HE was a crusading young Scottish radical targeted by the establishment who would later be hailed by as a proto-type Che Guevara. Today, though, Thomas Muir is finally coming in from the cold.

Muir was an 18th century Scottish lawyer who campaigned for greater democracy at a time when democracy was a bad word. Now, commentators are calling him ‘a new Scottish icon in the making’.

Glasgow-born Muir was an outspoken supporter of a wider franchise but he paid dearly for it. A show trial in Edinburgh alleged he had committed seditious acts and condemned him to 14 years in Botany Bay.

He escaped Australia and ended up first in America and then in revolutionary France, where he died in 1799, aged just 33.

By then he was calling on the French government to “liberate” Scotland, which did nothing to appease the conservative establishment back home that had put him on trial in the first place.

Muir’s reputation was so damaged he was all but airbrushed out of history. In recent years, however, his name is starting to be restored. Former First Minister Alex Salmond has called for a posthumous pardon for Muir and his fellow radicals who were transported to Australia, describing them as “founders of democracy in Scotland”.

Now Muir is to be “brought in from the cold” by his alma mater – Glasgow University, from which he voluntarily expelled himself in 1765.

Its Centre for Robert Burns Studies is staging a special symposium on Friday, to mark the 250th anniversary of his birth.

Professor Gerard Carruthers, who holds the Francis Hutcheson Chair of Scottish Literature, said: “Muir was quite a figure. There is some really interesting history in the story of Muir’s life but there is also a lot of myth.

“There are lots of people, including the SNP and the Scottish Socialist Party, who all want to claim ownership of Muir.

“But if he is the ‘father of democracy’, it has to be borne in mind that democracy is about different people with different opinions. This is something that needs to be grasped.”

Muir was studying at the university but in 1765 he agitated for the reinstatement of John Anderson, who had accused the principal and faculty members of mismanaging funds. Muir then voluntarily expelled himself.

Later, he made his name as a campaigner for an extension of the voting franchise. Put on trial for alleged sedition, he defended himself and made a superb address to the jury in which he outlined his beliefs. However, he had the misfortune to come up against the fiercely conservative judge, Lord Braxfield.

When another radical, Joseph Gerrald, went on trial, he observed that “even our Saviour himself” had been a reformer, Braxfield responded: “Muckle he made o’ that, he was hanget.”

Added Prof Carruthers: “Muir was a man of conscience. He was also thrown out of, or at least found himself in trouble with, every club to which he ever belonged. The Church of Scotland, the Faculty of Advocates and the University of Glasgow, to name a few.

“The symposium is recognition that Muir is coming in from the cold after 250 years. It is recognition that he fought for what he believed in.

“He was divisive and argumentative but he was also passionate when it came to what he believed in. Throughout his life he didn’t care who he upset, if it was something he strongly believed in he would not give up.

“It is interesting to see what is perhaps a new Scottish national icon in the making. Alex Salmond has championed him, and the Faculty of Advocates staged a re-trial, with Sir Tom Devine and Donald Findlay QC.

“So clearly this is the moment, which is a good thing. But maybe now is the time for us to think about getting the biography right; too often, he is swathed in ideas from the sentimental left.

“His life story isn’t one you would believe if you saw it on film but it’s time to re-appraise this forgotten individual who had a romantic and adventurous life but had a strong role to play in the constitutional development of the western world.”

The symposium, to be staged at the university, will be introduced by Prof Carruthers and Jimmy Watson, chair of the Friends of Thomas Muir. Other contributions will focus on student politics at Glasgow in Muir’s time, on Muir’s mentions in the radical journal, The Edinburgh Gazetteer, and on Henry Dundas, one of the most powerful establishment figures of the 18th century.

Prof Carruthers said that “the religious background” to the events of Muir’s life had to be taken into consideration,”which is sometimes too overlooked in the 21st century”.

He said admirers of Muir often compared him to “Che Guevara or Fidel Castro, or whatever you like, but the fact is that, yes, he’s a political reformer, but a lot of that is coming from his traditional Presbyterian energy, and that is something we want to highlight”.

Jimmy Watson, national Coordinator of Thomas Muir 250, added: “We believe historians in the past may have done Muir a disservice by not fully taking on board what he was aiming to achieve by representing himself at his trial. Muir could have escaped to America, but he decided to face his accusers. He knew the establishment were set on making an example of him, but he decided to use his trial... to spread the message of parliamentary reform.”