The Celtic monthly : a magazine for Highlanders - National Library of ...
The Celtic monthly : a magazine for Highlanders - National Library of ...
The Celtic monthly : a magazine for Highlanders - National Library of ...
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THE CELTIC MONTHLY:<br />
^ MAGAZINE FOR HIGHUNDEHS.<br />
Edited by JOHN MACKAY, Glasgow.<br />
No. 1. Vol. IV.] OCTOBER, 1895.<br />
[Price Threepence.<br />
DR. F. A. MACPHERSON, LIVERPOOL.<br />
^^J^ MONG the many members <strong>of</strong> the old Clau<br />
,^J^^ Chattan, who have attained prominent<br />
:^SSi positions on the other side <strong>of</strong> the border,<br />
is Dr. Francis Alexander Macpherson <strong>of</strong> Liverpool,<br />
who is descended from the Pitmain branch<br />
<strong>of</strong> the clan. Relentlessly persecuted after " the<br />
day <strong>of</strong> dool " on " Scotland's last and saddest<br />
field,'' and their dwellings sacked and burnt<br />
down, by "the bloody Duke <strong>of</strong> Cumberland"<br />
whose inhuman cruelties are almost unexampled<br />
in British history—Dr. Macpherson's ancestors,<br />
who, with their chief at their head, had taken<br />
an active part in<br />
escaije from the<br />
heathered hills<br />
the '45, were constrained to<br />
Macpherson country— those<br />
" That heave and roll endlessly north away<br />
By Corryarrick and the Springs <strong>of</strong> Spey."<br />
Finding refuge in Ireland, the family ultimately<br />
settled down in Londonderry, where, fully a<br />
century later, the subject <strong>of</strong> our sketch was<br />
born, namely, on 1st June, 1850. Ilis greatgrandfather,<br />
and also his grandfather were bred<br />
to the sea. <strong>The</strong> <strong>for</strong>mer after retiring from the<br />
service became the most famous instructor <strong>of</strong><br />
navigation in his day— pupils being sent to him<br />
from all parts <strong>of</strong> the three kingdoms. While<br />
cruising in the North Sea in the beginning <strong>of</strong><br />
this century Dr. Macpherson's grandfather was<br />
captured by eleven French men-<strong>of</strong>-war and<br />
carried prisoner to Dunkirk, but after two-and-a-<br />
half years detention he was liberated Ijy<br />
exchange. He married Elizabeth M'Caine, or<br />
MTan, <strong>of</strong> Londonderry— a great-grand-daughter<br />
<strong>of</strong> Captain Francis Wilson, an <strong>of</strong>ficer who was<br />
engaged in the defence <strong>of</strong> Derry at its siege in<br />
1688-9. Francis Alexander Mac[)herson—the<br />
father <strong>of</strong> Dr. Macpherson—married, in 18i4,<br />
Mary Kilgour Whyte, <strong>of</strong> Fingask, in Perthshire,<br />
thereby renewing the Scotch blood in his<br />
—<br />
descendants. Although he has now attained<br />
his eighty-fifth year, he is still hale and hearty.<br />
Dr. Macpherson is one <strong>of</strong> a family <strong>of</strong> three<br />
sons and two daughters, <strong>of</strong> whom only he and a<br />
younger sister now survive. His elder brother,<br />
William John, died in January, 1867, in the<br />
course <strong>of</strong> a brilliant career at the University <strong>of</strong><br />
Dublin, where he had taken a Hebrew prize, a<br />
second class in Classics, and a first in Catechetics<br />
—thus following in the footsteps <strong>of</strong> his uncle, the<br />
Rev. Samuel M'Caine Macpherson, A.B.,T.C.D.,<br />
<strong>of</strong> Leckpatrick Church, Co. Tyrone. His<br />
younger brother, James Bruce Macpherson,<br />
studied Physic, and having, in 1878, obtained<br />
the degrees <strong>of</strong> the Royal Colleges <strong>of</strong> Physicians<br />
and Surgeons <strong>of</strong> Edinburgh, became one <strong>of</strong> the<br />
House Surgeons <strong>of</strong> the Liverpool Dispensaries.<br />
He afterwards successfully practiced in Prescot,<br />
Lancashire, where he died in 1889.<br />
Educated at Foyle College, Dr. Macpherson<br />
prosecuted his medical studies at Dublin, and,<br />
in 1876, took the diplomas <strong>of</strong> the Royal Colleges<br />
<strong>of</strong> Physicians and Surgeons <strong>of</strong> Edinburgh. In<br />
the same yeai' he was appointed Junior House<br />
Surgeon to the Liverpool Dispensaries, the oldest<br />
medical charity in that city. In the following<br />
3'ear he became Senior House Surgeon to the<br />
Noith Disjiensary, an <strong>of</strong>fice which he held <strong>for</strong><br />
six-and-a-half years. On resigning that <strong>of</strong>fice<br />
lie was elected Honorary Medical Officer <strong>of</strong> the<br />
same Institution. During his University curriculum<br />
<strong>of</strong> four-and-a-half years in Dublin hs<br />
studied music under highly qualified masters and<br />
became a member <strong>of</strong> the amateur choir <strong>of</strong> St.<br />
Patrick's Cathedral.<br />
In 1878 Dr. Macpherson composed and set to<br />
music a song entitled "<strong>The</strong> last good night,"<br />
which subsequently became so popular and well<br />
known at Liverpool, Manchester, and Dublin<br />
Concerts. He also composed a Cathedral Service<br />
<strong>for</strong> five voices and some chants still in manuscript<br />
and unpublished. A meritorious singer himself<br />
he has taken a sjiecial interest in the throat and<br />
its diseases. To extend his experience in this<br />
direction he visited, in 1878, the Hospitals <strong>of</strong><br />
Pari.s, and in 1880 those <strong>of</strong> Berlin. He was the<br />
first who advocated (through the columns <strong>of</strong> the