Background
Brodie was born about 1786 in East Lothian, where his father was a farmer on a large scale, and a contributor to the improvement of Scottish husbandry.
Brodie was born about 1786 in East Lothian, where his father was a farmer on a large scale, and a contributor to the improvement of Scottish husbandry.
He seems to have done little at the Barometer He was an ardent whig, and his political creed partly inspired the one work by which he is known, his History of the British Empire. In the Scottish agitation for the first Reform Bill, Brodie presided at a very numerous gathering of the working-men of Edinburgh held on Arthur"s Seat in November 1831 against the rejection of the bill by the peers.
In 1836 he was appointed historiographer of Scotland, with a salary of £180 a year.
Brodie died in London on 22 January 1867.
Educated at Edinburgh High School and the University of Edinburgh, he became in 1811 a member of the Faculty of Advocates.