Life

He was son of George Logan of Ayrshire

Ayrshire

Ayrshire is a registration county, and former administrative county in south-west Scotland, United Kingdom, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. The town of Troon on the coast has hosted the British Open Golf Championship twice in the...

, by his wife, a daughter of A. Cunningham, minister of Old Cumnock. He was educated at Glasgow University, and graduated M.A. in 1696. On 4 March 1703 he was licensed as a preacher in the Church of Scotland

Church of Scotland

The Church of Scotland, known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation....

, and became chaplain to John Maitland, 5th Earl of Lauderdale

John Maitland, 5th Earl of Lauderdale

John Maitland , 5th Earl of Lauderdale, 1st Baronet, , was the second son of Charles Maitland, 3rd Earl of Lauderdale, and succeeded his elder brother Richard Maitland, 4th Earl of Lauderdale in the Earldom in 1695.On the 8 July 1691 he had a charter of the Barony of Haltoun...

.

He was successively minister of Lauder

Lauder

The Royal Burgh of Lauder is a town in the Scottish Borders 27 miles south east of Edinburgh. It is also a royal burgh in the county of Berwickshire. It lies on the edge of the Lammermuir Hills, on the Southern Upland Way.-Medieval history:...

, Berwickshire

Berwickshire

Berwickshire or the County of Berwick is a registration county, a committee area of the Scottish Borders Council, and a lieutenancy area of Scotland, on the border with England. The town after which it is named—Berwick-upon-Tweed—was lost by Scotland to England in 1482...

, 1707; Sprouston, Roxburghshire

Roxburghshire

Roxburghshire or the County of Roxburgh is a registration county of Scotland. It borders Dumfries to the west, Selkirk to the north-west, and Berwick to the north. To the south-east it borders Cumbria and Northumberland in England.It was named after the Royal Burgh of Roxburgh...

, 1718; Dunbar

Dunbar

Dunbar is a town in East Lothian on the southeast coast of Scotland, approximately 28 miles east of Edinburgh and 28 miles from the English Border at Berwick-upon-Tweed....

, Haddingtonshire, 1721; and Trinity College Church, Edinburgh, 1732. On 8 May 1740 he was elected by a large majority Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland

Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland

The Moderator of the General Assembly of Church of Scotland is a Minister, Elder or Deacon of the Church of Scotland chosen to "moderate" the annual General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which is held for a week in Edinburgh every May....

, and in that capacity solemnly deposed Ebenezer Erskine

Ebenezer Erskine

Ebenezer Erskine was a Scottish minister whose actions led to the establishment of the Secession Church ....

 and seven other seceding brethren a week later.

He strenuously supported the Hanover

House of Hanover

The House of Hanover is a deposed German royal dynasty which has ruled the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg , the Kingdom of Hanover, the Kingdom of Great Britain, the Kingdom of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...

ian accession, and on the approach of the Jacobite

Jacobitism

Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...

 army towards Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

 in 1745, was a warm but unsuccessful advocate for placing it in a state of defence. During the occupation of the town by the rebels his house near the Castle Hill, which he had left, was occupied by them as a guard-house. He died on 13 October 1755, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. He married, first, a sister of Sir Alexander Home of Eccles, Berwickshire, by whom he had a son, George, minister of Ormiston

Ormiston

Ormiston is a village in East Lothian, Scotland, UK, near Tranent, Humbie, Pencaitland and Cranston, located on the north bank of the River Tyne at an elevation of about 276 ft....

, Haddingtonshire, and a daughter. His second wife was Lilias Weir.

Works

His views on hereditary right involved him in a lively contest with Thomas Ruddiman

Thomas Ruddiman

Thomas Ruddiman was a Scottish classical scholar.-Life:He was born at Raggal, Banffshire, where his father was a farmer, and educated at the University of Aberdeen. Through the influence of Dr Archibald Pitcairne he became an assistant in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh...

, George Mackenzie, 3rd Earl of Cromartie

George Mackenzie, 3rd Earl of Cromartie

George Mackenzie, 3rd Earl of Cromartie succeeded his father John, the 2nd earl, in February 1731. In 1745, he joined Charles Edward Stuart and he served with the Jacobites until April 1746 when he was taken prisoner in Sutherland after the Battle of Littleferry...

, John Sage

John Sage (bishop)

John Sage was a Scottish nonjuring bishop and controversialist in the Jacobite interest.-Life:He was born at Creich, Fifeshire, where his ancestors had lived for seven generations. His father was a captain in the royalist forces at the time of the taking of Dundee by George Monck in 1651...

, and other prominent Jacobites. His writings, which cost him some ridicule, were:

• ‘An Essay upon Gospel and Legal Preaching,’Edinburgh, 1723.
• ‘A modest and humble Inquiry concerning the Right and Power of electing and calling Ministers to vacant Churches,’ Edinburgh, 1732.
• ‘A Continuation of the Inquiry,’ Edinburgh, 1732.
• ‘A Vindication of the Inquiry,’ Edinburgh, 1733.
• ‘An Overture for a right Constitution of the General Assembly, and an Illustration of it,’ Edinburgh, 1736.
• ‘The Lawfulness and Necessity of Ministers, their reading the Act of Parliament for bringing to Justice the Murderers of Captain John Porteous,’ Edinburgh, 1737.
• ‘A Treatise on Government: shewing that the right of the Kings of Scotland to the Crown was not strictly … hereditary,’ 8vo, Edinburgh, 1746, which was answered by Ruddiman.
• ‘A Second Treatise on Government,’ Edinburgh, 1747.
• ‘The Finishing Stroke; or, Mr. Ruddiman self-condemned, being a Reply to Mr. Ruddiman's Answer,’ &c., Edinburgh, 1748.
• ‘The Doctrine of the jure-divino-ship of hereditary indefensible Monarchy enquired into and exploded, in a Letter to Mr. Thomas Ruddiman,’ Edinburgh, 1749.
• ‘A Second Letter to Mr. Thomas Ruddiman, vindicating Mr. Alexander Henderson from the vile Aspersions cast upon him by Messieurs Sage and Ruddiman,’ Edinburgh, 1749. Defends reputation of Alexander Henderson
  Alexander Henderson (theologian)
  Alexander Henderson was a Scottish theologian, and an important ecclesiastical statesman of his period. He is considered the second founder of the Reformed Church in Scotland, and its Presbyterian churches are largely indebted to him for the forms of their dogmas and organization.-Life:He was born...
  
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