Hector Macneill

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

William Roscoe

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:

1.	1799  Richard Gall, "Verses addressed to Hector Macneill, Esq." 1799; in MacNeill, Poems (1801) 1:ix-xiv.
2.	1801  Alexander Thomson, in The British Parnassus, at the Close of the Eighteenth Century (1801) 79-80.
3.	1802  Anonymous, Review of Macneill, Poetical Works; Poetical Register for 1801 (1802; 1815) 360.
4.	1805  William Preston, in "To Robert Anderson" Poetical Register for 1805 (1807) 169.
5.	1808  Walter Scott to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, 30 December 1808; Sharpe, Letters (1888) 1:350.
6.	1809  Lord Byron, in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809); Poetical Works, ed. E. H. Coleridge (1898-1904) 1:362 & n.
7.	1810  J. M'D., "Verses addressed to H. Macniel, Esq. Author of Will and Jean, &c." Scots Magazine 72 (August 1810) 610.
8.	1825  Allan Cunningham, in Songs of Scotland, Ancient and Modern (1825) 1:241-44.
9.	1851  David Macbeth Moir, in Sketches of the Poetical Literature of the Past Half-Century (1851; 1852) 100-01.
10.	1855  Charles Rogers, in Modern Scottish Minstrel (1855-57) 1:80-81.
11.	1882  Epes Sargent, in Harper's Cyclopaedia of British and American Poetry (1882) 230.
12.	1896  George Eyre-Todd, in Scottish Poetry of the Eighteenth Century (1896) 2:55-56.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Hector Macneill:

1.	1798  Alexander Campbell, in Introduction to the History of Poetry in Scotland (1798) 310.
2.	1798  David Rivers, in Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798) 2:14.
3.	1818  Anonymous, Obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 88 (July 1818) 89.
4.	1818  Anonymous, "Some Account of Hector Macneill" Blackwood's Magazine 4 (December 1818) 273-77.
5.	1822  B. T., in Joseph Robertson, Lives of Scottish Poets (1821-22) 5:150-66.
6.	1844  Robert Chambers, in Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844; 1850) 2:488-90.
7.	1859  William Anderson, in Scottish Nation (1859-66) 7:57-58.
8.	1860 ca.  Charles MacKay, "Memoir of Hector Macneill" in Burns, Ramsay, and the earlier Poets of Scotland (nd, 1860 ca.) 1:385.
9.	1876  James Grant Wilson, in Poets of Scotland (1876) 1:307-08.