Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Macfarlane, Robert (1734-1804)
MACFARLANE, ROBERT (1734–1804), miscellaneous writer, a native of Scotland, was born in 1734, and received his education at the university of Edinburgh, where he proceeded M.A. He settled in London, and for some years kept a school with great success at Walthamstow, Essex. At one time he was editor of the 'Morning Chronicle' and 'London Packet.' His retentive memory enabled him to faithfully report some of the finest speeches in parliament during Lord North's administration, especially those delivered in the debates on the American war. On the evening of 8 Aug. 1804, during the Brentford election, he was killed by being accidentally thrown under a carriage at Hammersmith (Faulkner, Hammersmith, pp. 297-8).
Marfarlane was engaged by Thomas Evans, the publisher, of Paternoster Row, to write a 'History of the Reign of George III,' the first volume of which was issued in 1770. In consequence, however, of some misunderstanding, Evans employed another writer to continue the work, the second volume of which appeared in 1782, and the third in 1794. On being reconciled to Evans, Macfarlane wrote in 1796 a fourth volume, which was severely handled by the critics. Macfarlane defended himself in an 'Appendix, or the Criticks Criticized,' 8vo, London, 1797.
He was an enthusiastic admirer of the poems of Ossian, and translated them into Latin verse, publishing in 1769 the first book of 'Temora' as a specimen. At the time of his death he had in the press an elaborate edition of the poet, which was afterwards issued under the auspices of the Highland Society of London, with the title 'The Poems of Ossian in Gaelic, with a literal Translation into Latin, with a Dissertation on their authenticity by Sir J. Sinclair, and a Translation from the Italian of the Abbe Cesarette's Dissertation on the Controversy respecting Ossian, with Notes by J. McArthur,' 3 vols. 8vo, London, 1807.
In 1797 Macfarlane published 'An Address to the People of the British Empire on Public Affairs,' and in 1799 a translation of George Buchanan's 'Dialogue concerning the Rights of the Crown of Scotland,' with two dissertations prefixed, one on the pretended identity of the Getes and Scythians, and the Goths and Scots, and the other vindicating the character of Buchanan as an historian.
[Gent. Mag. 1804, ii. 791; Anderson's Scottish Nation, ii. 731-2; Green's Diary of a Lover of Literature, 1810, p. 65.]