biography
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1740–95)
|
| biography:
| Editor, printer, and antiquary, born in Edinburgh, EC Scotland, UK. Educated at the High School, he was apprenticed to a printer in 1752. In 1765 he set up his own printing business and, with Andrew Bell (1726–1809) and Colin MacFarquhar (?1745–?93), produced the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1768–71), much of which was later ascribed to him. A founder member of the Society of Antiquities in 1780, he helped prepare the first statistical account of Scotland. |
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