author

William Ogilvie

1688–1729

An early 18th-century Scottish minister, he is remembered today for a strange and vivid work that blends religious warning, folklore, and the supernatural. His surviving book has kept his name alive as a curious voice from Scotland's devotional and ghost-story traditions.

1 Audiobook

The Laird o' Coul's Ghost

The Laird o' Coul's Ghost

by William Ogilvie

About the author

William Ogilvie (1688 or 1689–1729) was a Scottish clergyman who served as minister of Innerwick in East Lothian. Modern catalog records consistently identify him as the author of The Laird of Cool’s Ghost, the work for which he is now chiefly known.

That book is an unusual mix of piety, moral instruction, and supernatural storytelling. Built around reported conversations involving the ghost of the laird of Cool, it reflects a period when religious belief and tales of the uncanny often appeared side by side in print.

Very little biographical detail about Ogilvie seems easy to confirm from readily available sources, and no reliable portrait was found during this search. Even so, his name has lasted because of the eerie, memorable character of his best-known work and the glimpse it offers into early 18th-century Scottish religious culture.