Colin Macfarquhar
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Colin Macfarquhar (1744/5 – 2 April 1793)<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> was a Scottish bookseller and printer who is most known for co-founding Encyclopædia Britannica with Andrew Bell, first published in December 1768.<ref>Template:Cite EB1911</ref><ref>Template:Cite EB1911</ref> The dates of his birth and death remain uncertain, even to Britannica itself.<ref name=":0" />
BiographyEdit
Macfarquhar was born in Edinburgh to his father James Macfarquhar who was a wigmaker and his mother Margaret.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1" /> His formal education ended when he was apprenticed to a printing firm and achieved the status of a master printer in 1767.<ref name=":1" /> On 13 December 1767 Macfarquhar married Jane whose father, James Scruton, was an accountant in Glasgow.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1" /> Macfarquhar and Jane had one son and four daughters.<ref name=":2" />
Macfarquhar opened a printing shop in Edinburgh one or two years after getting married.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref> The first edition of Britannica was sold at his printing office in Nicolson Street.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> Macfarquhar also contributed heavily to the second and third editions of Britannica.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>