Galt. I. John, a Scottish author, born in Irvine, Ayrshire, May 2,1779, died in Greenock, April 11, 1839. After spending some years in mercantile life he began to study law, but in 1809 set out on a tour of nearly three years in southern Europe and the Mediterranean, publishing the results of his observations on his return in "Voyages and Travels" and "Letters from the Levant." He sailed from Gibraltar to Malta with Lord Byron and Mr. Hobhouse. Soon after his return he married Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Tilloch, editor of the Philosophical Magazine," and proprietor of the Star newspaper, on which Galt was for some time employed. He had contributed in 1803-'4 to "The Scots' Magazine" portions of an ambitious composition in octosyllabic verse. He next produced a volume of dramatic pieces, which Scott called "the worst tragedies ever seen," and this was followed by lives of Cardinal Wolsey and Benjamin West, Reflections on Political and Commercial Subjects," a tragedy entitled The Appeal," acted in Edinburgh for a few nights, and The Earthquake," a novel. These works made no impression upon the public, but his "Ayrshire Legatees," which appeared in "Blackwood's Magazine" in 1820-'21, turned the popular tide in his favor.

Within the next three years appeared "Annals of the Parish," generally esteemed his best work, "The Provost," which he himself preferred , "The Steamboat,"Sir Andrew Wylie,"The Gathering of the West,"The Entail," Rin-ghan Gilhaize," "The Spaewife," Rothelan, "The Omen," and "The Last of the Lairds," all novels of Scottish life, and all successful. In 1826 he visited Canada as the agent of the Canada company, a large landholding corporation; he founded the town of Guelph, but a difference with his employers having cast him adrift again, he returned to England in 1829, resumed his literary labors, and produced a number of novels and a variety of miscellanies, including a Life of Lord Byron," the "Autobiography of John Galt" (2 vols., 1833), and "Literary Life and Miscellanies of John Gait" (3 vols., 1834). His novel "Lawrie Todd" (1830), relating some of his experiences in the new world, is considered in his best vein. It was followed bySouthennan," "Bogle Corbet,"Stanley Buxton,"The Member, "The Radical,"Eben Erskine," and "The Lost Child."" He died after 14 strokes of paralysis, having dictated compositions long after losing the use of every limb.

His works are of very unequal merit, but are usually marked by an original quaintness and vigor and by defects of taste.