John Abercromby, 5th Baron Abercromby

John Abercromby
Lord Abercromby
Spouse(s)	Adele von Heidenstern
Issue Hon. Edla Louisa Montague Abercromby
Father	George Abercromby, 3rd Baron Abercromby
Mother	Louisa Penuel Forbes
Born	15 January 1841
Died	7 October 1924 (aged 83)
Occupation	Soldier, archaeologist

Baron Abercromby's grave, Dean Cemetery

John Abercromby, 5th Baron Abercromby (15 January 1841 – 7 October 1924) was a Scottish soldier and archaeologist.

Career

Abercromby was the son of George Abercromby, 3rd Baron Abercromby, and Louisa Penuel Forbes, and had two brothers and a sister. He was a Lieutenant with the Rifle Brigade. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh with an honorary Doctorate of Law (LLD). On 3 October 1917, following the death of his elder brother George, he succeeded as the fifth Lord Abercromby.

After leaving the army in 1870 he devoted himself to languages, travel, and folklore. In 1904 he introduced the term Beaker into the archaeological lexicon to describe the late neolithic drinking vessels being found all over western Europe. He supported the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and served as its president from 1913 to 1918. His will provided for the foundation of the Abercromby Chair of Archaeology at Edinburgh University, a post occupied by Vere Gordon Childe and Stuart Piggott.

He is buried in Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh at its east side, close to the main entrance.

Family

Abercromby married his Swedish cousin, Adele Wilhelmina Marika von Heidenstern, on 26 August 1876. They had one daughter, Edla Louisa Montague Abercromby (b. 1877), who married Georges N. Nasos in 1906. As he had no son, the Barony of Abercromby became extinct on his death.

Works

• A trip through the Eastern Caucasus: with a chapter on the languages of the country (London: Edward Stanford, 1889), online
• The pre- and proto-historic Finns, both Eastern and Western: with the magic songs of the west Finns, Grimm Library, 9-10, 2 vols (London: Nutt, 1898), vol. 1, vol. 1, vol. 2, vol. 2^[1]
• A study of the Bronze Age pottery of Great Britain and Ireland and its associated grave-goods, 2 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1912), vol. 1, vol. 2

References

• thePeerage.com
• ‘ABERCROMBY’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007

1. Much of this material was first published as a series of articles in Folklore: J. Abercromby, 'Magic Songs of the Finns' Folklore, 1 (1890), 17-46, 331-48; 2 (1891), 31-49; 3 (1892), 49-66; 4 (1893), 27-49.

External links

• Works by or about John Abercromby, 5th Baron Abercromby at Internet Archive
• Portraits of John Abercromby, 5th Baron Abercromby at the National Portrait Gallery, London