Alexander Fraser Tytler (1747-1813)
Alexander Fraser Tytler was born in Edinburgh on 15 October 1747. After education in the city he was sent to school in Kensington in 1763, and then attended Edinburgh University from 1765. Tytler was called to the Scottish Bar in 1770, and in 1780 he was appointed joint-Professor of Universal History at Edinburgh University. He became the sole Professor in 1786. In 1790 he was appointed Judge Advocate of Scotland and in 1792 he inherited the family estate at Woodhouselee. In 1802 he was appointed to the Bench at the Court of Session, and he took the title Lord Woodhouselee (pron. Woozlay) becoming a Lord of Justiciary. His publications include Piscatory eclogues, with other poetical miscellanies of Phinehas Fletcher (1771), The decisions of the Court of Session, from its first institution to the present time, abridged and digested under proper heads in form of a dictionary (1778), Plan and outline of a course of lectures on universal history, ancient and modern, delivered in the University of Edinburgh, 1783 (1783), Essay on the principles of translation (1791) , Ireland profiting by example, or the question considered whether Scotland has gained or lost by the union (1799,) Elements of general history, ancient and modern; to which is added a table of chronology and a companion of ancient and modern geography (1801), and Memoirs of the life and writings of the Hon. Henry Home, Lord Kames (1807). Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee, died in Edinburgh on 5 January 1813.
This article is a sketch outline biography. Our intention is to flesh it out with further detail in due course.