GLEIG

gleig, george (1753-1840), scottish divine, was born at boghall, kincardineshire, on the 12th of may 1753, the son of a farmer. at the age of thirteen he entered king's college, aberdeen, where the first prize in mathematics and physical and moral sciences fell to him. in his twenty-first year he took orders in the scottish episcopal church, and was ordained to the pastoral charge of a congregation at pittenweem, fife, whence he removed in 1790 to stirling. he became a frequent contributor to the _monthly review_, the _gentleman's magazine_, the _anti-jacobin review_ and the _british critic_. he also wrote several articles for the third edition of the _encyclopaedia britannica_, and on the death of the editor, colin macfarquhar, in 1793, was engaged to edit the remaining volumes. among his principal contributions to this work were articles on "instinct," "theology" and "metaphysics." the two supplementary volumes were mainly his own work. he was twice chosen bishop of dunkeld, but the opposition of bishop skinner, afterwards primus, rendered the election on both occasions ineffectual. in 1808 he was consecrated assistant and successor to the bishop of brechin, in 1810 was preferred to the sole charge, and in 1816 was elected primus of the episcopal church of scotland, in which capacity he greatly aided in the introduction of many useful reforms, in fostering a more catholic and tolerant spirit, and in cementing a firm alliance with the sister church of england. he died at stirling on the 9th of march 1840. besides various sermons, gleig was the author of _directions for the study of theology_, in a series of letters from a bishop to his son on his admission to holy orders (1827); an edition of _stackhouse's history of the bible_ (1817); and a life of robertson the historian, prefixed to an edition of his works. see _life of bishop gleig_, by the rev. w. walker (1879). letters to henderson of edinburgh and john douglas, bishop of salisbury, are in the british museum. his third and only surviving son, george robert gleig (1796-1888), was educated at glasgow university, whence he passed with a snell exhibition to balliol college, oxford. he abandoned his scholastic studies to enter the army, and served with distinction in the peninsular war (1813-14), and in the american war, in which he was thrice wounded. resuming his work at oxford, he proceeded b.a. in 1818, m.a. in 1821, and, having been ordained in 1820, held successively curacies at westwell in kent and ash (to the latter the rectory of ivy church was added in 1822). he was subsequently appointed chaplain of chelsea hospital (1824), chaplain-general of the forces (1844-1875) and inspector-general of military schools (1846-1857). from 1848 till his death on the 9th of july 1888 he was prebend of willesden in st paul's cathedral. during the last sixty years of his life he was a prolific, if not very scientific, writer; he wrote for _blackwood's magazine_ and _fraser's magazine_, and produced a large number of historical works. among the latter were (besides histories of the campaigns in which he served), _life of sir thomas munro_ (3 vols., 1830); _history of india_ (4 vols., 1830-1835); _the leipsic campaign and lives of military commanders_ (1831); _story of the battle of waterloo_ (1847); _sketch of the military history of great britain_ (1845); _sale's brigade in afghanistan_ (1847); biographies of lord clive (1848), the duke of wellington (1862), and warren hastings (1848; the subject of macaulay's essay, in which it is described as "three big bad volumes full of undigested correspondence and undiscerning panegyric").