{{Short description|Scottish writer and editor (1794–1854)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = John Gibson Lockhart | image = File:Francis Grant (1803-1878) - John Gibson Lockhart (1794–1854), Son-in-Law and Biographer of Scott - PG 1588 - National Galleries of Scotland.jpg | imagesize = | caption = ''[[Portrait of John Gibson Lockhart]]'' by [[Francis Grant (artist)|Francis Grant]], {{circa|1850}} | birthname = | birth_date = 12 June 1794 | birth_place = [[Cambusnethan House]], [[Lanarkshire]], Scotland | death_date = 25 November 1854 | death_place = [[Abbotsford, Scottish Borders|Abbotsford]], [[Roxburghshire]], Scotland | othername = | occupation = {{hlist|Writer|editor}} | yearsactive = }} '''John Gibson Lockhart''' (12 June 1794 – 25 November 1854) was a Scottish writer and editor. He is best known as the author of the seminal, and much-admired, seven-volume biography of his father-in-law [[Sir Walter Scott]]: ''[[Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott]]''.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Isabelle |first1=Bour |title=John Gibson Lockhart's Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart, or the Absent Author (1996) |url=https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1359&context=ssl |website=scholarcommons.sc.edu |publisher=Scottish Literature Collections at Scholar Commons |access-date=2021-08-04}}</ref> He produced four novels in the early 1820s including ''[[Adam Blair (novel)|Adam Blair]]'' and ''[[Reginald Dalton]]''.
==Early years== Lockhart was born on 12 June 1794<ref>{{cite web |title=John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854) |url=https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/learning/hall-of-fame/hall-of-fame-a-z/lockhart-john-gibson |website=nrscotland.gov.uk |date=31 May 2013 |publisher=National Records of Scotland |access-date=2021-08-04}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Rogers |first1=Rev. Charles |title=Genealogical Memoirs of the Family of Sir Walter Scott, Bart. of Abbotsford |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924029788795 |website=archive.org |year=1877 |publisher=Internet Archive |access-date=2021-08-04}}</ref> in the [[manse]] of [[Cambusnethan House]] in [[Lanarkshire]] to Dr John Lockhart, who transferred in 1796 to [[Glasgow]], and was appointed [[Minister of religion|minister]] in the Presbyterian [[Church of Scotland]], and his second wife Elizabeth Gibson (1767–1834), daughter of Margaret Mary Pringle and Reverend John Gibson, minister of [[St Cuthbert's Church, Edinburgh|St Cuthbert's, Edinburgh]].<ref>{{Cite ODNB|title=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|date=2004-09-23|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/16904|pages=ref:odnb/16904|editor-last=Matthew|editor-first=H. C. G.|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/16904|access-date=2019-11-18|editor2-last=Harrison|editor2-first=B.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Lang |first1=Andrew |title=Life of J.G. Lockhart |url=https://lordbyron.org/monograph.php?doc=AnLang.Lockh.1897&select=I.ch1 |website=lordbyron.org |publisher=Lord Byron and His Times |access-date=2021-08-05}}</ref>
He was the younger paternal half-brother of the politician [[William Lockhart (MP)|William Lockhart]].
