Wilson, John Q. (John Quintard), 1781-1863

Soldier, lawyer, and jurist.

From the description of John Q. Wilson papers, 1799-1841. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 70984672

John Wilson was born in Paisley on 18 May 1785. He was educated at a local school in Paisley and at the manse in Mearns, and from 1797 he studied at Glasgow University. He then went to Magdalen College, Oxford. He had been athletic, interested in logic, and had associated with many different people, and travelled around the country in vacations. He graduated in 1810 and went to Lakeland to live, and there he began to write and became close friends with Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey. Mismanagement of his property by a relation however led to his return to Edinburgh where he began to study law. In 1815 he was called to the Scottish Bar though made little progress in the legal profession. In 1817, Wilson became involved with the new journal, Blackwood's magazine and thus also became involved with the deep rivalry between Blackwood's and the Constable publishing house. He wrote under the pseudonym 'Christopher North'. In 1820 he was elected Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh University largely for political reasons for he was probably better qualified for a Chair in English Literature. His writing, much of which first appeared in Balckwood's included The isle of palms (1810), The city of the plague (1816), Noctes ambrosianae (1822), The trials of Margaret Lyndsay (1823), and The Foresters (1825). John Wilson died on 3 April 1854 at Gloucester Place, Edinburgh, and he was buried in Dean Cemetery on 7 April 1854. There is a statue to him in Princes Street, Edinburgh, sculpted by John Steell.

From the guide to the Lectures and Papers of John Wilson, 'Christopher North' (1785-1854), 1804-1844, (Edinburgh University Library)