John Jamieson

For the American curler, see John Jamieson (curler)

Rev Dr John Jamieson FRSE FSA(Scot) FRSL
Born	3 May 1759 Glasgow
Died	12 July 1838 George Square, Edinburgh
Resting place	St. Cuthbert's Cemetery, Edinburgh
Nationality	Scottish
Citizenship	Great Britain
Education	Glasgow Grammar School
Alma mater	Glasgow University (1768-71) Edinburgh University (1775-6) College of New Jersey (DD 1795)
Occupation	Licensed minister (1781) Minister of secessionist congregation Forfar, Angus Minister of the Nicolson Street Antiburgher Church, Edinburgh (1797-1830)
Notable work	"Etymological Dictionary of The Scottish Language" (1808) "History of the Culdees" (1811) "Views of the Royal Palaces of Scotland" (1828)
Spouse(s)	Charlotte Watson (d. 1837)
Notes
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1803) Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (1815) Fellow of the American Antiquarian Society Fellow of the Royal Literary Society Member of the Highland Society

Rev Dr John Jamieson DD FRSE (3 May 1759 – 12 July 1838) was a Scottish minister of religion, lexicographer, philologist and antiquary. His most important work is the Dictionary of the Scottish Language.

Life

He was born in Glasgow the son of the Rev John Jamieson, Minister of the Associate Congregation on Duke Street. He was educated at Glasgow Grammar School.

He was educated at the University of Glasgow 1768 to 1771, and subsequently attended classes at the University of Edinburgh, 1775-6. After six years' theological study, Jamieson was licensed to preach in 1781 and became pastor of an Anti-burgher congregation in Forfar, Angus. In 1797 he was called to the Anti-burgher church in Nicolson Street, Edinburgh. The union of the Burgher and Anti-burgher sections of the Secession Church in 1820 was largely due to his exertions.

He retired from the ministry in 1830, spending the rest of his life in Edinburgh. In the 1830s he is listed as living at 4 George Square on the south side of the city.

Jamieson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1803. His proposers were James Bonar, Alexander Fraser Tytler, and William Moodie. He was also a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1816.

He died at home, 4 George Square in Edinburgh on 12 July 1838 and is buried in St Cuthbert's churchyard.

Works

Jamieson's major work, the Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language appeared in 2 vols. in 1808. A meeting the Danish scholar Grim Thorkelin had suggested this work, and, working with Thomas Ruddiman's glossary to Gavin Douglas's version of the Aeneid, Jamieson completed the work almost alone. He prepared an abridgment in 1818 (reissued in 1846 with a memoir by John Johnstone), and aided by numerous others, he added two supplementary volumes in 1825. The work drew on folklore and provincialisms. The introductory antiquarian dissertation supported a theory on the Pictish influence on the Scots language. A revised edition by John Longmuir and David Donaldson was issued in 1879-1887. These volumes remained the standard reference work for the Scots language until the publication of the Scottish National Dictionary in 1931.

Jamieson's other works included:

• Socinianism Unmasked, 1786.
• A Poem on Slavery, 1789.
• Sermons on the Heart, 2 vols., 1791. Around the same time he authored a pamphlet on the African slave trade entitled, The Sorrows of Slavery.
• Congal and Fenella, a Metrical Tale, 1791.
• Vindication of the Doctrine of Scripture, in reply to Joseph Priestley's History of Early Opinions, 2 vols., 1795.
• A Poem on Eternity, 1798.
• Remarks on Rowland Hill's Journal, 1799.
• The Use of Sacred History, 1802.
• Important Trial in the Court of Conscience, 1806.
• Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language 2 vols 1809 and 1810
• A Treatise on the Ancient Culdees of Iona also retitled A History of the Culdees, 1811, published, through Walter Scott's support, by Ballantyne.
• Hermes Scythicus, 1814, expounding affinities between the Gothic and the classical tongues.
• Views of the Royal Palaces of Scotland (1828) published posthumously

Jamieson wrote on other themes: rhetoric, cremation, and the royal palaces of Scotland, besides publishing occasional sermons. In 1820 he issued edited versions of John Barbour's Bruce and Blind Harry's Wallace. Posthumous was Dissertations on the Reality of the Spirit's Influence (1844).

Family

In 1781, Dr Jamieson married Charlotte Watson (d.1837), daughter of Robert Watson, Esq., of Easter Rhind, Perthshire, and had seventeen children, of whom only two daughters and one son survived. His son, Robert Jameson (d.1834) advocate, became a distinguished member of the Faculty of Advocates.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 

External links

• Works by John Jamieson at Project Gutenberg
• Jamieson's Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language Online
• John Jamieson at Boswell's Scottish Dictionary