MacFarlan, Walter (1698 -1767)

Walter Macfarlan was the second son of John Macfarlan of Arrochar, and Helen, daughter of Robert 2nd Viscount Arbuthnot. A Scottish antiquary living in Edinburgh, he had manuscript collections of transcripts of Scottish historical documents, particularly monastic cartularies, made for him by a copyist called Tait. Dr Johnson met him and tells that “The late laird of Macfarlan, an eminent genealogist considered himself as disrespectfully treated if the common addition [Mr] was applied to him. ‘Mr McFarlan’, said he "may with equal propriety be said to many; but I, and I only, am Macfarlan.’” He married Elizabeth Erskine, sister of Thomas, 6th Earl of Kellie, but they had no issue. When he died in 1767 he was succeeded by his brother William, whose family settled in America. His library was sold after his death, the Advocates' Library acquiring his manuscripts in 1785. These are now on deposit in the National Library of Scotland. Most of the volumes have been rebound, and the remainder of the original bindings are in a poor state of preservation.