Born into a genteel Scottish family, Hector Macneill was educated at Bristol before working in a commercial firm in the West Indies (1761-1776) and as a naval secretary (1780-86). He attracted much attention with his poems protesting the the closing of the Scottish distilleries in 1795; MacNeill later corresponded with the Gentleman's Magazine defending the institution of slavery (he had spent several years in Jamaica) and published a pamphlet on the subject. He was for a time editor of the Scots Magazine.
TEXT RECORDS:
1801May-Day; or, The Discovery. A Pastoral.
1808The Pastoral, or Lyric Muse of Scotland.
PUBLICATIONS:
The harp: a legendary tale in two parts. 1789.
The links o'Forth: or a parting peep at the Carse of Stirling. 1795.
Scotland's skaith or the history o' Will and Jean. 1795.
The waes o' war: or the upshot o' the history o' Will and Jean. 1796.
Politics, or the history of Will and Jane: a tale for the times. 1796.
An advice from an old lover to a young wife. 1798.
Donald and Flora. 1798.
Come under my plaidie. 1798.
The lammy. 1798.
The links o' forth. 1799.
Memoirs of the life and travels of the late Charles Macpherson. 1800.
Observations on the treatment of the negroes in the Island of Jamaica. 1800.
Poetical works. 2 vols, 1801.
The pastoral or lyric muse of Scotland in three cantos. 1808.
Town fashions: or modern manners delineated; with James and Mary: a rural tale. 1810.
Bygane times and late come changes. 1811.
The Scottish adventures: or the way to rise, an historic tale. 2 vols, 1812.
Select poems, ed. E. Sanford. In British poets, vol. 39. 1819.
Poetical works. 1856.
PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:
Scottish
Presbyterian
Bristol
Glasgow University
merchant
clerk
military
poet
essayist
editor
novelist
Scots Magazine
Poetical Register
The Bee
REFERENCE:
DNB; NCBEL.
Alexander Campbell, in Introduction to the History of Poetry in Scotland (1798) 310; David Rivers, Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798); Macneill, Poems (1801) [portrait]; Poetical Register for 1801 (1802); Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816); obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 88 (July 1818) 89; "Some Account of Hector MacNeill" Blackwood's Magazine 4 (1818) 273-77; obituary in Monthly Magazine 45 (April 1818) 279; Edinburgh Annual Register for 1818 (1820) 254-57; Joseph Robertson, Lives of Scottish Poets (1821-22); "Hector Macneill" Western Luminary 1 (1824) 37-38, 44-45; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Robert Chambers, revised Thomson, Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen (1832-35; 1870); Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); Charles Rogers, Modern Scottish Minstrels (1855-57); MacNeill, Poetical Works (1856) [portrait]; Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); William Anderson, Scottish Nation (1859-63); Andrew R. Bonar, Poets and Poetry of Scotland (1864); James Grant Wilson, Poetry of Scotland (1876); George Eyre-Todd, in Scottish Poetry of the Eighteenth Century (1896); Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995).
COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Hector Macneill:
BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
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