JAMES

See also:

• GARDINER
• JAMES GARDINER (1688-1745)
• GARDINER, SAMUEL RAWSON (1829–1902)
• GARDINER, STEPHEN (c. 1493–1555)

GARDINER (1688-1745)  , Scottish soldier, was born at Carriden in Linlithgowshire, on the 11th of January 1688 . At the age of fourteen he entered a Scottish regiment in the Dutch service, and was afterwards present at the battle of Ramillies, where he was wounded . He subsequently served in different cavalry regiments, and in 1730 was advanced to the. rank of lieutenant-colonel, and in 1743 to that of colonel . He fell at- the battle of Prestonpans, the 21st of September 1745 . The circumstances of his death are described in Sir Walter Scott's Waverley . In his early years he was distinguished for his recklessness and profligacy, but in 1719 a supernatural vision, as he regarded it, led to his conversion, and from that time he lived a life of great devoutness and of thorough consistency with his Christian profession . Dr Alexander Carlyle of Inveresk, author of an autobiography, says that he was " very ostentatious " about his conversion—speaks of him as weak, and plainly thinks there was a great deal of delusion in Col . Gardiner's account of his sins . His life was written by Dr Philip Doddridge and has been often reprinted .