MACFARQUHAR, COLIN

born 1745? died April 2, 1793, Edinburgh?, Scot. Scottish printer, who, with Andrew Bell, founded the Encyclopdia Britannica in 1768. A printer in Edinburgh and presumably the printer of the Britannicafor the first edition is stated to have been sold at his printing office in Nicolson StreetMacfarquhar remains an obscure figure. Even the dates and places of his birth and death are uncertain. The one certainty about his part in launching the Britannica is that he edited the early volumes of the third edition (178897).