Thomas Barclay
Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia
Thomas Barclay D.D. (1792-1873), minister, scholar and provost of Glasgow University from 1858–1873, was born on the 14th of June 1792 in Unst, where his father James (b. 1742, Clatt, Aberdeenshire) was minister. His mother was an Unst native, Ursula Archibald (b.1750). Thomas Barclay was greatly admired as an orator, but was also a true scholar, deeply read not only in theology but in the languages and cultures of northern Europe. Jakob Jakobsen notes that while in Edinburgh, he read a "valuable manuscript supplement" to Thomas Edmondston's Glossary in The Museum of Antiquities, written by Barclay.
Thomas studied at King's College, Aberdeen and graduated M.A. in 1812. He studied theology for the next four years, while teaching elocution at Aberdeen, but he abandoned his father's vocation in 1818 in favour of journalism, working on The Times in London where he was one of the parliamentary reporters. But soon he was back in Shetland, where he married Mary Adamson of Dunrossness (b.1798) on the 21st of September 1820, with whom he was to have nine children.
Barclay received a license to preach the gospel from the presbytery of Lerwick on the 27th of June 1821 and was ordained on 12th of September 1822 as minister of Dunrossness. In 1827, he left Dunrossness to become minister of Lerwick and on 27th of April 1831 he was elected clerk of the synod of Shetland. It was during this time in Shetland that Sir Henry Holland, the travel writer, en route to Iceland, went to hear him preach. Impressed by what he heard, Holland approached him and they arranged that on the Monday they would go sailing. A storm got up and the helmsman panicked but Barclay steered the boat safely to shore. Holland regarded Barclay as having saved his life, and the two became friends.
In 1843, Barclay moved to Peterculter in Aberdeenshire, and the following year moved again to Currie, in Midlothian. Barclay took a prominent part, along with Dr. Robert Lee, in promoting the cause of religious liberalism. In 1849 he was conferred the degree of Doctor of Divinity by Aberdeen University.
When Dr Duncan Macfarlan, Principal of the University of Glasgow, died in 1858, Barclay was appointed his successor, reputedly on the recommendation of Holland. He had no knowledge of university affairs, but his resemblance to John Knox made him a popular figure with the students. Barclay held the post at a time when the University was undergoing reform and expansion, and he supervised the transfer of the University to its impressive new home at Gilmorehill, Glasgow.
Barclay suffered from asthma and spent each winter in Egypt. He died at his official residence on the 23rd of February 1873, and was buried at Sighthill Cemetery.
