Original sentence: Barclay received his education at the University of Glasgow, after which he studied Divinity at the prestigious University of Leipzig before heading to Asia as a missionary.He was responsible for introducing the first newsletter in Taiwanese Minnan, the Tâi-oân-hú-siâⁿ Kàu-hōe-pò (Tainan Church News), which was printed using the Peh-oe-ji romanisation
Edited sentence: Douglas inspired Barclay and his friends to move east, with Mackichan heading to Bombay, Gibson to Swatow and Barclay to Formosa (Taiwan).He was responsible for introducing the first newsletter in Taiwanese Minnan, which was also the first printed newspaper in Taiwan in any language, the Tâi-oân-hú-siâⁿ Kàu-hōe-pò (Tainan Church News), printed using the Peh-oe-ji romanisation.He was the fifth missionary from the Presbyterian Church of England to be stationed in Tainan, after James Laidlaw Maxwell, Hugh Ritchie, William Campbell and Matthew Dickson.He was the first student to graduate in the new Gilmorehill hall of Glasgow University, after which he studied at the Free Church Divinity College with his friends John Campbell Gibson and Dugald Mackichan.He would later joke that he was chosen over Gibson for Formosa because of his longer legs, the better to navigate the hillier country in southern Taiwan.His father was a devout merchant who sold soft goods and fabrics, and claimed French Hugenot ancestry for the family.On deciding to become missionaries the three because known as the "Glasgow Three" (in reference to the Cambridge Seven) and went to Leipzig for further study.The younger Barclay was an able student, and matriculated at Glasgow University a few weeks before his 15th birthday (his young age not being unusual in those days).Thomas Barclay was born on 21 November 1849 in Glasgow, the youngest brother of six (he also had one sister).While at the Divinity College, Barclay had met Carstairs Douglas, brother of the principal of the college and missionary in Amoy.While there he excelled at mathematics and science, studying under Sir William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) and earning a mention in the Encyclopaedia Britannica for his authorship of a scientific treatise on "the Specific Inductive Capacity of Dielectrics"