John Home

Rev John Home (13 September 1722 – 4 September 1808) was a Scottish minister, soldier and author. His play Douglas was a standard Scottish school text until the Second World War, but his work is now largely neglected. In 1783, he was one of the joint founders of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Biography He was born on 13 September 1722 at Ancrum in Roxburghshire, but moved to Leith, near Edinburgh, in early childhood when his father, Alexander Home, a distant relation of the earls of Home, became town clerk. His mother was Christian Hay, the daughter of an Edinburgh lawyer. He was christened on 22 September 1722 John was educated at the Leith Grammar School, and at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated MA in 1742. Though interested in being a soldier, he studied divinity, and was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Edinburgh in 1745. In the same year he joined as a volunteer against Bonnie Prince Charlie, and was taken prisoner at the Battle of Falkirk. With many others he was carried to Doune Castle in Perthshire, but soon escaped, reaching Alloa on foot, from where they got passage on the sloop-of-war Vulture to Queensferry. From there he reached his father's house in Leith. In July 1746, Home was presented to the parish of Athelstaneford in East Lothian, which had been left vacant by the death of Robert Blair. In his spare time he visited his friends in Edinburgh and became especially close to David Hume who was a distant cousin. Other friends included Adam Smith, Adam Fergusson and William Robertson.