Reverend Dr John Lee FRSE (22 November 1779 – 2 May 1859) was a Scottish academic and polymath, and the Principal of the University of Edinburgh from 1840 to 1859. He was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1844.
Lee House in Pollock Halls of Residence is named after him.
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Life
Lee was born on 22 November 1779 at Graemeshills, Torwoodlee Mains, a farm in the parish of Stow in the Scottish Borders, the son of Helen Paterson and James Lee, a weaver. He attended school at the "luggie" in Clovenfords, his teacher was John Leyden.
In 1794, he entered the University of Edinburgh, studying medicine, and supported himself by teaching. In 1801, he graduated with an MD. After serving for a short time as a surgeon/apothecary in an army hospital service he started studying law. However, in 1804 he became amanuensis (literary assistant) to the Rev. Alexander Carlyle ("Jupiter Carlyle") in Inveresk. On his death in 1805, Carlyle who gave Lee the manuscript of his autobiography.
Lee was licensed by the Presbytery of Dalkeith as a Church of Scotland minister in 1804 but failed to find a patron. After acting for a few months as pastor of a Presbyterian chapel on Hanover Street in London he was ordained as minister of Peebles Parish church in April 1808 in place of Rev Dr William Dalgleish. In 1812 he was appointed Professor of Divinity and Ecclesiastical History at St Mary's College, St Andrews, and was there also chosen as Rector of the college. In 1820 he became Professor of Moral Philosophy in King's College, Aberdeen, but his lectures there were mostly delivered by a deputy. He continued to lecture at the University of St Andrews intending to travel regularly between the two, however, he had a change of heart following a near-fatal accident when his coach overturned en route to Aberdeen.