John Ogilvie (poet)
Church of Scotland minister and poet
John Ogilvie or Ogilvy FRSE (18 November 1733- 17 November 1813) was an 18th-century Scottish minister, hymn-writer and poet. A friend of James Beattie and Samuel Johnson he came to fame during his own life-time but had more success with his poetry than with longer texts.
Life
He was born on 18 November 1733 in Aberdeen the son of Rev James Ogilvie. He studied divinity at Marischal College in Aberdeen, graduating MA in 1759 and being immediately ordained in the Church of Scotland. His charge was Midmar in Aberdeenshire, where he served his whole life.
It was to Ogilvie that Samuel Johnson delivered his infamous statement: th noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to England (1763).
Aberdeen University awarded him an honorary doctorate (DD) in 1777.
In 1789 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Robert Arbuthnot (Ceylon), Henry Mackenzie, and Andrew Dalzell.
He died in Midmar on 17 November 1813, the day before his 80th birthday.
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The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18673937. VIAF identifies the subject as 66554804. The Library of Congress control number is n50028726. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1733, 1813, 1759 and 1763.
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This entry incorporates text from “John Ogilvie (poet)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.