John Pinkerton (February, 1758—March 10, 1826 [1]) was a British antiquarian, author, forger, numismatist, pseudo-historian, and early advocate of Germanic racial supremacy theory. Year 1758 ( MDCCLVIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 241 BC - First Punic War: Battle of the Aegates Islands - The Romans sink the Carthaginian fleet bringing For the game see 1826 (board game. Year 1826 ( MDCCCXXVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located An antiquarian or antiquary is one concerned with Antiquities or things of the past An author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created Forgery is the process of making adapting or imitating objects statistics or documents (see False document) with the intent to deceive. Numismatics (numisma nomisma "coin" from the νομίζειν nomízein, "to use according to law" is the study or collection of Currency The Germanic peoples are a historical group of Indo-European -speaking peoples originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Germanic Supremacism is the belief that a particular race, Religion, Gender, belief system or Culture is superior to others and entitles

He was born in Edinburgh, as one of three sons to James Pinkerton. Edinburgh ( ˈɛdɪnb(ərə Dùn Èideann) is the Capital of Scotland and is its second largest city after Glasgow. He lived in the neighbourhood of that city for some of his earliest childhood years, but later moved to Lanark. Lanark is a small town in the Central belt of Scotland. Its population of 8253 makes it the 100th largest settlement in Scotland His studious youth brought him extensive knowledge of the Classics, and it is known that in his childhood years he enjoyed translating Roman authors such as Livy. "Classical literature" redirects here For literature in Classical languages outside the Graeco-Roman sphere see Ancient literature. The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial Titus Livius (traditionally 59 BC &ndash AD 17 known as Livy in English, was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome He moved on to Edinburgh University, and after graduating, remained in the city to take up an apprenticeship in Law. The University of Edinburgh (Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann founded in 1582 is a renowned centre for teaching and research in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. However, his scholarly and literary inclinations led him to abandon the legal profession. It had been during his brief legal career though that he had begun writing, his Elegy on Craigmillar Castle being first published in 1776. Year 1776 ( MDCCLXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a In 1781, John moved to London, where his full career as a writer began in earnest. Year 1781 ( MDCCLXXXI) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom.

Pinkerton very much wished to purge his country's history of all Celtic elements. Celts (ˈkɛlts or /ˈsɛlts/, see Names of the Celts In this aim, through two works, the Dissertation on the Origins and Progress of the Scythians or Goths (1787) and the Enquiry into the History of Scotland preceding the reign of Malcolm III (1789), he developed the theory that the Picts were in fact of the race of ancient Goths, that the Scots language was a pure descendant of the Picto-Gothic language; and, moreover, that the Gaels, or Highlanders, were a degenerate impostor race. Year 1787 ( MDCCLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Year 1789 ( MDCCLXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The Picts were a Confederation of tribes in what was later to become eastern and northern Scotland from Roman times until the 10th century The term race or racial group usually refers to the concept of categorizing Humans into Populations or groups on the basis of various sets The Goths ( Gothic: Gothic usvg|14px|u]]Gothic asvg|14px|a]]Gothic s Scots ( The Scots leid) refers to Anglic varieties derived from early northern Middle English spoken in parts of Scotland and Northern Pinkerton says of the Celts that they are:

not yet advanced even to the state of barbarism; and if any foreigner doubts this, he has only to step into the Celtic parts of either Wales, Ireland or Scotland . . . The Celts were so inferior a people, being to the Scythians [i. Celts (ˈkɛlts or /ˈsɛlts/, see Names of the Celts e. Goths] as a negro to a European, that, as all history shows, to see them was to conquer them.

In an effort to further his theories, Pinkerton turned his energy to comparative Celtic and Germanic philology. The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic" a branch of the greater Indo-European Language family. See Comparative linguistics for the narrower field of "comparative philology" He wanted to show that Scotland's Celtic placenames were not really Celtic at all. Toponymy refers to the scientific study of place-names ( toponyms) their origins meanings use and Typology. As Pinkerton did not know much at all of any Celtic language, it is not surprising that his work looks ridiculous to modern scholars. For instance, Aber (as in Aberdeen) comes, Pinkerton stated, not from any Celtic word for the confluence of a river (which is what it does in fact mean), but from the German über. Aberdeen ( pronounced; Aiberdeen Obar Dheathain is Scotland 's third most populous city and one of Scotland's 32 local government council Likewise, the Gaelic word Inver (equivalent of Aber) was supposedly a borrowing from Danish. Scottish Gaelic ( Gàidhlig) is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages. Danish ( d̥ænsɡ̊ is one of the North Germanic languages (also called Scandinavian languages a sub-group of the Germanic branch of the

To the very same end he set his time and inventive mind to collecting and creating older Anglo-Scottish literature. This was all the more important as far as his agenda was concerned because of the "Celtomania" produced by the Ossian poems of James MacPherson. Ossian is the narrator and supposed author of a cycle of poems which the Scottish poet James Macpherson claimed to have translated from ancient sources in the James Macpherson (Seumas Mac a' Phearsain 27 October 1736 17 February 1796) was a Scottish Poet, known as the "translator" Many such works were pure forgeries that Pinkerton dishonestly invented. Pinkerton's "ancient" Anglo-Scottish, or as he would have seen it, Gotho-Pictish tale of Hardyknute had in fact only been composed in 1719 by Lady Wardlaw of Pitreavie. Year 1719 ( MDCCXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Elizabeth Lady Wardlaw (1677&ndash1727 reputed author of Hardyknute, second daughter of Sir Charles Halket, was born in April 1677 Pinkerton subsequently invented a sequel to this epic, but after he was exposed by Joseph Ritson, he owned up to the forgery. Joseph Ritson ( October 2, 1752 - September 23, 1803) was an English antiquary

John Pinkerton's works are seen today as spurious, even ignoring the heavy infusion of extreme racism and Germanic racial supremacy theory. His personal correspondence with fellow academics is characterized by insecurity, slandering, bullying and extreme malevolence. Hugh Trevor-Roper, one modern historian inclined to sympathize with at least the spirit of his views, called him "eccentric. Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper Baron Dacre of Glanton ( January 15, 1914 – January 26, 2003) was a British Historian " Other historians have hinted at mild insanity. Traditionally insanity or madness is the behaviour whereby a person flouts societal norms and may become a danger to himself and others

Despite this, Pinkerton is still an important figure in the history of British antiquarianism. An antiquarian or antiquary is one concerned with Antiquities or things of the past

Reading

Ferguson, William, The Identity of the Scottish Nation: An Historic Quest, (Edinburgh, 1998), pp. 250–273.

External links

• Works by John Pinkerton at Project Gutenberg
• 1911 Encyclopedia
• Short biography