Search just our sites by using our customised search engine

Unique Cottages | Electric Scotland's Classified Directory

Click here to get a Printer Friendly PageSmiley

The Scottish Nation
Doig


DOIG, DAVID, LL.D., a learned philologist, the son of a small farmer in Forfarshire, was born in 1719. His father died while he was yet an infant, and his mother entered into a second marriage. His stepfather, however, behaved kindly to him. From a defect in his sight, he did not learn to read till his twelfth year, but such was his quickness and application that in three years he was successful in a Latin competition for a bursary at St. Andrews. He was at first intended for the ministry, but certain scruples regarding the Westminster Confession of Faith deterred him from the Church. After completing his studies at St. Andrews, where he took the degree of bachelor of arts, he became teacher of Monifieth parish school, and subsequently of that of Kennoway and Falkland. He was afterwards appointed by the magistrates of Stirling rector of the grammar school. of that town. The university of Glasgow conferred on him the degree of LL.D. on the same day that he received from St. Andrews his diploma as M.A. Dr. Doig was an eminent oriental scholar, being deeply versed in the history, languages, and literature of the East. He wrote the dissertations on Mythology, Mysteries, and Philology, for the Encyclopaedia Britannica, when that work was under the superintendence of the Rev. Dr. George Gleig. Mr. Tytler, in his Life of Lord Kames, gives a short memoir of Dr. Doig, who had entered into a controversy with his lordship relative to the opinions propounded by him in his ‘Essay on Man,’ as to the original savage state of the human race.  Two Letters which he addressed to his lordship on the subject were published for the first time in 1792, 12mo. To the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1794, he contributed a Dissertation on the ancient Hellenes. Dr. Doig died March 16, 1800. A mural tablet, with an appropriate inscription in commemoration of his virtues and learning, was raised by Mr. John Ramsay of Ochtertyre. The magistrates of Stirling also erected a marble monument to his memory.


Return to The Scottish Nation Index Page


 


This comment system requires you to be logged in through either a Disqus account or an account you already have with Google, Twitter, Facebook or Yahoo. In the event you don't have an account with any of these companies then you can create an account with Disqus. All comments are moderated so they won't display until the moderator has approved your comment.

comments powered by Disqus

Quantcast