Orphaned by the age of nine, Maclaurin was a student at Glasgow U when aged eleven. At the age of nineteen he was appointed Professor of Mathematics at Aberdeen U. In 1719 he was elected FRS. In 1725 he was appointed Professor at Edinburgh U, where he remained for the rest of his life. A lunar crater is named after him.
http://www2.stetson.edu/~efriedma/periodictable/html/Mg.html Fuller biography and portrait.