Lockhart attended [[High School of Glasgow|Glasgow High School]], where he showed himself clever rather than industrious. He fell into ill-health, and had to be removed from school before he was 12; but on his recovery he was sent at this early age to the [[University of Glasgow]], and displayed so much precocious learning, especially in [[Greek language|Greek]], that he was offered a [[Snell exhibition]] at Oxford. He was not yet 14 when he entered [[Balliol College, Oxford]], where he acquired a great store of knowledge outside the regular curriculum. He read French, Italian, German and Spanish, was interested in [[antiquities]], and became versed in [[Heraldry|heraldic]] and [[genealogy|genealogical]] lore.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Lockhart, John Gibson|volume=16|page=853}}</ref>
==''Blackwood's Magazine'' and a literary duel== [[File:John Gibson Lockhart Plaque, Northumberland St, Edinburgh.jpg|thumb|Plaque to John Gibson Lockhart at 25 Northumberland St, Edinburgh]] In 1813, Lockhart took a first in classics then, for two years after leaving Oxford, lived in [[Glasgow]] before settling to the study of [[Scots law]] at the [[University of Edinburgh]] where, in 1816, he was elected to the [[Faculty of Advocates]]. A tour on the [[European mainland|continent]] in 1817, when he visited [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]] at [[Weimar]], was made possible when he was hired by the publisher [[William Blackwood]] to translate [[Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel|Friedrich Schlegel's]] ''Lectures on the History of Literature''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Lectures on the history of literature, ancient and modern. From the German of Frederick Schlegel, W Blackwood 1818 |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006674892 |website=catalog.hathitrust.org |publisher=HathiTrust Digital Library |access-date=2021-08-04}}</ref><ref name="EB1911"/>
Edinburgh was then the stronghold of the [[Whiggism|Whig]] party, whose organ was the ''[[Edinburgh Review]]''; and it was not until 1817 that the Scottish [[Toryism|Tories]] found a means of expression in ''[[Blackwood's Magazine]]''. After changing its name following a hum-drum launch as the ''Edinburgh Monthly Magazine'', ''Blackwood's'' suddenly electrified Edinburgh with an outburst of brilliant criticism.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Emmert |first1=Roger A. |title=An Analysis of the Criticism in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, 1965 |url=https://ecommons.udayton.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3527&context=graduate_theses |website=ecommons.udayton.edu |publisher=University of Dayton |access-date=2021-08-04}}</ref> Lockhart (along with [[John Wilson (Scottish writer)|John Wilson]] (Christopher North)), had joined its staff upon his return from Europe in 1817, and contributed to the caustic and aggressive articles that marked the early years of ''Blackwood's''. Lockhart wrote virulent articles on "The [[Cockney School]] of Poetry" of [[James Henry Leigh Hunt|Leigh Hunt]],<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lockhart |first1=John Gibson |title=On the Cockney School of Poetry. No. I, 1817 |url=http://spenserians.cath.vt.edu/TextRecord.php?textsid=36071 |website=spenserians.cath.vt.edu |publisher=Virginia Tech |access-date=2021-08-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Lockhart |first1=John Gibson |title=Review of Leigh Hunt, Lord Byron and some of his Contemporaries, 1828 |url=http://spenserians.cath.vt.edu/TextRecord.php?textsid=7862 |website=spenserians.cath.vt.edu |publisher=Virginia Tech |access-date=2021-08-05}}</ref> [[John Keats|Keats]]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lockhart |first1=John Gibson |title=The Cockney School of Poetry. No. IV |url=http://spenserians.cath.vt.edu/TextRecord.php?textsid=36160 |website=spenserians.cath.vt.edu |publisher=Virginia Tech |access-date=2021-08-05}}</ref> and their contemporaries, although he did show appreciation of [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge|Coleridge]] and [[William Wordsworth|Wordsworth]],<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lockhart |first1=John Gibson |title=On the Cockney School of Poetry. No. I. |url=http://spenserians.cath.vt.edu/TextRecord.php?&action=GET&textsid=36071 |website=spenserians.cath.vt.edu |publisher=Virginia Tech |access-date=2021-08-05}}</ref><ref name="EB1911"/> and he praised [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]], calling him "a man of genius".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Aster |first1=Leora |title=Review: Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude. November 1819 |url=https://web.english.upenn.edu/~curran/250/alastrev.html |website=web.english.upenn.edu |publisher=University of Pennsylvania |access-date=2021-08-06}}</ref>
