John Shank More

John Shank More (sometimes written as John Schank More) LL.D., F.R.S.E. FSA (1784–1861) was George Joseph Bell’s successor at the University of Edinburgh in the chair of Scots Law, which he held from 1843 to 1861. He was involved in the anti-slavery movement and was Vice-President of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts.

More was born in North Shields in County Durham, the son of Rev. George More, for some time Presbyterian minister at South Shields.

He was called to the Bar in 1806. He married Mary Gillespie (d.1849) in 1811.

He was less famous than Hume and Bell, but none the less edited Erskine’s Principles and Stair’s Institutions. He was considered "a suitably learned man who inspired some affection in his students despite bbbthe dullness of his lecturing style".

He was involved in the sudden departure of Karl Pearson's father from Edinburgh University.

In 1820 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Thomas Thomson, Sir David Brewster and James Bonar.

In the 1830s he is listed as living at 19 Great King Street, a prestigious Georgian townhouse in Edinburgh's Second New Town.

He was President of the Royal Scottish Society of the Arts 1844-45.

He died in Edinburgh and is buried in the churchyard of St John's Episcopal Churchyard at the west end of Princes Street.

He is described as follows:

".... dear old modest Professor More, who never looked at the class, but glanced up at the end of every utterance to the upper left-hand corner of the class room, said in most sober tone:

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