THE UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE. NEW SERIES. No. XII.... VOL. II.] For NOVEMBER 1804.. [Ne BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF JOHN PIN KERTON, ESQ. F.S.A. CONTEMPORARY biography is attended with many inconveniences. The motives of the writer are often mistaken by the zealous, the envious, and the intimate. Impartial ity is called afperfion; truth, a with to detract from merit by the promulgation of trifling facts; and criticifin is often dignified with the appellations of malice and envy. But, fuch will ever be the cafe while the object is living; for, according as he is esteemed or contemned, venerated or defpifed, fo will all attempts to inveftigate his character or appreciate his merits be applauded or condemned. The object of the following memoir has rendered himself peculiarly obnoxious to many, from the heterodox boldnefs of his opinions, and the tenacity, not to fay arrogance, with which he has maintained them; while his real or pretended contempt for all who have gone before him in fimilar walks of literature has excited the greatcft in dignation in liberal minds., Mr. Pin kerton has, indeed, many of the characteritüics of his countrymen; fupercilious, dogınatical, irritable to an uncommon degree, and indefatigable in ftudy. This latt quality is eminently confpicuous in all his antiquarian and hiftorical works, which difplay a fund of reading and a pertinacity of enquiry, we believe, not equalled by any modern author. It was this quality or turn that led Gibbon to pronounce bin, "one of the children of thote heroes whole race is almoft extinét," and to declare," that hard alliduous ftudy is the fole amufement of his independent leifure." The eulogy of a man like Gibbon, publifhed after his death, when nothing was to be gained from flattery, must be allowed to carry with it fome weight. The writer of the following life has been in habits of intimacy with Mr. Pinkerton; and the facts which he is about to mention, though partly derived from a published work, are, he Prynne's Records, vol, III, p. 661. knows, correct and irrefragable, for they proceed from a fource not eally liable to miftake. * In giving an account of an antiquary, it is natural to mention antient records. The firit appearance of the name of Pinkerton is in Prynne's Papers of the, reign of Edward I, whence it appears that Nicol de Pynkerton paid homage to that prince for his lands in the neighbourhood of Dunbar, probably containing the vil lage ftill called Pinkerton, This feems to have been the first feat of the name which arofe from the village; but the moft numerous branch of it are in the weft of Scotland, particularly about Dalferf and Rutherglen, in Clydef dale; and the name frequently appears in the lift of magiftrates of the latter town, as published in a recent hiftory of it. In a quarto pamphlet published 1651, called “An Abstract of the State of his Majefty's Revenue," there is the item: "To Robert Pins kerton, falconer to the king, 18d per diem, and 13 13s 9d per annum for his living." There was alfo a Captain Pinkerton, who conducted part of the unfortunate expedition to Darien, aš appears from Caritair's State Papers. The grandfather of Mr. John Pinker ton was Walter, a worthy and honeft yeoman at Dalferf, who had a pretty numerous family. As prefbyterians at that time abounded in the west of England, there was a confiderable in tercourfe between them and those of Scotland. James Pinkerton, a fon of Walter, fettled in Somersetihire, where he acquired a moderate fortune, being, as is believed, what was then styled a hair merchant, wigs being much worn, and confiderable profits ariling from an article in univerfal request. About 1755 he returned to his native country, and married Mrs. Bowie, the widow of a refpectable merchant in Edinburgh, who left three children. James, the eldeft, was a fpirited youth, who joined the army as a volunteer, and was flain at the battle of Minden; his brother Robert fucceeded to an Nicol de Pynkerton del Counté de Hadington. 3 E eftate in Lanerkshire left by their father. By his wife, whofe maiden name was Heron, the daughter of a physician or apothecary in Edinburgh, Jaines Pinkerton acquired fome additional property. John Pinkerton was born at Edinburgh on the 17th of Feb. 1758. His father foon afterwards removed to one of his wife's houfes at Grangegate fide, near Edinburgh, where John went to a day fchool kept by an old woman, who relieved the drynefs of English grammar by a mixture of fweetmeats. About 1764, he was fent to the capital grammar fchool at Lanerk, kept by Mr. Thomfon, who married the fifter of Thomfon the poet, then an old lady with a glafs eye, and with a temper equally brit tle. But Mr. Thomion was quite the reverfe, and poffcffed great dignity of perfon and demeanor. Inheriting from his father a portion of hypochondriacism, young Pinkerton was always a fly boy, fonder of rural and foltary walks than of boisterous amufements; and, from an original infirmity of nerve, laboured under an incurable mauvaije honte; a fhocking fenfation, which ought to be the punishment of the wicked, inftead of the companion of the modeft and the good. At fchool he was generally the fecond or third of his class; but nothing reınarkable diftinguished this period. One inci dent,indeed,deferves to be recorded. Mr. Thomson one day ordered the boys to tranflate a part of Livy into English: when he came to young Pinkerton's verfion, as it is called in Scotland, he read it filently to himself, then, to the great furprife of the boys, walked quickly out of the fchool, but foon returned with a volume of Hooke's Roman Hiftory, in which the fame part of Livy was tranflated. He read both aloud, and gave his opinion decidedly in favour of his difciple's tranf lation, which not a little flattered his boyith vanity, and, perhaps, first sowed in him the feeds of authorship. In what confifted the great excellence of this verfion cannot now probably be known; but, if excellence it had, it fiands alone in the lift of Mr. Pinkerton's productions. In nothing which he has published can there be difcovered much polish or energy of diction; much harmony of construction, or force of felection. His ftyle is remarkably poor, there being but few inftances where he rises above Colloquial eminence. He is frequently ungrammatical, and never prefents any of thofe embellishments and phra feological beauties which give force to argument, and a degree of intereft to the most abftrufe points of study. It