Arthur John Maclean

Who was Arthur John Maclean?

Arthur John MacLean was an Anglican bishop in the later decades of the 19th century and first four of the 20th century.

Maclean was born into an ecclesiastical family. His father, the Rev Arthur J. Macleane, began a career in the East India Company before returning to England, obtaining a degree Trinity College Cambridge, being ordained and securing appointment as inaugural Principal of Brighton College. He held two subsequent headships and was editor of various Classical texts, especially Horace and Juvenal.

Maclean was educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge. He was ordained in 1882 and he was head of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Assyrian Mission from 1886 to 1891 and then Rector of Portree. In 1882 he became Dean of Argyll and The Isles and after this was Rector of Selkirk before a spell as Principal of the Scottish Episcopal Theological College and then a nearly 40 years episcopacy as Bishop of Moray, Ross and Caithness. Late in his life he was additionally elected Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church. An eminent author, he died on 24 February 1943.