David MacRitchie
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David MacRitchie (April 16, 1861 - January 14, 1925) was a Scottish folklorist and antiquarian.
He was the younger son of William Dawson MacRitchie and Elizabeth Elder MacRitchie. He was born in Edinburgh and attended the Edinburgh Southern Academy, the Edinburgh Institute and the University of Edinburgh. He did not gain a degree but qualified as a Chartered Accountant. His father had been a surgeon in the East India Company. Visiting Saint Helena only a few days after the death of Napoleon his father created a home filled with mementos of the Emperor alongside souvenirs of medial service in the sub-continent of India.
David developed a fascination with traditional lore relating to vanished people, notably Romani people (Gypsies) and legendary dwarf people and ancient peoples in Scotland, who, it was claimed, lived underground. He became an influential figure in this field and founded the Gypsy Lore Society in 1889. With Francis Hindes Groome he edited the quarterly journal of this cosmopolitan organisation until 1892 when the organisation became dormant. In 1907 he became president of re-emergent Gypsy Lore Society, and also president of the St Andrew Society, a position which he held until his death.
In his "Ancient and Modern Britons", he claimed that the Gypsies were not of foreign origin, but were in fact the more conservative element of the native British population who had retained their nomadic way of life while the majority adopted a settled lifestyle. He further claimed that the ancient Britons were a dark-skinned people, a claim which elicited the interest of Afrocentrist African merican authors.
In 1914 he joined the Council of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, serving as vice-president from 1917 - 1920. He was noted for his interest in archaeology, being appointed as a trustee for Lord Abercromby's endowment for an Archeology department at the University of Edinburgh.
He was also a member of the Scottish Arts Club and Vice-president of the Philosophical Institution. He was active in such charities as the Edinburgh Dispensary for Skin Diseases and the Edinburgh Society for the Relief of Indigent Old Men.
[edit] Works
Publications by MacRitchie include:
- Ancient and Modern Britons, a Retrospect, 1884
- Accounts of the Gypsies of India, 1886
- The Testimony of Tradition, 1890
- The Ainos, 1892
- The Underground Life, 1892
- Fians, Fairies and Picts, 1893
- Scottish Gypsies under the Stewarts 1894
- Pygmies in Northern Scotland, 1892
- Some Hebridean Antiquities, 1895
- Diary of a Tour through Great Britain, (editor) 1897
- The Northern Trolls, 1898
- Memories of the Picts, 1900
- Underground Dwellings, 1900
- Fairy Mounds, 1900
- Shelta, the Caird's Language, 1901
- Hints of Evolution in Tradition, 1902
- The Arctic Voyage of 1653, 1909
- Celtic Civilisation, No date
- Druids and Mound Dwellers, 1910
- Les Pygmies chez les Anciens Egyptiens et les Hebreux (with S.T.H. Horowitz), 1912
- Les kayaks dans le nord de l'Europe, 1912
- Great and Little Britain, 1915
- The Celtic Numerals of Strathclyde, 1915
- The Duns of the North, 1917
- The Savages of Gaelic Tradition, 1920
- The Aborigines of Shetland and Orkney, 1924
