FORDYCE, James, a Scottish clergyman of considerable eminence, was born at Aberdeen in the year 1720. He received his classical education at the public grammar school, and afterwards entered Marischal College, where he went through the course of studies necessary to qualify him for being a minister of the gospel. His natural abilities were excellent, and having improved to the utmost the favourable opportunities he enjoyed at the university, he was considered as qualified for becoming a preacher of the gospel at an early period of life. His first appointment was that of second minister of Brechin, in the county of Angus, after which he accepted of a call to Alloa, near Stirling. The people of this parish were prepossessed in favour of another, and prejudiced against Mr Fordyce, which could not fail to prove an unpleasant circumstance; yet by his impressive delivery, and indefatigable attention to every part of his ministerial duty, he soon overcame their prejudice, and acquired their esteem and admiration.
During his residence at Alloa, he attracted the notice of the public by three sermons; the first on the eloquence of the pulpit, the second on the method of promoting edification by public institutions, and the third on the delusive and sanguinary spirit of popery, preached before the synod of Perth and Stirling. But still greater admiration was excited by his sermon on the folly, infamy, and misery of unlawful pleasure, preached before the general assembly of the church of Scotland in 1760. About this time the university of Glasgow conferred upon him the degree of doctor of divinity, probably on account of the fame he had acquired by this sermon.
The friends of Dr Fordyce being mostly in the metropolis, he was invited to become the colleague of Dr Lawrence, minister of a respectable congregation in Monkwell Street, London, on whose death, which happened a few months afterwards, Dr Fordyce became once more celebrated for his pulpit eloquence, generally preaching to overflowing audiences. The best specimen of pulpit eloquence which perhaps proceeded from his pen was delivered at the ordination of Mr James Lindsay, who, after he declined officiating as a minister, became his successor. The remainder of his life he spent chiefly in retirement in Hampshire, in the vicinity of the residence of Lord Bute, with whom he lived in the greatest intimacy, and to whose valuable library he had unlimited access. He afterwards went to Bath, where he suffered much from an asthmatic affection, which he bore with the fortitude of a Christian, and expired without a groan on the first of October 1796, in the seventy-sixth year of his age.
The doctor's writings discover much genius and a correct taste, extensive knowledge of the world, and a happy method of engaging the attention. He was the author of 1. Sermons to Young Women, 1765, in 2 vols. 12mo; 2. A sermon on the Character and Conduct of the Female Sex; 3. Addresses to Young Men, 1777, in 2 vols. 12mo; 4. Addresses to the Deity, 1785, in 12mo; 5. A volume of Poems; 6. A discourse on Pain, 1791; and Additions to his brother's Temple of Virtue.