John Laing

John Laing (1809 – 3 April 1880) was a minister of the Free Church of Scotland, known as a bibliographer. Life He was born in Edinburgh, but spent his early youth at Dalmeny, where his father was for factor to the Earl of Rosebery; his mother was Mary Fyfe, of a Banffshire family. After taking the course at Edinburgh University in arts and theology, he was, in 1842, ordained assistant and successor to John M. Robertson, minister of Livingston, Linlithgowshire. At the disruption of 1843 he withdrew from the establishment, joined the newly formed Free Church, and for a time continued his ministry in the same parish. On 29 August 1843, he married at Livingston Catherine Fyfe, daughter of a West India proprietor, and had three daughters, the eldest of whom predeceased him. In 1846 Laing became chaplain to the Presbyterian soldiers at Gibraltar and afterwards at Malta. Failing health, together with a reluctance to appear in public, caused him to resign his charge. In 1850, he was appointed librarian in New College, Edinburgh, where his work into bibliography began. He died 3 April 1880.