James Elphinston (December 6, 1721 – October 8, 1809) was a well noted 18th-century Scottish educator, orthographer, phonologist and linguistics expert.

Life

Elphinston was a good friend of Samuel Johnson as stated in Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1904, Oxford edition), Chapter IV [1750], and tutor of Alexander James Dallas. Thirty-six of Elphinston's translations of mottoes appear in Johnson's Rambler, as part of a revised, corrected edition in July 1752 and subsequently. Johnson's affection for Elphinston is evident from a letter from early 1752 in which he wrote, "I beg of You to write soon, and to write often, and to write long letters, which I hope in time to repay you, but you must be a patient Creditor". In 1792, Elphinston moved to live in Elstree and finally to Hammersmith in 1806, where he died in 1809. Robert Charles Dallas was Elphinston's biographer in the 1809 edition of Gentleman's Magazine no. 79. His translation of the Roman poet Martial has been criticised for its bowlderization and perceived low poetic value, for example Robert Burns wrote a critical poem describing "laurell'd Martial calling Murther!" upon seeing the Elphinston translation.