may, indeed, be faid, and perhaps with truth, that the nature of some of his productions precluded all attempts at a figurative and polifhed ftyle: this is ever the cafe, for the dry details of antiquarian refcarch are but little fufceptible of an animated and glowing drefs; but in hiftory, ample room is afforded for the brighteft corrufcations of language, when we bring into temporary extence the warrior leading forth his armies to conqueft; the statef man delivering with bold yet chafte eloquence the dictates of found poli cy or dignified refentment; the philo fopher contemplating, in his ftudy, the laws and phenomena of nature; the poet following the airy and retpleudent track of imagination, and excogitating in folitude the nobleft productions of the lyre; the zealous patriot at one time planning the deliverance of his country, at another pining in the gloom of a dungeon, loaded with chains, and led forth to an ignomini ous death! Thefe are among the varied fubjects which hiftory presents, and which start into life at the ethereal touch of a refined and delicate imagination; which have breathed, with more than living fplendor, beneath the pens of a Tacitus, a Hume, a Robertion, and a Gibbon! But thefe fubjects difplay only the torpid accuracy of plodding refearch in the history of Mr. Pinkerton: he is correct without animation, and laborious without fpirit. That his antiquarian productions are thus, can excite little furprife; but that works on history and polite literature fhould be fo barren of ornament, can be accounted for only on the fuppofition, that Mr. P. has never paid any attention to his ftyle. Burke's Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful" has all the drynefs of metaphyfical difcuffion; the fubject rendered this impoffible: but who is not charmed with the fire, the elegance, the glowing animation, which pervade all the rest of his works? To return, however, to the immediate subject of our memoir, After being fix years at fchool, the laft year of which only was dedicated to the Greek, he returned to his fa ther's houfe near Edinburgh. The father having fome diflike to a univer Aty education, John was kept in a kind of folitary confinement at home; and, his father being of a morofe and fevere difpolition, his durance did not tend to give much firmness to his nerves. An hour or two paled every day in attending a French teacher; and in his eagerness to attain this language he had totally lo his Greek, and nearly his Latin allo: but foon after, meeting with Rollin's Ancient Hlory, and obferving references to the original authors, he bought the Hiftory of Juftinus, &c. and foon recovered his Latin, fo as to write, when he was about thirteen years of age, tolerable fpecimens in that language. He afterwards ftudied mathematics two or three years under Mr. Ewing, an able teacher at Edinburgh, and proceeded as far as the doctrine of infinities. Though he expected a decent competency from his father, yet, being tired of conftant confinement, and the want of company and diverity, it was proposed that he thould study the law; and he accordingly terved a regular apprenticeship of five years to Mr. William Aytoun, an eminent writer to the fignet, a gentleman more fond of expence, how, and rural life, than of the law, but of a noble and liberal difpofition. He would fometimes, however, check his pupil for poring over Copernicus, when he ought to have been reading Dallas's Styles, being old models for law papers. From the indefatigable nature of Mr. Pinkerton, it is probable he would have attained to fome eminence in legal knowledge, tho' conftitutional defects would have prevented him from ever being celebrated as a forenfic orator. Our author had no tafte for poetry till he was upwards of twelve years of age, the idea he had conceived of it, being merely that it was more nonfenfical than profe, as ufing many words to exprefs little meaning; a conceit fufficiently foolish, it must be confelled. But Beattie's Minstrel being much talked of, he read it, and was delighted. Shakespear and Milton followed; and it then ftruck him that he had read Virgil, Horace, and Anacreon, merely as talks. After peruting the Minstrel, he was induced to attempt English verfes, all his prior little compolitions having been in Latin. As he often vifited Craignillar Castle, in his neighbour hood, once the refidence of the unfortunate Mary, he printed a little Elegy called " Craigmillar Cattle," dedicat ed to Dr. Beattie, who favoured the young author with his criticifins and advice. This boyith production appeared about 1776. A tragedy afterwards followed, which he committed to the flames, built upon a modern Latin drama called Zeno. Another manufcript tragedy we know is still in being, which, by the intervention of a lady, was thewn to Dr. Blair, who praited the ftyle, but faid that it wanted incident. It has fince been revised, and greatly altered. The pathetic old Scotifh ballads inspired him with a wish to attempt fomething of that kind; and the fecond part of Hardyknute was written about 1776, when the author was eighteen. He alfo wrote other pieces in that manner, all of which were confeffed and pointed out in his edition of the Maitland Poems, 1736. Nothing of impofition was here intended. He has been heard to fay, that he perfectly recollects his train of ideas upon the fubject, while his mind would have fhrunk from the fmallest difhonetly or difingenuity. It was merely that, as we know not the authors of any of the old Scotith ballads, the very uncertainty feemed to lend an additional charm and veneration. His youthful vanity led him to hope that his might pafs into the fame class; but he refolved at the fame time to avow himfelf the author, after a certain period had elapfed. In 1780, foon after his apprenticefhip was expired, his father died; and being often difappointed in procuring uncommon books at Edinburgh, he vifited London, where the fize and extent of the bookfellers' catalogues formed his fole motive for withing to fix his retidence here. This determination was confirmed by the bank ruptcy of fome merchants in Glasgow who held about 1000/ of his father's money, the whole of which was loft. He accordingly returned to Scotland in the fpring of 1781, took up the remaining fums lying in mercantile hands, and, returning to England, fettled in the neighbourhood of London in the winter of that year. On his *Writers to the fignet are felect folicitors, who alone are permitted to fign writings which in Scotland pass the royal ignet. |