Alexander Robertson MacEwen was born in Edinburgh in 1851. He was educated at Glasgow Academy, and he studied at Glasgow University and at Balliol College, Oxford. He was Deputy Professor of Greek, Assistant Professor of Latin, and Classical Examiner for Degrees at Glasgow University. He was also a United Presbyterian Minister at Moffat, at Anderston, Glasgow, and at Claremont Church, Glasgow. MacEwen became Professor of Church History at New College, Edinburgh University, in 1901. He had been Moderator of the General Assembly of the United Free Church in 1915. His publications included Memoir of Alexander MacEwen, D.D. (1876), Roman Satiric poetry (1877), St. Jerome (1878), Life of Principal Cairns (1894), The eastern church in Greece (1890), and The Erskines (1900). Professor Alexander Robertson MacEwen died on 26 November 1916.