Dr Peter Bayne, 1830-1896

Peter Bayne, son of Rev Charles John Bayne (MA King's College, 1817) was born in Fodderty, Ross-shire, on 19 Oct 1830, and graduated from Marischal College, Aberdeen, MA 1850. He entered the theological classes at New College, Edinburgh, c 1850, intending to prepare for a career in the ministry, but, when forced to withdraw due to illness, turned his attention towards journalism and literature.

He earned early success and a sound reputation with short articles written for Hogg's Weekly Magazine, Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, and subsequently, c 1856, as editor of the Glasgow Commonwealth and the Edinburgh-based Witness . In 1860 he accepted the post of editor with the National Newspaper League Company's new venture, the Dial, in London. The magazine was a financial failure, and through his involvement with it Bayne became burdened with heavy debts. He resigned from post in 1862, and was subsequently appointed editor of the Weekly Review, the organ of the English Presbyterian Church. He was forced to resign in 1865 owing to liturgical differences with the Church, but began writing articles for the Christian World, under the editorship of James Clarke, and over the course of the following 20 years became a regular contributor to that journal; with infrequent contributions to other weekly newspapers and reviews, including the Spectator, Contemporary Review, and London Quarterly . He contributed to the fourth volume of the National History of England (1877), and was author of several other historical and religious works. These include Emma Cheyne: a Prose Idyll of English Life (London, 1875), published under the pseudonym of Ellis Brandt) and The Free Church of Scotland: Her Origins, Founders and Testimony (Edinburgh: T.&T. Clark, 1893, 2nd edn. 1894).

Bayne died at Norwood on 10 Feb 1896. He was married three times, and had 5 children by his first wife, Clotilda Gerwien. In 1879 he was awarded an LL D from the University of Aberdeen. For further details see DNB, Supplement 1, pp146 - 147.

From the guide to the Papers of Dr Peter Bayne, 1850 - 1887 and n.d., (University of Aberdeen)