Nota generale
Born at Peterhead 4 August 1790, Peter Buchan was apprenticed by his parents to a millwright, and set up in business in Peterhead after the failure of his master. He taught himself to engrave, and built a rolling press, and sold engravings. In 1813, against the wishes of his parents married a Miss Matthew, a dressmaker in Peterhead. in 1814 he published, at Edinburgh, a volume of verse, “The recreation of leisure hours”. He decided to set up as a printer on 15 December 1815, having sold the stock and the shop furniture of his previous business. He learned to print 'in ten days' at Stirling, and returned to Peterhead with a printing press he had purchased in Edinburgh, setting up his office 24 March 1816. On 6 June 1817 he started a fortnightly literary periodical called “The Selector”. The last issue came out on 21 November. In 1819, he published a small ballad collection, under the title “Scarce Ancient Ballads”, and in the same year “Annals of Peterhead”. In 1819 he also invented a hand printing press which could be operated by the feet. In 1820 he published “An Historical Account of the Noble Family of Keith, Earls Marischal of Scotland”. In 1822, he went to London, but the climate of London did not suit him so he returned to Peterhead. In 1823, he printed a manual of bookbinding and “Witchcraft Detected and Prevented. By a member of the School of Black Art, Italy”. This last went through three editions. It s not about witchcraft, but is a collection of so-called 'magical' receipts and secrets. In 1824 he printed “Scriptural and Philosophical Arguments; or Cogent Proofs from Reason and Revelation that Brutes have Souls”. In 1825 he published “Gleanings of Scotch, English, and Irish Scarce Old Ballads, with explanatory notes by Peter Buchan”. He included a few verses of his own composition, but these are marked B to avoid confusion. He also published a number of chapbooks with a strong antiquarian cast. He published “The Secret History of Macbeth” in 1828 and the same year saw the publication of his “Ancient ballads and songs of the North of Scotland, hitherto unpublished”. 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1828. This was well received but Buchan had great difficulty getting in his subscription money. The truth was that Peterhead at this time was incapable of supporting a printer, and moreover he had a wife and six children to support as well. In 1831 he moved to Aberdeen, where he supported himself by hack writing. In 1834 he published a novel “The Orphan Sailor, a tragic tale of love”. Aberdeen, 1834. A second edition appeared in Edinburgh the same year. In 1834 a second series of the ballads was advertised. This was printed for members of The Percy Society, of London, under the title “Scottish traditionary versions of Ancient Ballads, edited by James Henry Dixon”, 1845. No mention of Buchan is made in the book. In 1831 he sold part of his library and in 1837 had to sell a further portion, compiling and printing the sale catalogue, “Catalogue of the private library of Peter Buchan”. Aberdeen, 1837. Buchan left Aberdeen for Glasgow in 1838. There in 1839 he wrote “Wanderings of Prince Charles Stuart and Miss Flora Macdonald after the battle of Culloden” and reprinted the “Autobiography” that he had earlier communicated to “The Paisley Magazine”. In 1840 he published “The Eglinton Tournament, and Gentleman unmasked”, he also published a brief account of Glasgow Cathedral and the necropolis. Sometime between 1844 and 1846 Buchan went to live on a small estate at Dennyloanhead, near Stirling, called Buchanstown. Unfortunately he became involved in a dispute with the superior over mineral rights, which dragged on until 1852, when he lost his case and would have been imprisoned for debt, if his family had not rescued him. He and his wife took refuge in the house of his eldest son, at Drumhewin, County Leitrim in Ireland. Buchan went to London early in 1854 with a view to publishing a third volume of “Ancient Scottish Ballads” and died there on 19 September 1854 after a few hours illness. The manuscript from which “Ancient Ballads and Songs” was selected in 1828, and the MS of “Secret Songs of Silenc”' are in Harvard. There are two manuscript volumes of ballads and songs not then printed in the British Library, Add Mss 29,408 and 20,409.
Nomi
IntestazioneBuchan, Peter
Usata in: National Library of Scotland, Scottish Book Trade Index
VariantePeter Buchan, of Buchanston (1845)
Fonti esterne
Trovato inPigot 1820; 1825. — Chapbook Printers. — “Autobiographical sketch of the life of Peter Buchan”. Glasgow: Blackie & Co., 1839. — James Cameron. 'A bibliography of Peter Buchan's publications' in “Edinburgh Bibliographical Society Publications” iv, 105-116 (1901);. — John A. Fairley. 'Peter Buchan, printer and ballad collector; with a bibliography.' “Transactions of the Buchan Field Club” 1902. — DNB. — William Walker. “Peter Buchan and other papers on Scottish and English Ballads and Songs”. Aberdeen, 1915.