Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Findlay, Robert
FINDLAY, ROBERT, D.D.(1721–1814), Scotch divine, son of William Findlay of Waxford, Ayrshire, born 23 Nov. 1721, was educated at Glasgow, Leyden, and Edinburgh, and was ordained a minister of the kirk of Scotland in 1744. He had charges successively at Stevenston (1743), Galston (1745), Paisley (1754), and St. David's Church, Glasgow (1756), was appointed professor of divinity in the university of Glasgow in 1782, and died 15 June 1814. He published in the 'Library' for July 1761 'A Letter to the Rev. Dr. Kennicott vindicating the Jews from the Charge of Corrupting Deut. xxvii. 4,' which, on Kennicott's replying in the 'Library,' he followed up with 'A Second Letter to Dr. Kennicott upon the same subject, being an Answer to the Remarks in the "Library" for August 1761, and a further illustration of the argument.' This letter he sent to the 'Library;' but the editor of that magazine having had enough of the controversy, it appeared separately in January 1762. Both letters were signed 'Philalethes.' A more ambitious task next engaged Findlay's attention, viz. an examination of the views on the credibility of Josephus and the Jewish and Christian Scriptures propounded by Voltaire in his 'Philosophie de l'Histoire.' This work appeared under the title of ' A Vindication of the Sacred Books and of Josephus, especially the former, from various misrepresentations and cavils of the celebrated M. de Voltaire,' Glasgow, 1770, 8vo. Findlay also published a pamphlet on 'The Divine Inspiration of the Jewish Scriptures and Old Testament,' London, 1803, 8vo.
[Irving's Book of Eminent Scotsmen; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Cleland's Annals of Glasgow, ii. 114; Hew Scott's Fasti Eccl. Scot. ii. 26, 116, 187, 203.]