Dempster, THOMAS

Dempster, THOMAS, a professor famous for his learning, and a miscellaneous and voluminous writer, was the son of Thomas, laird of Muireesk, Aberdeenshire, and was born about 1579. He was educated at Turriff, Aberdeen, Cambridge, Paris, Louvain, Rome, and Douay. A zealous Catholic, he was elected to several provincial professorships, and at Paris he was for seven years professor in the Collèges des Grassins, de Lisieux, and de Plessy. But a brawl resulted, it is said, in Dempster's having to retreat to England. He soon returned to the Continent, bringing with him a beautiful wife, and at Pisa in 1616 obtained a professorship; but his wife's infidelities marring his peace, he removed to Bologna, where he became professor of Humanities, and where his wife completed her shame by eloping. Pursuing the fugitives, he was stricken with sickness, and died at Bologna, 6th September 1625. Dempster's not too veracious autobiography forms part of his Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum (Bologna, 1627)—an erudite work in which, however, his desire to magnify the merits of his country often induced him to forge the names of persons and books that never existed, and to unscrupulously claim as Scotchmen writers whose birthplace was doubtful. It was edited by David Irving for the Bannatyne Club in 1829, and the manuscript is still preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. There is a selection from his Latin poetry in Johnston's Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum.