David Masson

Masson was born in Aberdeen, the son of Sarah Mather and William Masson, a stone-cutter.{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=30 August 2017|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}

He was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School under James MelvinODNB: James Melvin and at Marischal College, University of Aberdeen. Intending to enter the Church, he proceeded to the University of Edinburgh where he studied theology under Thomas Chalmers. Masson remained friendly with Chalmers until his death 1847. However, abandoning his aspirations to the ministry, be returned to Aberdeen to undertake the editorship of the Banner, a weekly paper devoted to the advocacy of Free Kirk principles. After two years he resigned this post and went back to Edinburgh to pursue a purely literary career. There he wrote a great deal, contributing to Fraser's Magazine, Dublin University Magazine (in which appeared his essays on Thomas Chatterton) and other periodicals. In 1847 he went to London, where he found a wider scope for his energy and knowledge.{{EB1911|inline=1 |wstitle=Masson, David |volume=17 |page=870}}

He was a secretary of the Society of the Friends of Italy (1851–1852). In a famous interview with Elizabeth Barrett Browning at Florence, he contested her admiration for Napoleon III. He had known Thomas de Quincey, whose biography he contributed in 1878 to the "English Men of Letters" series, and he was an enthusiastic friend and admirer of Thomas Carlyle. In 1852 he was appointed a professor of English literature at University College, London, in succession to A H Clough, and for some years from 1858, he edited the newly established Macmillan's Magazine. In 1865 he was selected for the chair of rhetoric and English literature at Edinburgh, and during the early years of his professorship actively promoted the movement for the university education of women. He also supported his wife Emily Rosaline Orme and two of their daughters in the women's suffrage movement, speaking at events in Edinburgh and London.{{Cite book|title=The women's suffrage movement : a reference guide, 1866–1928|last=Crawford, Elizabeth.|date=1999|publisher=UCL Press|isbn=0-203-03109-1|location=London|oclc=53836882}} In 1879 he became editor of the Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, and in 1886 gave the Rhind Lectures on that subject.{{cite DNB12|wstitle=Masson, David|volume=2}} In 1893 he was appointed Historiographer Royal for Scotland. Two years later he resigned his professorship. Shortly before he retired he became a member of the Scottish Arts Club.Graves, Charles (1974), Men of Letters, in The Scottish Arts Club, Edinburgh, 1874 – 1974, The Scottish Arts Club, Edinburgh, p. 51. In 1896 he was President of the Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club and gave the Toast to Sir Walter at the club's annual dinner. By 1900 he was Chairman of the Scottish History Society.

File:10 Regent Terrace, Edinburgh 2015.JPG

File:David Masson's grave, Grange Cemetery.JPG

When he first arrived in Edinburgh in 1865, Masson lived in Rosebery Crescent, then he lived at 10 Regent Terrace from 1869 to 1882 before moving to Great King Street.Mitchell , Anne (1993), "The People of Calton Hill", Mercat Press, James Thin, Edinburgh, {{ISBN|1-873644-18-3}}. Among the friends who visited him were the philosopher John Stuart Mill and the historian Thomas Carlyle. J.M. Barrie was a student of Masson in 1878–1882, and Masson is credited with being the future dramatist's literary mentor.Dunbar, Janet (1970), "J.M. Barrie: The Man Behind the Image", Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, pp. 37–41.

A bust of Masson was presented to the Senate of the University of Edinburgh in 1897.

In 1900–1901 Masson is listed as living at 2 Lockharton Gardens in south-west Edinburgh (designed by Sir James Gowans).Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1900–1901

He died in Edinburgh and is buried in the north-west section of Grange Cemetery in Edinburgh next to the main north path.

In London on 17 August 1854, Masson married Emily Rosaline Orme, a noted campaigner for women's suffrage in Scotland.Evidence from birth certificate of their daughter, Rosaline Masson, available in records of www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk or the General Register Office for Scotland, Scotlands People Centre in Edinburgh. Their son, David Orme Masson, became the first Professor of Chemistry at the University of Melbourne, and a KBE. Their daughter Rosaline was an author and novelist, and Flora Masson was a noted nurse and suffragist.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/367680960|title=The biographical dictionary of Scottish women : from the earliest times to 2004|date=2006|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|others=Ewan, Elizabeth., Innes, Sue., Reynolds, Sian.|isbn=978-0-7486-2660-1|location=Edinburgh|oclc=367680960}} Their third daughter Helen married Dr George Lovell Gulland.

His grandsons include the chemists John Masson Gulland (1898–1947) and James I. O. Masson.

The Masson Hall of Residence–the university's first 'proper' accommodation for female students–in the Grange was named after him.

A building at the University of Edinburgh's Pollock Halls of Residence is named after Masson. Built in the 1990s, Masson House is used as a three-star year-round hotel, rather than student accommodation.{{Cite web|title=Refurbishment of Masson House|url=https://www.edinburghfirst.co.uk/our-blog/refurbishment-of-masson-house/|url-status=live|website=Edinburgh First|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200925185257/https://www.edinburghfirst.co.uk/our-blog/refurbishment-of-masson-house/ |archive-date=25 September 2020 }}

His magnum opus{{cite journal|title=Dr. Masson|journal=The Athenaeum|issue=4172|date=October 12, 1907|page=443|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=__I_PcOFSw8C&pg=PA443}} is his Life of Milton in Connexion with the History of His Own Time in six volumes, the first of which appeared in 1858 and the last in 1880. He also edited the library edition of Milton's Poetical Works (3 vols., 1874), and De Quincey's Collected Works (14 vols., 1889–1890). Among his other publications are

• The British Museum: Historical and Descriptive (1850)
• Essays, Biographical and Critical (1856, reprinted with additions, 3 vols., 1874)
• British Novelists and their Styles (1859)
• Drummond of Hawthornden (1873)
• Chatterton (1873)
• Edinburgh Sketches (1892)
• Memories of Two Cities, Edinburgh and Aberdeen (1911)

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite SBDEL|wstitle=Masson, David |short=x}}

{{wikisource author}}

• {{Gutenberg author |id=2064| name=David Masson}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname=David Masson}}
• [https://archive.org/details/chattertonastor01massgoog Masson's Chatterton]
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=80plAAAAMAAJ The Poetical Works of John Milton: The Minor Poems, Vol. I, 1910]
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=gktlAAAAMAAJ The Poetical Works of John Milton: Paradise Lost, Vol. II, 1910]

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Category:1822 births

Category:1907 deaths

Category:Writers from Aberdeen

Category:19th-century Scottish historians

Category:Alumni of the University of Aberdeen

Category:19th-century Scottish people

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

Category:Royal Scottish Academicians

Category:Scottish literary critics

Category:Academics of University College London

Category:Academics of the University of Edinburgh

Category:People educated at Aberdeen Grammar School

Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh

Category:Scottish biographers

Category:Scottish newspaper editors

Category:Scottish literary historians