Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morren, Nathaniel
MORREN, NATHANIEL (1798–1847), Scottish divine, born in Aberdeen 3 Feb. 1798, was educated at the grammar school and at Marischal College, where he graduated M.A. in 1814. He became a tutor at Fort George; subsequently taught at Caen, France; studied theology in the universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh; was licensed by the presbytery of Aberdeen in October 1822; appointed minister of Blackhall Street (afterwards North) Church, Greenock, in June 1823; translated to the first charge of Brechin September 1843; and died of apoplexy 28 March 1847. He was a devoted minister, and a good scholar. The work by which he is best known is his ‘Annals of the General Assembly from 1739 to 1766,’ 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1838–40, which has been much quoted by subsequent historians of the Scottish church. He was also the author of ‘Biblical Theology,’ Edinburgh, 1835; ‘My Church Politics,’ Greenock, 1842; ‘Dialogues on the Church Question,’ Greenock, 1843; and of various articles in Kitto's ‘Biblical Encyclopædia’ and Macphail's ‘Ecclesiastical Journal.’ He annotated a pocket edition of the Bible, 1845; translated from the German Rosenmuller's ‘Biblical Geography of Central Asia;’ and, along with others, edited the ‘Imperial Family Bible.’
[Hew Scott's Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ, ii. 245; Sermons, with a Memoir, Edinburgh, 1848; Presbytery Records; New Statistical Account, vol. vii.]