LIFE OF 
WILLIAM MACGILLIVRAY 
INTRODUCTORY 
William MacGillivray was born in Old Aber¬ 
deen in 1796, the son of a surgeon in the army. 
When three years of age, he was taken to the 
island of Harris, where at the farm of Northtown, 
occupied by two uncles, brothers of his father, he 
had his home while his father was absent with his 
regiment (the Cameron Highlanders). His uncles 
were extensive breeders of Highland cattle, and his 
father had arranged to retire from the army with a 
view to following the same occupation on the island 
of South Uist; but he was killed in the battle of 
Corunna on 16th January 1809. 
No detailed biography of Professor MacGillivray 
has ever been written, and the materials for such do 
not now exist. From an early period he kept careful 
journals of his life and work, and from these a 
biography of great interest and value could have 
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