Thomas Dempster, a Scottish professor and author, born at Muiresk, Aberdeenshire, Aug. 23, 1579, died near Bologna, Sept. 6, 1625. He was the 24th in a family of 29 children by the same mother, and at the age of three mastered the alphabet in one hour. He went in his 10th year to the university of Cambridge, and studied for some time at Pembroke hall, whence he passed over to France. For several years he wandered from one university to another, and in 1596 he received the degree of D. C. L., and was appointed regent of the college of Navarre in Paris. His violent and quarrelsome temper often involved him in serious broils with his fellow students and professors. He was subsequently engaged as professor for brief periods at Toulouse and Nimes, and early in the 17th century went to Scotland to recover a portion of the paternal property. Returning to Paris, he was for seven years connected with various colleges of the university, and while acting as temporary principal of the college de Beauvais he preserved the most rigid discipline in that institution. He afterward went to England, and was appointed by James I. historiographer royal.

In 1615 he received from the king a handsome present in money, but his hopes of preferment being defeated by the opposition of the clergy on account of his being a Roman Catholic, he betook himself in 1616 to Pisa, where for several years he lectured on the civil law. A personal difficulty induced him to go to Bologna, where, after engaging in a number of disputes, he rose to eminence as professor of humanity; was knighted and pensioned by the pope, and loaded with distinctions. In the midst of this prosperity his wife eloped with a student, and the mental and physical suffering which he experienced in an attempt to overtake the fugitives put an end to his life. Dempster's works are exceedingly numerous, and embrace a variety of subjects. He wrote and spoke Greek and Latin with great facility, and was thoroughly versed in philosophy, civil law, and history. His elaborate works, An-tiquitatum Romanarum Corpus Alsolutissi-mum and Be Etruria Regali, evince remarkable industry and erudition. His Eistoria Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum is a biographical dictionary of Scottish worthies, in which fable and fact are mingled. Many names of authors who never were in Scotland are claimed as Scottish, and the history of many others who never existed is given with minute particularity.

He was as remarkable for personal courage and skill in the use of weapons as for scholarship.