Record

Authorised form of nameBruce; James (1730 - 1794)
Dates1730 - 1794
NationalityBritish
Place of birthKinnaird, Stirlingshire, Scotland
Date of birth14 December 1730
Date of death27 April 1794
OccupationExplorer, archaeologist and linguist
Research fieldExploration
ActivityEducation:
Harrow School
Career:
Wine merchant, London (1754-1761); Spent six months in Italy where he had his portrait painted by Batoni (1762); travelled subsequently to North Africa, Crete, Syria, Egypt and eventually Abyssinia [Ethiopia]; Consul General, Algiers (1763-1765). in 1768 he journeyed to Abyssinia by the Nile, Aswan, the Red Sea and Massowah. In 1770 he reached the source of the Abbai or headstream of the Blue Nile.
Freemason, member of Lodge Canongate Kilwinning No 2, Canongate, Edinburgh
Membership categoryFellow
Date of election11/01/1776
RelationshipsSon of Robert Bruce
PublishedWorks'Travels to discover the sources of the Nile' 1790
SourceSources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB; DSB
Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 'Freemasons and the Royal Society: Alphabetical List of Fellows of the Royal Society who were Freemasons' 2010 page 12 [Gives place of birth as Larbert, Falkirk]
CodeNA6329
Archives associated with this Fellow
RefNoTitleDate
L&P/6/122Paper, 'Observations made in 1771 in Abyssinia, on myrrh' by James Bruce1775
IM/000622Bruce, James1986
EC/1775/22Bruce, James: certificate of election to the Royal Society
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