William Lauder

Who was William Lauder?

William Lauder was a Scottish literary forger, the second son of Dr William Lauder, one of the original 21 Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, by his spouse Catherine Brown. Dr William Lauder was a son of Sir John Lauder, 1st Baronet of Fountainhall.

While yet a boy, Lauder suffered amputation of one of his legs, in consequence of having accidentally received a stroke from a golf ball on his knee. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh, acquired a high college character for talent and scholarship, and graduated in 1695. He applied unsuccessfully for the permanent post of Professor of Humanity there, in succession to Adam Watt, in whose place, since 1734, owing to Watt's illness, he had been teaching. "William Lauder, Teacher of Humanities at Edinburgh University" appears in a Disposition in the National Archives of Scotland, to Ninian Home of Billie, dated 25 August 1740.

Lauder had also applied at some point for the keepership of the university library. In 1739 he had published a collection of sacred poems by himself and other writers, mostly paraphrased from the Bible. These were published by Ruddiman in 2 volumes, under the title of Poetarum Scotorum Musae Sacrae, today a well-known work of Scottish literature.