Record

CollectionGB 0231 University of Aberdeen, Special Collections
LevelItem
Ref NoMS 30/2/23
Alt Ref NoMS 30 c.23
TitleSir William Forbes and Robert Arbuthnot to James Beattie from Edinburgh
Date23 October 1769
Extent1 Item
Administrative HistorySir William Forbes [1739-1806] Banker, longstanding friend and later biographer of Beattie. From an Episcopalian family, and related to Lord Forbes of Pistligo, whose estates were confiscated for his part in the 1745 rebellion. He was apprenticed to Coutt's bank, becoming a partner in Forbes, Hunter and Co in 1773. He was well-known in literary circles in Edinburgh and London. Beattie met him in Edinburgh in 1765, introduced by Robert Arbuthnot. Forbes was Beattie's banker, adviser on literary matters, and general confidant

Alexander Kincaid [1734-1777] Edinburgh printer and bookseller, partner of John Bell 1768-71

Robert Arbuthnot [1728-1803] was a member of a distinguished Jacobite/ Episcopalian family. He was brought up and later owned Haddo-Rattray House, north of Peterhead. He was a merchant and then a banker in the firm of Arbuthnot and Guthrie, which failed in 1772. He then moved to Edinburgh where he bacame secretary of the Board for the Encouragement of Manufacturies and Fisheries in Scotland. He befriended Beattie after Beattie moved to Aberdeen in 1758, and became for some years his principal poetic adviser and promoter. He negotiated on Beattie's behalf and often in conjuction with Sir William Forbes, with the booksellers over several of the publications

Thomas Cadell [1742-1802] Bookseller and publisher in London. Partner with William Strahan as London publisher of 'Dissertations moral and Critical' (1783), and Beattie's subsequent prose works
DescriptionForbes and Arbuthnot have settled matter with Kincaid. Cadell declined taking a share in the publication. Kincaid hopes to interest another bookseller, but to avoid delay they have fixed that Kincaid shall immediately put the book to the press and Forbes and Arbuthnot will be partners in the publication
Access StatusOpen
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