Moir, George (1800-1870)

George Moir (1800-1870). Born and educated in Aberdeen, he was admitted an advocate in Edinburgh in 1825. Moir developed a wide knowledge of continental literature and in 1828 published a translation of Schiller’s Historical Works. He wrote numerous articles for the Edinburgh Review, Foreign Quarterly Review and Blackwood’s Magazine as well as contributing to the seventh edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica published in 1842. In addition to his works of literary criticism he wrote some satirical and legal works. Moir was appointed Professor of Rhetoric and Belles-lettres at Edinburgh University in 1835, a position he held for five years, before becoming Sheriff of Ross-shire. He became Sheriff of Stirling in 1858. He took pictures of Ghent (in volume two), and was one of founders of the Photographic Society of Scotland in 1856 and one of its first Vice-Presidents.