Blair, Robert (1699–1746)

Scottish poet and cleric. His one outstanding work is The Grave (1743), a poem in blank verse, nearly 800 lines long. In some passages it rises to sublimity, although in others it sinks to the commonplace. It was illustrated by William Blake.

Blair was born in Edinburgh. He became minister of Athelstaneford in East Lothian 1731.

Blair, Robert (died 1828)

Scottish naval surgeon. In 1785 he was appointed to the newly established Regius chair of astronomy at the University of Edinburgh. He experimented with fluid-filled achromatic lenses for telescopes.

Blair, Robert (1593–1666)

Scottish Presbyterian, a licensed preacher of the Scottish Presbyterian Church from 1616. In 1640 he went to England as one of the commissioners from the General Assembly to explain Presbyterianism to the Episcopal clergy. Six years later he was elected moderator of the General Assembly.

Blair graduated at Glasgow University and was ordained as bishop of Down, Ireland, in 1623; he was deposed nine years later for nonconformity.