Gilbert Stuart (1742–1786) was a Scottish journalist and historian.
He was born inEdinburgh, the only surviving son ofGeorge Stuart (1715-1793), professor of the Latin language and Roman antiquities inEdinburgh University.
Gilbert was educated at the High School in Edinburgh and then studied Classics and Philosophy atEdinburgh University, followed by a course injurisprudence there; but he never followed the law as profession.[1]
In 1768 Stuart went to London, hoping for preferment throughLord Mansfield. In 1769 he lodged withThomas Somerville in the house of Murdoch the bookseller, writing for the newspapers and reviews. He worked for theMonthly Review from 1768 to 1773. By June 1773 Stuart was back with his father atMusselburgh, working to launch theEdinburgh Magazine and Review. The first number came out about the middle of October 1773, and it was discontinued after the publication of the number for August 1776. In the end, an article by Stuart and Alexander Gillies, written over the protests ofWilliam Smellie, attackedLord Monboddo'sOrigin and Progress of Language over several numbers. The magazine was stopped.[1]
Stuart was a critic of the historianWilliam Robertson, who was the leader of the Moderates in theChurch of Scotland. In his view, instead of supporting Catholic toleration, Robertson should have been more assertive in defending the interests of the Kirk. In 1778 Stuart was an unsuccessful candidate for the professorship of public law at theUniversity of Edinburgh, and he believed that Robertson was responsible for his failure.[2] Stuart nursed his resentment of Robertson over this supposed intervention.[1] In 1785 William Robertson, eldest son of the historian, fought a duel with Stuart, which both survived.[3]
In 1782 Stuart settled once more in London, and went back to reviewing. TheEnglish Review was established byJohn Murray I in January 1783, and Stuart was one of the principal writers on its staff. During 1785–6 he edited, withWilliam Thomson (1746–1817), twelve numbers ofThe Political Herald and Review. It opened with a criticism ofPitt's administration, which was still not finished in the final number, and dealt out severe addresses toHenry Dundas and several other Pittites. These diatribes may have prompted the suggestion that Stuartwas Junius.[1]
Stuart would spend whole nights drinking in company at the Peacock inGray's Inn Lane, London. He died at his father's house at Fisherrow inMusselburgh on 13 August 1786.[1]
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Stuart initially supplied corrections and amendments to theGospel History (1765) of the Rev.Robert Wait. His first independent work was the anonymousHistorical Dissertation on the Antiquity of the English Constitution (1768) in which he traced English institutions to a German source. The second edition, which came out in January 1770, with a dedication toLord Mansfield, bore Stuart's name on the title-page, and it was republished in 1778 and 1790. For this work he received from Edinburgh University on 16 November 1769 the degree of doctor of law.[1]
While based in London Stuart supervised the manuscripts ofNathaniel Hooke. From them he finished the fourth volume of Hooke'sRoman History. which was published in 1771. After this Stuart temporarily abandoned review-writing for the study of philosophy and history. He appended in 1776 to the second edition ofFrancis Stoughton Sullivan'sLectures on the Constitution and Laws of England the authorities for the statements and a discourse on the government and laws of our country, and dedicated the volume toLord North; the whole work was reissued atPortland, Maine, in 1805.[1]
Stuart's major work,A View of Society in Europe, was published in 1778, and reprinted in 1782, 1783, 1792, and 1813, and a French translation byAntoine-Marie-Henri Boulard, came out in Paris in 1789, in two volumes. Letters fromWilliam Blackstone andAlexander Garden were added to the posthumous edition of 1792 by Stuart's father. In this dissertation Stuart followedMontesquieu.[1] As a contributor tomedievalism he is considered a pioneer, sharing withThomas Hinton Burley Oldfield the conception of early Anglo-Saxon society as harbouring democratic habits.[4]
In 1779 Stuart brought out, with a dedication toLord Mount Stuart,Observations on the Public Law and Constitutional History of Scotland; and in 1780 he published hisHistory of the Establishment of the Reformation in Scotland (reissued in 1796 and 1805). It was followed in 1782 byThe History of Scotland from the Establishment of the Reformation till the Death of Queen Mary, which had a second edition in 1784, when he added to it hisObservations on the Public Law of Scotland. These works were written with a narrative in the "balancing style" adopted fromSamuel Johnson andEdward Gibbon. Stuart trailed his coat for Robertson, whom he openly challenged to reply to his defence of Queen Mary. Robertson retorted with a charge of plagiarism.[1] The anonymous pamphletCritical Observations Concerning the Scottish Historians Hume, Stuart, and Robertson (1782), sometimes attributed to Stuart himself, was at least by a friend or ally. It was slapped down byWilliam Enfield in theMonthly Review.[5]
Stuart did have a public ally inDavid Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan, who made a point of praising him in a speech at the founding of theSociety of Antiquaries of Scotland, in 1780. Stuart's Whig views were not unacceptable to Buchan. Another historian on the Whig side, whom Stuart found tolerable, wasSir John Dalrymple of Cousland.[6]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: "Stuart, Gilbert (1742-1786)".Dictionary of National Biography. London:Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.