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Alexander Gerard

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Name
  
Alexander Gerard

Children
  
Gilbert Gerard

Education
  
University of Aberdeen

Died
  
February 22, 1795

Role
  
Writer


Books
  
An essay on genius, An Essay on Taste, Tours in the Himalaya

Very Rev Alexander Gerard FRSE DD (1728 –1795) was a Scottish minister, academic and philosophical writer.In 1764 he was the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

Contents

Life

He was born on 22 February 1728, the son of Rev. Gilbert Gerard (d.1738), at the manse in Garioch in Aberdeenshire. He attended Foveran Parish School then Aberdeen Grammar School.

He went to Aberdeen University, graduating MA in 1744. He then went to Edinburgh University to study Divinity. He was licensed to preach in 1748.

In 1750 he returned to Aberdeen University to lecture in Moral Philosophy becoming a Professor in 1752, based at Marischal College.From 1760 to 1771 he was Professor of Divinity at Marischal, moving to King's College in 1771. As a professor he introduced various reforms. During this time he was also one of the ministers of the city, serving at Greyfriars Church. He was a member of the Aberdeen Philosophical Society, founded by Prof John Gregory and including members such as Prof Thomas Gordon.

In 1783 he was a co-founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

He died on 22 January 1795.

Publications

  • In 1756 he gained the prize for an Essay on Taste which, together with an Essay on Genius, he subsequently published. These treatises, though now superseded, gained for him considerable reputation.
  • Compendious View of the Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion the joint work by Alexander Gerard and his son Gilbert Gerard, published 1828.
  • Family

    Gilbert Gerard was his son.

    References

    Alexander Gerard Wikipedia