One of the main literary organs of the Cockney School was ''The London Magazine''. Its editor, [[John Scott (editor)|John Scott]], felt that ''Blackwood’s'' hounding of Keats had contributed to his 1821 death, at age 25.<ref>{{cite web |title=John Keats Biography |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-keats |website=poetryfoundation.org |publisher=Poetry Foundation |access-date=2021-08-05}}</ref> Scott also felt it was his duty to defend his authors against Lockhart and ''Blackwood’s''. To that end, he published an attack of Lockhart and ''Blackwood’s''; Lockhart promptly asked a London friend, Jonathan Henry Christie, to visit Scott and demand an apology. Scott refused; a series of letters were exchanged and the argument evolved into Scott’s insistence that Lockhart admit that he (Lockhart) was, in fact, the anonymous editor of ''Blackwood’s'' (it was common practice at the time to act an editor, and/or as a writer, anonymously, or using a pseudonym). According to the papers of Scott’s friend [[Peter George Patmore]], who tried to negotiate a truce and kept a meticulous record of the matter, not only did Lockhart refuse to admit to his editorship, but he responded with "abusive epithets". With both men seeing their honour at stake, there was no going back and, on 16 February 1821, they proceeded with the duel near the [[Chalk Farm Tavern]]. But Lockhart did not attend; Jonathan Christie stepped into his place with his friend, James Traill, as his second. John Scott was wounded and died ten days later. Christie and Traill were tried for murder. They were acquitted, but Christie’s life was ruined. Lockhart was not blamed.<ref>{{cite web |title=JONATHAN HENRY CHRISTIE, JAMES TRAILL. Trial Record: Murder. |url=https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t18210411-29&div=t18210411-29 |website=oldbaileyonline.org |publisher=Old Bailey Proceedings Online |access-date=2021-08-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Patmore |first1=Derek |title=A Literary Duel, 1954 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/26403046.pdf |website=jstor.org |publisher=JSTOR, Princeton University Library |jstor=26403046 |access-date=2021-08-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Hill Radcliffe |first1=David |title=Blackwood's Magazine, the London Magazine, and the Scott-Christie Duel. |url=https://lordbyron.org/archives.php?choose=ScottBlckwd |website=lordbyron.org |publisher=Lord Byron and His Times |access-date=2021-08-05}}</ref>
==Literary contributions== Between 1818 and 1825 Lockhart worked indefatigably. In 1819 ''Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk'' appeared, and in 1822 he edited [[Pierre Antoine Motteux|Peter Motteux's]] edition of ''[[Don Quixote]]'', to which he prefixed a life of author [[Miguel de Cervantes]]. Four novels followed: ''[[Valerius (novel)|Valerius]]'' in 1821, ''[[Adam Blair (novel)|Adam Blair]]'' in 1822, ''[[Reginald Dalton]]'' in 1823 and ''[[Matthew Wald]]'' in 1824. However, his strength did not lie in novel writing. He also contributed to ''Blackwood'' translations of Spanish ballads, which in 1823 were published separately.<ref name="EB1911"/>
In 1825 Lockhart acted as an agent on behalf of the [[Faculty of Advocates]] to purchase the Astorga Collection.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lennon |first=Paul Joseph |date=2024 |title=Caveat Emptor: The Curious Case of Scotland's Astorga Collection |url=https://academic.oup.com/library/article/25/1/53/7729002 |journal=The Library |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=53–71 |doi=10.1093/library/fpae008 |issn=0024-2160|doi-access=free |hdl=10023/30422 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> The collection is now housed at the [[National Library of Scotland]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Astorga |url=https://www.nls.uk/collections/rare-books/collections/astorga/ |access-date=2024-08-27 |website=National Library of Scotland |language=en}}</ref>
In 1825 [[Benjamin Disraeli]] visited him at his father-in-law's estate at Abbotsford in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade him to accept the [[newspaper editor|editorship]] of ''[[The Representative (newspaper)|The Representative]]'' a newspaper he was trying to establish with the backing of the publisher [[John Murray (publisher, born 1778)|John Murray]].<ref><Hibbert, Christopher. ''Disraeli: A Personal History''. Harper Perennial, 2004. P.26-28</ref> Instead the same year Lockhart accepted Murray's offer of the editorship of the ''[[Quarterly Review]]'', which had been in the hands of [[John Taylor Coleridge|Sir John Taylor Coleridge]] since [[William Gifford|William Gifford's]] resignation in 1824.<ref name="EB1911"/> [[File:Peter Morris Lizars.jpg|thumb|Lockhart's fictional Peter Morris M.D., 1819 engraving by [[William Home Lizars]]]]
At this time he was living at 25 Northumberland Street in Edinburgh's [[New Town, Edinburgh|New Town]]. In 1825 he sold the [[National Library of Scotland|house]] to [[Andrew Combe|Andrew]] and [[George Combe]].
