Oliphant, Laurence, religious enthusiast and mystic, born in Perthshire; spent his boyhood in Ceylon, where his father was chief-justice; early conceived a fondness for adventure, accompanied Lord Elgin to Washington as his secretary, and afterwards to China and Japan; became M.P. for the Stirling Burghs, mingled much in London society, contributed to Blackwood, and wrote “Piccadilly,” pronounced by Mrs. Oliphant “one of the most brilliant satires on society ever published”; parliamentary people and parliamentary life being nowise to his liking he soon threw both up for life in a community with Harris at Lake Erie, U.S., whence, after two years' probation, he returned to resume life in the wide world; while in France during the Franco-German War, he married one Alice l'Estrange, an alliance which grew into one of the most intimate character; with her he went to Palestine, pitched his tent under the shadow of Mount Carmel, and wrote two mystical books under her inspiration, which abode with him after she was dead; after her decease he married a Miss Owen, that she might help him in his work, but all she had opportunity to do was to minister to him on his deathbed (1829‒1888).
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Olifaunt, Nigel * Oliphant, Mrs. Margaret