruaidh](/source/Mairi_nighean_Alasdair_Ruaidh) and [Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair](/source/Alasdair_mac_Mhaighstir_Alasdair).

== Life and career ==

McLagan was born in 1728 at the [Ballechin](/source/Ballechin) estate near [Strathtay](/source/Strathtay), [Perthshire](/source/Perthshire).<ref name=":0" /> A son of Donald McClagon, a farmer,<ref name=":2">{{cite book|last1=Scott|first1=Hew|title=Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae: the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the reformation Vol.4|date=1923|publisher=Oliver and Boyd|location=Edinburgh|page=144|url=https://archive.org/details/fastiecclesiaesc04scot}}</ref> his birth (or baptism) is recorded in the parish of [Moulin](/source/Moulin%2C_Scotland), Perthshire, on 8 September 1728.<ref name=":0" /> In 1750, he matriculated at the [University of St Andrews](/source/University_of_St_Andrews) in the 1750/51 session. It is not known what he studied or when he left, but he is subsequently recorded as being ordained in the Church of Scotland by the presbytery of [Dunkeld](/source/Dunkeld) on 6 February 1760.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /> His first position as minister was at the [chapel of ease](/source/chapel_of_ease) in [Amulree](/source/Amulree), Perthshire, between 1760 and 1764.<ref name=":2" />

He left Perthshire in 1764 when he was appointed chaplain to the [42nd Regiment of Foot](/source/42nd_Regiment_of_Foot), the Black Watch, which had originally been raised at Aberfeldy, Perthshire. He succeeded [Adam Ferguson](/source/Adam_Ferguson), later professor of philosophy at the [University of Edinburgh](/source/University_of_Edinburgh), in this post.<ref name=":0" /> He continued as chaplain with the regiment until 1788 during which time he served in the Isle of Man, Ireland and in the United States where the regiment was involved in the American War of Independence.<ref name=":0" /> The freedom of the city Glasgow was conferred on him 5 April 1776.<ref name=":0" />

He did not spend all of the time he was employed with the regiment in their company, as on 7 June 1784,<ref name=":2" /> he married Catherine Stuart, daughter of [James Stuart](/source/James_Stuart_(Church_of_Scotland)), the minister of [Killin](/source/Killin) who worked on the translation of the New Testament into Scottish Gaelic.<ref name=":0" /> She was half her husband's age in 1784, and they had a family of four sons and three daughters.<ref name=":0" /> Their eldest son, also James, was minister of [Kinfauns Parish Church](/source/Kinfauns_Parish_Church), became professor of divinity at [King's College](/source/King's_College%2C_Aberdeen), Aberdeen,<ref name=":0" /> and authored ''Spiritual Views of the Divine Government'' (1831).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae: the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the reformation Vol. 4|last=Scott|first=Hew|publisher=Oliver and Boyd|year=1923|location=Edinburgh|pages=216|url=https://archive.org/details/fastiecclesiaesc04scot}}</ref>

After leaving the Black Watch in 1788, he became minister of Blair Atholl and Strowan, Perthshire, and stayed there until his death.<ref name=":0" /> In the ''[Statistical Accounts of Scotland](/source/Statistical_Accounts_of_Scotland)'' of 1792, he authored the section covering the parish of Blair Atholl and Strowan in which he voiced warnings about the perceptible weakening of Gaelic in that area.<ref name=":2" />

McLagan died at Blair Atholl on 3 May 1805.<ref name=":0" />

==Poetry==
He composed poetry in Scottish Gaelic. published in Gillies collection and [MacPhàrlain](/source/Murdo_Macfarlane).

==Poetry Collection and the 'McLagan Manuscripts'==
The ''[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography](/source/Dictionary_of_National_Biography)'' describes the manuscript collection amassed by McLagan as his "great achievement".<ref name=":0" /> The collection was donated to the [University of Glasgow](/source/University_of_Glasgow) in 1910 and is now housed in the [https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/specialcollections/ University of Glasgow Library Special Collections].<ref name=":1">{{cite web|title=McLagan Manuscripts|url=http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/specialcollections/collectionsa-z/mclaganmanuscripts/|website=University of Glasgow Library|access-date=31 October 2016}}</ref>

The collection contains 250 manuscripts with some 630 separate items which were collected or transcribed by McLagan, mainly in Scottish Gaelic along with items in Middle Irish, English and Latin.<ref name=":1" /> They are largely anonymous and ascribed verse, with a small number of prose items, sourced from many areas of Highland Scotland and also from Ireland and the Isle of Man. John Mackechnie's ''Catalogue of Gaelic Manuscripts'' (1973) notes that there are at least 47 different hands represented in the collection.<ref name=":1" /> In many instances these manuscripts contain the earliest, or the only, examples of particular poems or songs, and, in the view of Professor of Celtic [Derick S. Thomson](/source/Derick_S._Thomson), they provide "a highly valuable source".<ref name=":0" />

McLagan began collecting the Ossianic ballads of Scottish Gaelic while still at school.<ref name=":0" /> McLagan's material was drawn partly from Perthshire sources, including some manuscripts which are older than 1750. He also used his contacts, both ministerial and military, to acquire versions of poems and songs from other parts of Gaelic Scotland, such as Argyll with its islands, Ross-shire, Inverness-shire, Skye and the outer isles, and districts in Aberdeenshire and elsewhere that were still Gaelic-speaking in his time.<ref name=":0" /> According to Derick S. Thomson, McLagan likely provided some material for John Gillies' ''Clan Feuds and Songs'' (1780), and he was closely involved with the same publisher's book of 1786, known generally as the Gillies Collection.

