Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cameron, William
CAMERON, WILLIAM (1751–1811), Scotch poet, was born in 1751, and educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen, where he was a pupil of Dr. Beattie [q. v.] Having been licensed a preacher of the church of Scotland, he was ordained minister of the parish of Kirknewton, Midlothian, on 17 Aug. 1786. Along with the Rev. John Logan and Dr. John Morrison, he assisted in preparing the collection of ‘Paraphrases’ from Scripture for the use of the church of Scotland, and he wrote for the collection Paraphrases XIV and XVII. On the occasion of the restoration of the forfeited estates in the highlands, he wrote a congratulatory song, ‘As o'er the Highland Hills I hied,’ which was inserted in Johnson's ‘Museum’ adapted to the old air, ‘The Haughs o' Cromdale.’ He was also the author of a ‘Collection of Poems,’ published anonymously, 1790; ‘The Abuse of Civil and Religious Liberty,’ a sermon, 1793; ‘Ode on Lochiel's Birthday,’ 1796; ‘A Review of the French Revolution,’ 1802; ‘Poems on several Occasions,’ 1813; and the account of the parish of Kirknewton in Sinclair's ‘Statistical Account.’ His poems are for the most part of a moral and didactic character. He died on 17 Nov. 1811.
[New Statistical Account of Scotland, i. 441; Scots Magazine, lxxiv. 79; Forbes's Life of Beattie, i. 375; Rogers's Scottish Minstrel, i. 34–38; Hew Scott's Fasti Eccles. Scot. i. 143–4.]