As the next heir to the Scotland property belonging to his unmarried half-brother, Milton Lockhart, he was sufficiently independent. In London he had social success, and was recognised as an editor. He contributed largely to the ''Quarterly Review'' himself, particularly biographical articles. He showed the old, railing spirit in an article in the ''Quarterly'' against [[Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson|Tennyson]]'s ''Poems'' of 1833. He continued to write for ''Blackwood's'', producing for ''[[Constable's Miscellany]]'' Vol. XXIII in 1828 a controversial ''Life'' of [[Robert Burns]].<ref name="EB1911"/> Snyder wrote of it, "The best that one can say of it today...is that it occasioned Carlyle's review. It is inexcusably inaccurate from beginning to end, at times demonstrably mendacious, and should never be trusted in any respect or detail."
==Later works== Lockhart undertook the editorial supervision of ''[[Murray's Family Library]]'', which he opened in 1829 with a ''History of Napoleon''.<ref name="EB1911"/>
However, his major work, and the one for which he is known, is the ''[[Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott|Life of Walter Scott]]'' (7 vols, 1837–1838; 2nd edition, 10 vols., 1839). This biography included the publishing of a great number of [[Walter Scott's letters|Scott's letters]]. [[Thomas Carlyle]] assessed it in a criticism contributed to the ''[[London and Westminster Review]]'' (1837). Lockhart's account of the business transactions between Scott and the [[James Ballantyne|Ballantynes]] and Constable caused an outcry; and in the discussion that followed he showed bitterness in his pamphlet ''The Ballantyne Humbug handled''. The ''Life of Scott'' has been called, after [[James Boswell|Boswell]]'s ''[[Life of Samuel Johnson]]'', the most admirable biography in the English language. The proceeds, which were considerable, Lockhart resigned for the benefit of Scott's creditors.<ref name="EB1911"/>
==Family and final years== [[File:Robert Scott Lauder (1803-1869) - John Gibson Lockhart (1794–1854), Son in Law and Biographer of Scott, and Charlotte Sophia Scott (17 - PG 2672 - National Galleries of Scotland.jpg|thumb|Lockhart and Sophia, by [[Robert Scott Lauder]]]] In 1818, Lockhart met Sir Walter Scott, who introduced him to his family. Lockhart married Scott's eldest daughter Sophia in April 1820. It was a happy marriage, with winters spent in Edinburgh and summers at Chiefswood, a cottage on Scott's Abbotsford estate, where the Lockhart's first child John Hugh ‘Johnnie’ was born. John Hugh was born with [[spina bifida]] and spent much of his time with his grandfather, listening to Scott’s stories about Scottish history, hence Scott’s book, ''[[Tales of a Grandfather]]''. Johnnie died in 1831, at age eleven.
The Lockharts experienced many personal losses. A baby girl died soon after birth. Sir Walter died in 1832 and in 1837, Sophia died suddenly, at age 38. Lockhart also struggled with the loss of his parents and sister. His third child was Walter Scott Lockhart, who became an army officer, but fell into bad company, ruined his health, and died in his father’s arms in January 1853 at the age of 26. Lockhart became seriously depressed, almost starving himself to death. He resigned his editorship of the ''Quarterly Review'' and spent some time in Italy, but returned without recovering his health.
He moved back to Scotland to live with his only surviving child Charlotte, who was settled at Abbotsford with her husband [[James Hope-Scott]], grandson of the [[John Hope, 2nd Earl of Hopetoun|2nd Earl of Hopetoun]]. The two had converted to Catholicism, which made for an uncomfortable atmosphere in the home (Charlotte would die in childbirth in 1858, at age 30). Lockhart died a few weeks after his arrival at Abbotsford, on 25 November 1854. He was buried at [[Dryburgh Abbey]], beside his son and father-in-law.<ref>{{cite web |title=John Gibson Lockhart |url=https://www.facebook.com/CambusnethanPriory/posts/john-gibson-lockharts-birthday-12th-june-1794today-we-celebrate-the-birthday-of-/1162855283765832/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/iarchive/facebook/717933388258026/1162855283765832 |archive-date=2022-02-26 |url-access=limited|website=facebook.com |publisher=Friends of Cambusnethan Priory, Facebook |access-date=2021-08-07}}{{cbignore}}</ref> [[File:Walter Scott grave Dryburgh Abbey 20140527.jpg|thumb|Scott family graves at [[Dryburgh Abbey]] – Lockhart's grave is on the right; the largest is that of Sir Walter and Lady Charlotte Scott; the inscribed slab covers the Scott's son's grave, Lieutenant Colonel Sir Walter Scott]] His obituary in ''The Times'', dated 9 December 1854, included the paragraph ''"Endowed with the very highest order of manly beauty, both of features and expression, he retained the brilliancy of youth and a stately strength of person comparatively unimpaired in ripened life; and then, though sorrow and sickness suddenly brought on a premature old age which none could witness unmoved, yet the beauty of the head and of the bearing so far gained in melancholy loftiness of expression what they lost in animation, that the last phase, whether to the eye of painter or of anxious friend, seemed always the finest."''
