Papers of the Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne (1813-1843)

The collection is composed of: notebooks containing a variety of material including sermon outlines, poems, letters while on a trip to Palestine, class notes, diary and sketches of Palestine trip, outlines of talks, convocation notes, and poetry scrapbooks of others; a packet of miscellaneous cards such as Edinburgh University class tickets for history, philosophy, and theology, library ticket, and General Assembly ticket; references to McCheyne's probity, and certificates of attendance and proficiency; letters from the period November 1836 to January 1835, and including correspondence from McCheyne to his family and letters to McCheyne; a passport issued to McCheyne in 1839 by the British consul in Smyrna; sermons and discourses from March 1837 to November 1841; some unidentified fragments; a copy of Sketches of Palestine by the late Revd. R. M. McCheyne, perhaps 1839; and, a copy of The Bible atlas, or, sacred geography delineated by Richard Palmer (1823).

Robert McCheyne was born in Edinburgh on 21 May 1813. He was educated at the city's Royal High School and then he studied at Edinburgh University, matriculating in 1827. In 1831, he began studies at Divinity Hall and was licensed to preach in 1835. In November 1835 he was appointed as Assistant to the Rev. John Bonar of Larbert and Dunipace, Stirling. He became a well-known preacher and was ordained to St. Peter's Church, Dundee, in November 1836. In 1839 he was part of a committee sent to Palestine by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to collect information about Jews. McCheyne and Andrew Bonar (d. 1892) recorded their journey in Narrative of a mission of inquiry to the Jews (1842). The Rev. Robert McCheyne died on 25 March 1843, and he was buried by St. Peter's Church, Dundee.

Generally open for consultation to bona fide researchers, but please contact repository for details in advance.

The biographical/administrative history was compiled using the following material: (1) Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of national biography. Vol. 12. Llwyd-Mason. London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 1909.

Compiled by Graeme D Eddie, Edinburgh University Library, Special Collections Division.

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