Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Edmonstone, Archibald
EDMONSTONE, Sir ARCHIBALD (1795–1871), traveller and miscellaneous writer, eldest son of Sir Charles Edmonstone, second baronet of Duntreath, Stirlingshire, by his first wife Emma, fifth daughter of Richard Wilbraham Bootle of Rode Hall, Cheshire, and sister of Edward Bootle Wilbraham, first Baron Skelmersdale, was born at 32 Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London, on 12 March 1795, and entered at Eton in 1808. He removed in 1812 to Christ Church, Oxford, where he proceeded B.A. on 29 Nov. 1816. In 1819 he went to Egypt, where he visited and explored two of the oases in the great desert, of which he published a most interesting and minute account, with views and plans of the ruined temples and tombs. On the death of his father, 1 April 1821, he succeeded to the baronetcy, and fruitlessly contested his father's constituency, Stirlingshire, 24 May 1821. He died at 34 Wilton Place, Belgrave Square, London, on 13 March 1871. His will was proved, 18 April, under 12,000l. personalty. He married, on 10 Oct. 1832, his cousin-german Emma, third daughter of Randle Wilbraham of Rode Hall, Cheshire, and had issue three daughters, who all died in their infancy. He was the author of: 1. ‘A Journey to Two of the Oases of Upper Egypt,’ 1822. 2. ‘Leonora,’ a tragedy in five acts and in verse, 1832. 3. ‘Tragedies,’ 1837. 4. ‘The Christian Gentleman's Daily Walk,’ 1840, 2nd edit. 1843, 3rd edit. 1850. 5. ‘The Progress of Religion,’ a poem, 1842. 6. ‘Thoughts on the Observance of Lent,’ 1848. 7. ‘A Letter to the Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway on the Present Aspect of Church Matters,’ 1850. 8. ‘Meditations in Verse for the Sundays and Holydays throughout the Year,’ 1853. 9. ‘Devotional Reflections in Verse, arranged in accordance with the Church Calendar,’ 1858. 10. ‘Short Readings on the Collects,’ 1861. 11. ‘Spiritual Communings,’ 1869.
[Sir A. Edmonstone's Genealogical Account of Family of Edmonstone (1875), pp. 56–7; Illustrated London News, 1 April 1871, p. 322, and 29 April, p. 427; Times, 18 March 1871, p. 4.]