Biography

Anderson was born in Edinburgh 10 December 1805. His father was supervisor of excise at Oban

Oban

Oban Oban Oban ( is a resort town within the Argyll and Bute council area of Scotland. It has a total resident population of 8,120. Despite its small size, it is the largest town between Helensburgh and Fort William and during the tourist season the town can be crowded by up to 25,000 people. Oban...

, and his mother the daughter of John Williams, author of the ‘Natural History of the Mineral Kingdom.’ He was thus a younger brother of John Anderson (genealogist, 1789-1832)

John Anderson (genealogist, 1789-1832)

John Anderson was a Scottish surgeon and genealogist, of Hamilton, Lanarkshire.He was born on 6 June 1789, at Gilmerton House, Midlothian, and became a licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, and while passing the college examinations was appointed by the Duke of Hamilton first...

, the historian of the house of Hamilton. After receiving a good education in Edinburgh he became clerk to a Leith

Leith

-South Leith v. North Leith:Up until the late 16th century Leith , comprised two separate towns on either side of the river....

 merchant, but subsequently entered a lawyer's office in Edinburgh. At an early period he began to contribute to the newspapers, and in 1830 published a volume of verse, entitled ‘Poetical Aspirations,’ which reached a second edition in 1833. This was followed by a volume of prose and verse, entitled ‘Odd Sketches.’ After a short residence in London in 1831 he obtained a situation on the ‘Aberdeen Journal.’

In 1836 he returned to London, where he formed a rather extensive literary connection, and in 1839 brought out the ‘Gift of all Nations,’ an annual which numbered among its contributors Thomas Campbell

Thomas Campbell

Thomas Campbell was a Scottish poet chiefly remembered for his sentimental poetry dealing specially with human affairs. He was also one of the initiators of a plan to found what became the University of London. In 1799, he wrote 'The Pleasures of Hope' a traditional 18th century survey in heroic...

, Sheridan Knowles, the Countess of Blessington, and Miss Pardoe. In the same year he also published ‘Landscape Lyrics,’ which reached a second edition in 1854. In 1842 he became editor of the ‘Western Watchman,’ a weekly newspaper published at Ayr; in 1844 he was chosen subeditor of the ‘Edinburgh Witness,’ which, although the articles of Hugh Miller

Hugh Miller

Hugh Miller was a self-taught Scottish geologist and writer, folklorist and an evangelical Christian.- Life and work :Born in Cromarty, he was educated in a parish school where he reportedly showed a love of reading. At 17 he was apprenticed to a stonemason, and his work in quarries, together with...

 had secured it a wide circulation, had hitherto been subedited in a very perfunctory manner; and in 1845 he became the chief subeditor of the ‘Glasgow Daily Mail,’ the first daily newspaper published in Scotland.

On account of the serious effects on his health of severe night labour, he was two years afterwards compelled for a time to abandon literary work, and he never formed any subsequent connection with a newspaper. With the exception of a volume of ‘Poems’ published in 1845, and the ‘Young Voyager,’ 1855, a poem descriptive of the search after Sir John Franklin, and intended for juvenile readers, the remaining works of Anderson are of the nature chiefly of popular compilations. They include an edition of the ‘Works of Lord Byron,’ with a life and notes, 1850; the ‘Poems and Songs of R. Gilfillan,’ with a memoir, 1851; and a ‘Treasury’ series, embracing the ‘Treasury of Discovery,’ 1853; of the ‘Animal World,’ 1854; of ‘Manners,’ 1855; of ‘History,’ 1856; and of ‘Nature,’ 1857. Of a somewhat higher character than these compilations are the ‘Scottish Nation,’ 1859–63, an expansion of his ‘Popular Scottish Biography’ published in 1842; and ‘Genealogy and Surnames,’ 1865. The ‘Scottish Nation,’ though diffuse and ill arranged, displays great industry and a minute acquaintance with Scottish family history; while ‘Genealogy and Surnames,’ amid much that is commonplace, contains some curious information not easily accessible elsewhere.

He died suddenly at London 2 August 1866.