Gilbert Stuart

[close] Gilbert Stuart (1742 – 1786) was a Scottish journalist and historian. He was educated at the High School in Edinburgh and then studied Classics and Philosophy at Edinburgh University, followed by a course in jurisprudence there.

In 1768 Stuart went to London, hoping for preferment through Lord Mansfield. In 1769 he lodged with Thomas Somerville in the house of Murdoch the bookseller, writing for the newspapers and reviews. He worked for the Monthly Review from 1768 to 1773. By June 1773 Stuart was back with his father at Musselburgh, working to launch the Edinburgh Magazine and Review. The first number came out about the middle of October 1773, and it was discontinued after the publication of the number for August 1776.

His first independent work was the anonymous Historical Dissertation on the Antiquity of the English Constitution (1768) in which he traced English institutions to a German source.

Stuart's major work, A View of Society in Europe, was published in 1778. In 1779 Stuart brought out, with a dedication to Lord Mount Stuart, Observations on the Public Law and Constitutional History of Scotland; and in 1780 he published his History of the Establishment of the Reformation in Scotland. It was followed in 1782 by The History of Scotland from the Establishment of the Reformation till the Death of Queen Mary.