Professor Revd. William Leechman of Auchencairn, Principal of Glasgow University

Biographical Summary

William Leechman [or Leishman] [his original signature] of Auchencairn, Cadder, born 1706, son of William L., farmer, Roberton, Dolphinton, Lanarkshire [who, when a youth, had taken down the part of the body [a leg] of Robert Baillie of Jerviswood, which had been exposed on Lanark Tolbooth, and in gratitude for which act the Baillie family helped the younger L.] ; educated at Dolphinton School and Univ. of Edinburgh ; M.A. (1724) ; became tutor to James Geddes of Kirkurd, author of The Composition of the Antients (1748), and afterwards to William Mure of Caldwell ; licen. by Presb. of Paisley 13th Oct. 1731 ; ord. to Beith 30th Sept. 1736; app. to Chair of Divinity 3rd Jan. 1744; D.D. (Glasgow 1754). The Presb. refused to induct him, alleging he had made heretical statements in a sermon published in 1743, on the subject of Prayer, but the Synod reversed the judgment, this finding being confirmed by the General Assembly ; elected Moderator of the General Assembly May 1757 ; purchased Auchencairn in 1758; trans, and adm. to Principalship 26th Aug. 1761 ; died 3rd Dec. 1785. He marr. 26th June 1743, Bridget (died s.p. 20th Oct. 1792), daugh. of James Balfour of Pilrig.

SOURCE: Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae: the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the reformation, Vol. VII, page 397

Other References

• Wikipedia contributors. "William Leechman." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
• "Leechman, William". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.