Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Daniel, Robert Mackenzie
DANIEL, ROBERT MACKENZIE (1814–1847), novelist, born in Inverness-shire in 1814, was educated at Inverness, at Marischal College, Aberdeen, and at the university of Edinburgh, where he studied law for four years with the intention of becoming an advocate. Having abandoned this idea, and resolved to adopt literature as a profession, he came to London in 1836, contributed largely to the magazines, and was appointed editor of the ‘Court Journal.’ His first work of fiction, ‘The Scottish Heiress,’ appeared in 1843, and was followed in the same year by ‘The Gravedigger.’ In 1844 he removed to Jersey, where he produced ‘The Young Widow,’ which was most favourably received; and ‘The Young Baronet’ (1845) sustained the reputation of the author, who was styled the ‘Scottish Boz.’ In January 1845 he accepted the editorship of the ‘Jersey Herald,’ and he conducted that journal till September 1846, when he was overtaken by a mental malady and removed by his friends to Bethlehem Hospital, London, where he died on 21 March 1847, leaving a widow who was also distinguished as a novelist. A posthumous romance by him, entitled ‘The Cardinal's Daughter,’ appeared in 3 vols. London, 1847.
[Gent. Mag. new ser. xxvii. 671; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Anderson's Scottish Nation, ii. 19.]