author

James Cruikshank Roger

1820–1899

A Scottish barrister and energetic polemicist, remembered for writing on Celtic history, literary authenticity, and travel in the Highlands. His books have the feel of a learned argument carried on with real conviction.

1 Audiobook

Celtic MSS. in relation to the Macpherson fraud With a review of Professor Freeman's criticism of [P.B. Du Chaillu's] "The Viking Age," by the author of "Celticism a myth"

Celtic MSS. in relation to the Macpherson fraud With a review of Professor Freeman's criticism of [P.B. Du Chaillu's] "The Viking Age," by the author of "Celticism a myth"

by James Cruikshank Roger

About the author

Born in 1820 and died in 1899, James Cruikshank Roger was a Scottish writer, antiquarian-minded scholar, and barrister of the Middle Temple. Reference listings for his work and a contemporary legal-biographical notice connect him with Glasgow University, note that he was called to the bar in 1871, and describe him as an editor of The Antiquary in 1869–70.

Roger is best known for books such as Celticism a Myth, Celtic MSS. in Relation to the Macpherson Fraud, and Journal of a Summer Tour in the Perthshire and Inverness-Shire Highlands. Across these works, he returned again and again to questions of Scottish history, Celtic tradition, and the reliability of famous historical claims. Even from the titles alone, his interests come through clearly: he liked contested subjects, close argument, and the chance to challenge accepted stories.

He also wrote family and local history, including work on the Roger tenants of Coupar. Although he is not widely read today, digital library records show that several of his books have survived and remain accessible, preserving the voice of a late-19th-century author who mixed legal training, historical curiosity, and a taste for debate.