==Freemasonry== Like his father-in-law he was a Freemason although he was initiated in a different Edinburgh Lodge – Lodge Canongate Kilwinning, No. 2, on 26 January 1826.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/cu31924030291771/page/n4 History of the Lodge Canongate Kilwinning, No.2, compiled from the records 1677–1888]. By Alan MacKenzie. 1888. p. 24.</ref>
==Legacy== [[Robert Scott Lauder]] painted two portraits of Lockhart, one of him alone, and the other with Charlotte Scott.
The composer [[Hubert Parry]] set a modified version of the second half of Lockhart's poem 'Beyond' to music, "[[wikisource:There is an old belief|There is an old belief]]" as the fourth of his collection of six choral [[motet]]s, ''[[Songs of Farewell]]''.<ref name="shrock">{{cite book |last1=Shrock |first1=Dennis |title=Choral Repertoire |date=2009 |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |isbn=9780195327786 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-SVnDAAAQBAJ&q=My%20soul%2C%20there%20is%20a%20country&pg=PA536 |access-date=26 August 2018 |language=en}}</ref> The pieces were first performed at a concert at the [[Royal College of Music]] on 22 May 1916. The song/poem was later sung at the composer's funeral in [[St Paul's Cathedral]] on 23 February 1919.<ref name="Dibble">{{cite book |last1=Dibble |first1=Jeremy |title=C. Hubert H. Parry: His Life and Music |date=1992 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=9780193153301 |pages=496 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="keen">{{cite book |last1=Keen |first1=Basil |title=The Bach Choir: The First Hundred Years |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781351546072 |pages=96–7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YS4rDwAAQBAJ&q=parry%20songs%20of%20farewell&pg=PA96 |access-date=28 August 2018 |language=en}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}} * Andrew Lang, ''The Life of J. G. Lockhart'', 2 vols., London and New York, 1897 * Alfred William Pollard, ''The Life of Scott'', 1900
==External links== {{Library resources box}} {{wikisource|works=or}} {{wikiquote}} * {{Gutenberg author |id=7470| name=John Gibson Lockhart}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=John Gibson Lockhart}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20090305100238/http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media_collection/6/PG%202672.jpg Portrait, with wife] (daughter of [[Walter Scott]]), by [[Robert Scott Lauder]] at the [[National Gallery of Scotland]] *[https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/66939/john-gibson-lockhart-1794-1854-son-law-and-biographer-scott-b?page=10&artists%5B15148%5D=15148&search_set_offset=611 Photograph of John Gibson Lockhart at National Galleries of Scotland] * [http://www.lck2.co.uk/ Lodge Canongate Kilwinning, No. 2. (Edinburgh)] *{{Commons category-inline}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lockhart, John Gibson}} [[Category:1794 births]] [[Category:1854 deaths]] [[Category:People from North Lanarkshire]] [[Category:Members of the Faculty of Advocates]] [[Category:Scottish magazine editors]] [[Category:Scottish Freemasons]] [[Category:19th-century Scottish novelists]] [[Category:Scottish male novelists]] [[Category:19th-century Scottish male writers]] [[Category:19th-century Scottish writers]] [[Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh]] [[Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow]] [[Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford]] [[Category:Scottish biographers]] [[Category:People educated at the High School of Glasgow]] [[Category:19th-century Scottish translators]] [[Category:Scott family (Abbotsford)]]