FORDYCE, David, professor of moral philosophy in Marischal College, Aberdeen, was born in that city in 1711. Having received the early part of his education at the grammar school, he, at the age of thirteen, entered the Greek class in Marischal College, Aberdeen; in 1728 he took the degree of master of arts, and in 1742 he was admitted professor of philosophy in the same college. Being originally designed for the church, he applied himself with great ardour to the study of divinity, in which he made great progress, though he never became a settled minister in the establishment of his native country. That he was well qualified to be such, however, appears from his Theodorus, a dialogue concerning the art of preaching, which he afterwards published. In 1750 he went abroad on his travels, in order to obtain fresh stores of knowledge; but after a successful tour through several parts of Europe, he was, on his return home, unfortunately cast away in a storm on the coast of Holland, in the forty-first year of his age. Besides the above work, he wrote Dialogues on Education, 8vo, and a Treatise on Moral Philosophy, published in the Preceptor. The third edition of his Theodorus was published in London, after his death, by his brother James, the subject of the following article.

Fordyce, James, a Scottish clergyman of considerable eminence, was born at Aberdeen in the year 1720. He received his classical education at the public grammar school, and afterwards entered Marischal College, where he went through the course of studies necessary to qualify him for being a minister of the gospel. His natural abilities were excellent, and having improved to the utmost the favourable opportunities he enjoyed at the university, he was considered as qualified for becoming a preacher of the gospel at an early period of life. His first appointment was that of second minister of Brechin, in the county of Angus, after which he accepted of a call to Alloa, near Stirling. The people of this parish were prepossessed in favour of another, and prejudiced against Mr Fordyce, which could not fail to prove an unpleasant circumstance; yet by his impressive delivery, and indefatigable attention to every part of his ministerial duty, he soon overcame their prejudice, and acquired their esteem and admiration.

During his residence at Alloa, he attracted the notice of the public by three sermons; the first on the eloquence of the pulpit, the second on the method of promoting edification by public institutions, and the third on the delusive and sanguinary spirit of popery, preached before the synod of Perth and Stirling. But still greater admiration was excited by his sermon on the folly, infamy, and misery of unlawful pleasure, preached before the general assembly of the church of Scotland in 1760. About this time the university of Glasgow conferred upon him the degree of doctor of divinity, probably on account of the fame he had acquired by this sermon.
[7:9:743]

The friends of Dr Fordyce being mostly in the metropolis, he was invited to become the colleague of Dr Lawrence, minister of a respectable congregation in Monkwell Street, London, on whose death, which happened a few months afterwards, Dr Fordyce became once more celebrated for his pulpit eloquence, generally preaching to overflowing audiences. The best specimen of pulpit eloquence which perhaps proceeded from his pen was delivered at the ordination of Mr James Lindsay, who, after he declined officiating as a minister, became his successor. The remainder of his life he spent chiefly in retirement in Hampshire, in the vicinity of the residence of Lord Bute, with whom he lived in the greatest intimacy, and to whose valuable library he had unlimited access. He afterwards went to Bath, where he suffered much from an asthmatic affection, which he bore with the fortitude of a Christian, and expired without a groan on the first of October 1796, in the seventy-sixth year of his age.

The doctors writings discover much genius and a correct taste, extensive knowledge of the world, and a happy method of engaging the attention. He was the author of 1. Sermons to Young Women, 1765, in 2 vols. 12mo; 2. A sermon on the Character and Conduct of the Female Sex; 3. Addresses to Young Men, 1777, in 2 vols. 12mo; 4. Addresses to the Deity, 1785, in 12mo; 5. A volume of Poems; 6. A discourse on Pain, 1791; and Additions to his brother’s Temple of Virtue.

Fordyce, George, a writer and lecturer on medicine, was born at Aberdeen in 1736, and studied at the university of that city, where he took the degree of master of arts at the early age of fourteen, perhaps not altogether owing to the superiority of his genius, or the extent of his acouirements, which could not be very extraordinary in a boy of his years. He became apprentice to an uncle who practised surgery at Uppingham in Rutlandshire, when he was only fifteen; and afterwards went to the university of Edinburgh, where his diligence and progress attracted the attention of Dr Cullen, at that time professor of chemistry, who very generously promoted his improvement. He graduated in 1758, when only twenty-two years of age; after which he resided during one winter at Leyden. The greater part of his patrimony having been spent on his education, he resolved to try his fortune in London, where he settled in the year 1759. He commenced with a course of lectures on chemistry; and although his encouragement at first was by no means flattering, yet he steadily and diligently persevered, notwithstanding unfavourable appearances, till his literary merit began gradually to be discovered and appreciated. A number of young men who came to study in London did not think that their medical course was complete without availing themselves of the benefit of his course of lectures. In the year 1768 he published his Elements of the Practice of Physic, which formed the textbook of his medical course, and were much read as a valuable epitome of medicine. His private practice was very respectable; and in the year 1770 his medical reputation was so great that he was chosen physician to the hospital of St Thomas, although he had to contend against a gentleman with very powerful interest; whilst his merit as a man of science procured him admission as a member of the Royal Society in 1776. In 1787 he was chosen a fellow of the College of Physicians; and his chemical knowledge was of much importance to that body in preparing a new edition of their Pharmacopoeia. By the influence of his connections, but probably more so by his literary reputation, he was appointed to furnish the navy with sour krout, which we believe he executed with advantage both to himself and to the public. By this time, however, his constitution had discovered symptoms of premature decay; yet he continued to discharge his professional duties till he fell a victim to an irregular gout, and water in the chest, on the 25th of June 1802, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. If his lectures wanted the charms of an eloquent delivery, he made amends by the originality of his ideas and the extent of his scientific information. His works are, 1. Elements of Agriculture and Vegetation; 2. Elements of the Practice of Physick; 3. A Treatise on the Digestion of Food; 4. Four Dissertations on Fever, to which has been added a fifth, published from his manuscript since his death. His other works appeared in the Philosophical Transactions, to which he contributed eight papers, and on the Medical and ChirurgicalTr ansae turns. to which he contributed three.