Buchanan, CLAUDIUS

Buchanan, CLAUDIUS, born at Cambuslang, near Glasgow, 12th March 1766, studied for two years at Glasgow University, and afterwards, through the influence of the Rev. John Newton, at the university of Cambridge (1791-95). From 1797 he was a chaplain in the East India Company's service at Barrackpur, where he studied Hindustani and Persian; in 1799 he removed to Calcutta, and became vice-provost of the college founded by Lord Wellesley at Fort William. He translated the Gospels into Persian and Hindustani, and made two tours through southern and western India; but debarred as a chaplain from directly engaging in missionary enterprise, he returned in 1808 to England. There, by his sermons and his periodical, The Star of the East, he excited so much popular interest that the government took his side, and before his death, February 9, 1815, the first English bishop had been appointed to Calcutta. See his Life by Pearson (3d ed. 1819). His Christian Researches in India was published in 1858.