William Ballantyne Hodgson

William Ballantyne Hodgson (6 October 1815 – 24 August 1880) was a Scottish educational reformer and political economist.

In 1844, on Hodgson's advice, a girls' school was added to the Liverpool Institute, and in the same year he was appointed Principal.

In 1853 he returned to Edinburgh, giving lectures on physiology, having qualified himself by attending the classes at the College of Surgeons.

As a member of council, Hodgson seconded the confirmation of James Martineau to the vacant chair of mental philosophy; he resigned his seat on the council on 19 January 1867, when George Grote successfully argued for George Croom Robertson over the Unitarian Martineau.

[2] In 1870 Hodgson retired to Bournemouth, but in the following year (17 July 1871) he was appointed to the new Chair of political economy and mercantile law at the University of Edinburgh.

He frequently attended the social science congresses, acting at Norwich in 1873 as president of the educational section.

He settled at Bonaly Tower, Colinton, a Scottish baronial house built by Lord Cockburn.