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Significant Scots
James Kirkwood |
KIRKWOOD, JAMES, an eminent teacher and
writer on grammar, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, was born
near Dunbar. The circumstances of his education are unknown; he was first
schoolmaster of Linlithgow, and subsequently of Kelso. His school at
Linlithgow was one of considerable reputation, and he would appear to have
been instrusted, like many teachers of the present day, with pupils who
boarded in his house. The celebrated John, second earl of Stair, was thus
educated by him. The first work ascertained to have been published by him,
was an "Easy Grammar" of the Latin language, which appeared at Glasgow in
1674. In 1677, he published at London an octavo fasciculus of "Sentences,"
for the use of learners. In the succeeding year appeared his "Compendium of
Rhetoric," to which was added a small treatise on Analysis. After the
Revolution, he was sent for by the parliamentary commissioners for colleges,
on the motion of lord president Stair; and his advice was taken about the
best Latin grammar for the Scottish schools. The lord president asked him
what he thought of Despauter. He answered, "A very unfit grammar; but by
some pains it might be made a good one." The lord Crossrig desiring him to
be more plain on this point, he said, "My lord president, if its
superfluities were rescinded, the defects supplied, the intricacies cleared,
the errors rectified, and the method amended, it might pass for an excellent
grammar." The lord president afterwards sent for him, and told him it was
the desire of the commissioners that he should immediately reform Despauter,
as he had proposed; as they knew none fitter for the task. He according
published, in 1695, a revised edition of Despauter, which continued to be
commonly used in schools till it was superseded by Ruddiman’s Rudiments.
Kirkwood was a man of wit and fancy, as well as of learning; and having
fallen into an unfortunate quarrel with his patrons the magistrates, which
ended in his dismission, he took revenge by publishing a satirical pamphlet,
entitled "The twenty-seven gods of Linlithgow," meaning thereby the
twenty-seven members of the town-council. He appears to have afterwards been
chosen schoolmaster at Kelso, where he probably died. |
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