His contemporaries in poetry and song collection included Jerome Stone, a teacher in [Dunkeld](/source/Dunkeld_and_Birnam), [Donald MacNicol](/source/Donald_MacNicol), [Church of Scotland](/source/Church_of_Scotland) minister of [Lismore](/source/Lismore%2C_Scotland), Joseph Macintyre from Glenorchy, Archibald MacArthur from [Glenlyon](/source/Glen_Lyon), and [John Stuart](/source/John_Stuart_(Presbyterian_minister)), [Church of Scotland](/source/Church_of_Scotland) minister of [Killin](/source/Killin) (his brother-in-law).<ref name=":0" />

===Ossianic Ballads===
In October 1760, while McLagan was minister of Amulree, he was contacted by [James Macpherson](/source/James_Macpherson), the famous publisher of ''Fragments of Ancient Poetry collected in the Highlands of Scotland'' and subject of the [Ossian controversy](/source/Ossian_controversy)''.''<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Genuine Remains of Ossian, Literally Translated|last=MacGregor|first=Patrick|publisher=Smith, Elder & Co.|year=1841|location=London|pages=7|quote=Mr Macpherson was at Ruthven in the latter period of October, as appears by his letter from that place to Rev. James MacLagan, then minister of Amulree, in which he requests that Mr MacLagan would do him the favour of transmitting to him his collection of ancient poems; and informs him that he intended visiting Mull and the coast of Argyle, to enlarge his own collection.|url=https://archive.org/details/genuineremainso00macggoog}}</ref> The next year, Macpherson wrote to MacLagan twice to thank him for sending him on some poems.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Genuine Remains of Ossian, Literally Translated|last=MacGregor|first=Patrick|publisher=Smith, Elder & Co.|year=1841|location=London|pages=7–8|quote=Soon after his arrival, he wrote Mr MacLagan, acknowledging the receipt of some Gaelic poems, and desiring him to send any other pieces he could. (p.7, letter dated 16th January, 1761)  He again writes to his reverend correspondent, thanking him for four additional poems, and adding, that he intended to publish by subscription, and that he was very much hurried. (p.8)|url=https://archive.org/details/genuineremainso00macggoog}}</ref> In 1800 McLagan recalled that he had given Macpherson ‘about thirteen poems’.<ref name=":0" />

==See also==
* [Charles O'Conor (historian)](/source/Charles_O'Conor_(historian))

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* [Thomson, Derick S.](/source/Derick_S._Thomson), 'The McLagan MSS in Glasgow University Library', Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, 58 (1992–4), 406–24 
*J. Leyden, Journal of a tour in the highlands and western islands of Scotland, ed. T. Girton (1903) 
* A. Cameron, Reliquiae celticae (1892) 
* D. S. Thomson, 'A catalogue and indexes of the Ossianic ballads in MacLagan MSS', Scottish Gaelic Studies, 8/2 (1958), 177–224 
* Donald Mackinnon: A descriptive catalogue of Gaelic manuscripts in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, and elsewhere in Scotland(Edinburgh: 1912), pp 302–310.
* D.S. Thomson: 'A catalogue and indexes of the Ossianic ballads in the McLagan MSS', Scottish Gaelic Studies, vol. 8 (1955-1958), pp 177–224.
* Peadar Ó Muircheartaigh, 'Fin as Ossian revisited: A Manx ballad in Belanagare and its significance', Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 63 (2016) : <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1515/zcph-2016-0006</nowiki> 
*See also Anja Gunderloch, 2007, [http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_119675_en.pdf Catalogue of Gaelic Manuscripts in Glasgow University] (links to PDF version of catalogue) 
* Copies of Letters from James Macpherson to McLagan reproduced in Mackenzie; et al. (1805). [http://digital.nls.uk/76523612 Report on the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland, appointed to inquire into the nature and authenticity of the poems of Ossian]. Edinburgh: Printed at the University Press; for Archibald Constable & Co. pp.&nbsp;153–6.
* John Mackechnie, 1973. ''Catalogue of Gaelic manuscripts in selected libraries in Great Britain and Ireland'' (Boston), vol. 1, pp.&nbsp;412–452.
* {{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-54067|title=McLagan, James (1728–1805), folklorist|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/54067}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mclagan, James}}
Category:18th-century ministers of the Church of Scotland
Category:18th-century Scottish Presbyterian ministers
Category:1728 births
Category:1805 deaths
Category:Epic poetry collectors
Category:People from Perthshire
Category:Alumni of the University of St Andrews

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [James MacLagan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_MacLagan) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_MacLagan?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.