John Mortland

John Mortland or Morthland of Rindmuir FRSE (1751–1807) was a Scottish advocate who was one of the joint founders of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1783.

[1] He was born on 14 January 1751 at Rindmuir House in Glasgow the son of Matthew Morthland (born 1714), Professor of Oriental Languages at Glasgow University, and his wife, Anna Simpson, daughter of Rev Dr John Simpson.

[6] Mortland was a member of the Society of the Friends of the People, a Whiggish organization which advocated for Parliamentary reform and universal suffrage.

[7] He was however a prosecution witness in the August 1793 trial of Thomas Muir of Huntershill for sedition.

The Chronicle opposed the war on France, and Mortland was sued for libel over a letter published in the paper.