The son of a clergyman, John Ogilvie was born at Aberdeen and educated at Marischal College (M.A. 1759, D.D. 1766); he was minister of Midmar, Aberdeenshire (1759-1814). A fellow of the Royal Society, Edinburgh, Ogilvie was acquainted with James Beattie and Samuel Johnson. He was for a time a popular minor poet; his odes were admired while his longer works fell stillborn from the press.
TEXT RECORDS:
1758Ode to Sleep.
1759Ode to Time, occasioned by seeing the Ruins of an Old Castle.
1762Ode to Evening.
1762Ode to Innocence.
1765Solitude: or the Elysium of the Poets, a Vision.
1765Solitude: or, the Elysium of the Poets: Introduction.
PUBLICATIONS:
The day of judgment: a poem. 1759.
The day of judgment ... to which are added ... odes. 1759.
Poems on several subjects. 1762; 1764.
Observations on the cause and consequences of prejudices against religion. A sermon. 1764.
Providence. An allegorical poem in three books. 1764.
Solitude: or, the Elysium of the poets: a vision; to which is subjoined an elegy. 1765.
Six sermons on several subjects. 1767.
Paradise. A poem. 1769.
Poems on several subjects. 2 vols, 1769.
Philosophical and critical observations on the nature, characters, and various species of composition. 2 vols, 1774.
Rona: a poem in seven books. 1777.
An inquiry into the causes for the infidelity and scepticism of the times. 1783.
Fane of the druids; a poem. 1784.
Fane of the druids. Book second. 1789.
The theology of Plato, compared with the principles of Oriental and Grecian Philosophers. 1793.
Britannia, a national epic poem, in twenty books. 1801.
The triumphs of Christianity over deism. 1805.
An examination of the evidence from prophecy on behalf of the Christian religion. 1803.
PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:
Scottish
Presbyterian
Marischal College
Bachelor of Arts
Master of Arts
Doctor of Divinity
clergyman
antiquary
poet
Poetical Register
James Beattie
Rev. Thomas Blacklock
James Boswell
Rev. William Duff
Rev. James Hervey
Samuel Johnson
Rev. John Langhorne
William Russell
REFERENCE:
DNB; NCBEL.
Pearch, Supplement to Dodsley's Collection (1768-83); Catalogue of five hundred Celebrated Authors (1788); Bell's Fugitive Poetry (1789-97); Boswell, Life of Johnson (1791); Roach's Beauties of the Poets (1794); David Rivers, Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798); Alexander Campbell, Introduction to the History of Poetry in Scotland (1798) 301; Poetical Register for 1801 (1802), 1803 (1804), 1808-09 (1812); obituary in Scots Magazine (1814); obituary in Analectic Magazine [Philadelphia] NS 4 (July 1814) 87; Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816); Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the XVIII Century (1817-58); Joseph Robertson, Lives of Scottish Poets (1821-22); Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Robert Chambers, revised Thomson, Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen (1832-35; 1870); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); William Anderson, Scottish Nation (1859-63); James Grant Wilson, Poetry of Scotland (1876); William Walker, in Bards of Bon-Accord (1887); Margaret Forbes, in James Beattie and his Friends (1904); Butt, OHEL (1979); C. R. Johnson, Provincial Poetry 1789-1839 (1992).
COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Rev. John Ogilvie:
BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Rev. John Ogilvie:
AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)
1. | 1759 Rev. James Hervey: John Ogilvie, in "To the Memory of the late pious and ingenious Mr. Hervey" Scots Magazine 21 (January 1759) 35. |
2. | 1801 Rev. William Duff: John Ogilvie, "Verses Written to a Friend 15 Sept. 1801" Poetical Register 1 (1802; 1815) 16-17. |