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18-528: The founding group, in November 1764, consisted of John Bonar, the younger , John Bruce , William Creech , Henry Mackenzie , and a Mr Belches of Invermay . They were encouraged by William Robertson . A split occurred in the Society in 1794, when Francis Jeffrey and Walter Scott urged the inclusion of contemporary politics in the scope of permitted debating topics. At this period, of political repression,

36-422: A Committee of the Society, including a detailed list of ordinary members and Honorary members. The Society continues to meet in the rooms set aside for it when Edinburgh University 's Old College was built. The A-listed rooms were designed by Robert Adam and fitted out by William Henry Playfair . The Edinburgh Review (second series) was founded in 1802 by a group of essayists who knew each other first in

54-848: A short time Secretary to the Board of Control , under Robert Dundas. Bruce was an elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1791. In 1783 he was a founding member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . He was also a fellow of the Royal Society of Göttingen . In 1764 he founded the Speculative Society . He died at his home of Nuthill House in Fife , on 16 April 1826. His niece Margaret Bruce (1788–1869) married Onesiphorus Tyndall, thereafter titled Tyndall-Bruce (1790–1855). He rose to be Deputy Lieutenant of Fife. Bruce's works included some privately printed for confidential us

72-534: Is buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh. His widow, Lady Hunter Blair, lived at 34 Queen Street in Edinburgh which he had purchased as a new house shortly before death. She is shown as owner of large tracts of land to the north which later became Queen Street Gardens. Due to his role in the creation of South Bridge in the 1784, both Blair Street and Hunter Square , at the north end of

90-659: The East India Company . He was born in Fife in 1744 or 1745, the son of Andrew Bruce (1710–1761) and Jean Squyre (1724–1794). While he had himself declared heir male of the family of Bruce of Earlshall, Bruce inherited from his father Andrew Bruce, a shipmaster, only the property of Grangehill, near Kinghorn , Fifeshire . He studied at the University of Edinburgh , where he was then appointed assistant professor of logic to John Stevenson , and professor of moral philosophy. Tutor to Robert Saunders Dundas ,

108-466: The Society was a venue appreciated by young Whigs. They included Henry Brougham and Francis Horner . The National Library of Australia holds a rare limited edition (50 on large paper, 250 on small paper) copy of the History of the Speculative Society (1845) printed for the Society. Apparently subsequent editions were considered (1864, 1892) but it was not until 1905 that a further history was produced by

126-407: The bridge are named after him. After 1777, when his wife succeeded her brother to Dunskey estates, Hunter assumed and added the name of Blair to his own. He married Jane (or Jean) Blair of Dunskey in 1770. They had 14 children including Sir David Hunter Blair, 3rd Baronet FRSE (1778–1857). Dunskey Estate is currently used as a wedding and film venue. There were 10 sons and four daughters of

144-535: The family name became Hunter Blair when she inherited her father's estate in 1777. Hunter Blair was Member of Parliament for Edinburgh from 1780 to 1784 and Lord Provost of Edinburgh from 1784 to 1786. As Lord Provost, he carried through various reforms, including the beginning of work on rebuilding the University and the construction of South Bridge , over the Cowgate . The foundation stone of this bridge

162-412: The government: Attribution [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Stephen, Leslie , ed. (1886). " Bruce, John (1745-1826) ". Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 7. London: Smith, Elder & Co. Sir James Hunter Blair, 1st Baronet Sir James Hunter Blair, 1st Baronet FRSE (February 1741 – 1 July 1787)

180-414: The litigants whether they are members of this society; the society was held to be “neither secret nor sinister”; membership could not reasonably be thought to influence the outcome of a case. Past members of the Speculative Society of Edinburgh include: John Bruce (historian) John Bruce of Grangehill and Falkland FRS FRSE (1744–1826) was a Scottish academic, politician and historiographer to

198-539: The milieu of the Speculative Society. The University of Cambridge had a Speculative Society in the early years of the 19th century; it was one of the clubs that merged to form the Cambridge Union Society . Around 1825 Utilitarians and Owenites in London engaged in debates, and a formal Debating Society consciously modelled on the Speculative Society of Edinburgh was set up by John Stuart Mill . It

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216-638: The poet first arrived in Edinburgh. On his death, Burns drafted an elegy, beginning: "he lamp of day, with ill-presaging glare", which extols rather laboriously Blair's public virtues. Burns called it "just mediocre", but Ferguson describes it as "the disastrous Elegy on the Death of Sir James Hunter Blair". Hunter Blair was an enthusiastic Freemason. Hunter Square and Blair Street in Edinburgh are both named after him. Blair died in Harrogate in England , but he

234-477: The purposes of a debate, which is voted on; members are offered the opportunity for dinners with occasional guests; after the period of ordinary membership has been completed, the member becomes an extraordinary member with the right to attend debates if desired. The organisation was in practice limited to membership by men through until 2015, when by a majority of three to one women were permitted to become members. Judges when trying cases are not required to declare to

252-657: The son of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville , Bruce was rewarded by a share, with Sir James Hunter Blair, 1st Baronet of the reversion of the patent of king's printer and stationer for Scotland; and was appointed keeper of the state paper office, secretary for the Latin language to the Privy Council, and official historiographer to the East India Company from 1801. He was Member of Parliament for Mitchell , Cornwall, from February 1809 till July 1814, and for

270-634: Was a Scottish banker, landowner and politician. Born John Hunter in Ayr , the son of a merchant, John Hunter of Mainholm and Millquarter and his wife, Anne Cunninghame. In 1756 he was apprenticed to Messrs Coutts , bankers in Edinburgh and in 1763 became a partner in the banking company of Sir William Forbes , and acquired the estate of Robertland. After his marrying Jean Blair, the daughter and heiress of John Blair of Dunskey in Wigtownshire in 1770,

288-574: Was a founder member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . His Edinburgh home was on George Street, then a new Georgian townhouse in the centre of Edinburgh's First New Town . His country house was Dunskey House in Ayrshire. He had interests in an estate in Tobago. Blair was created a baronet of Dunskey in the County of Wigtown on 27 June 1786. Hunter Blair cordially received Robert Burns when

306-423: Was ambitious, but proved short-lived. The functioning of this private society as at 2003 was described by Scottish judges as a group of 30 individuals (at that time all men) joining after private invitation and subject to a blackballing procedure; ordinary membership for three years of academic study required the production of three essay papers and the presentation of them for approximately 15 minutes duration for

324-418: Was laid by Lord Haddo , as Grand Master Mason of Scotland in 1785, after Parliament had passed an Act giving permission for the plans to be executed. This connection gives rise to the names Hunter Square and Blair Street immediately west of South Bridge. By negotiation his Edinburgh seat as MP was passed to Sir Adam Fergusson, 3rd Baronet of Kilkerran, in the election of August 1784. In November 1783 Blair

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