James Nairn 1629-1678

James NAIRN 1629-1678

Biographical Note

James Nairn was born in Edinburgh at the beginning of 1629, the son of James Nairn, merchant, and Elizabeth Tod. Where he received his schooling is unknown, but between 1646 and 1650 he attended Edinburgh University, and graduated MA. He followed this with divinity studies at Edinburgh, and in 1655 was appointed to the second charge of the Canongate parish, adjacent to the burgh of Edinburgh. He moved to the first charge in 1656, but following the Restoration of Charles II and the reimposition of episcopacy, leading to unrest in the capital, he moved to Bolton, a rural parish in East Lothian in 1662. It was at this time that he became an important influence on the young Gilbert Burnet. Nairn transferred to his final parish, Wemyss in Fife, in 1665, where he officiated until shortly before his death in Edinburgh on 18 July 1678, having been in declining health for several years, following a gallstones operation in Paris in 1672. He was known for his deep scholarship, his preaching skills, a retiring nature, and modest life style, traits he shared with Robert Leighton, with whom Nairn was closely associated in the post-1660 Scottish church.

Books

By the time of his death, Nairn’s library numbered some 1,955 titles in around 1,840 volumes, a very large library for a Scottish professional man at this time. He bequeathed (or possibly gave shortly in advance of his death) all of these to his alma mater, apart from a few unknown titles given to friends and students. A detailed catalogue, arranged by author, of the gift was issued in print the same year. This was prefaced by a biography, in Latin. Just over 6% of the collection definitely, and another 3% possibly, has disappeared from Edinburgh University Library over the centuries. A modern catalogue of Nairn’s library, with introductory biography and analytical sections on various aspects of the library, was published in 2020.

The largest subjects represented are, not surprisingly, theology and biblical studies. It is noteworthy that the percentage is not higher. Here, items on grace and free will, and personal piety and the spiritual life are particularly evident. The rest of the collection covers many subjects: philosophy, science and medicine; language and literature; law and political science; history and geography. There are some great contemporary thinkers represented (e.g. Descartes and his disciples, Spinoza, Hobbes, or Boyle), but also much older material. There is a good representation of ancient Latin authors, but not so strong in Greek, and patchy coverage of post-Renaissance vernacular literature. History is well represented with a wide range of materials, but the fine arts are almost totally lacking.

Many of the books bear a donation statement on their title-pages written by University Library staff, but many do not, and the most ubiquitous way of identifying a Nairn copy is through a specific Edinburgh University Library shelfmark, written on each title-page, and dating from some time after his death.

Characteristic Markings

Nairn very rarely wrote on his copies, and there is no other personalisation of items by Nairn.

Sources

• Catalogus librorum quibus bibliothecam Academiae Jacobi Regis Edinburgenae adauxit R. D. Jacobus Narnius, Pastor Vaemiensis (Edinburgh: excudebat Thomas Brown, 1678). ESTC R223843.
• Simpson, Murray C. T. ‘Nairn, James (1629-1678), Church of Scotland minister and book collector’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Simpson, Murray C. T., Scholarly Book Collecting in Restoration Scotland: the Library of the Revd James Nairn (1628-1678) [Library of the Written Word, vol. 82; The Handpress World vol. 63] (Leiden: Brill [2020]).
• Information from Murray Simpson.