Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/158

  in Rolls Series; Monk of Evesham, ed. Hearne; Chronique de la Traison (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Dugdale's Baronage; Beltz's Memorials of the Order of the Garter; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. iii. 437, 599; Nichols's Royal Wills.]  SCROPE, WILLIAM (1772–1852), artist and sportsman, son of Richard Scrope, D.D., was born in 1772. He was a direct descendant of Richard, first baron Scrope of Bolton [q. v.], lord treasurer to Edward III, and succeeded to the property of the Scropes of Castle Combe, Wiltshire, on the death of his father in 1787. In 1795 the Scrope estates of Cockerington, Lincolnshire, also passed to him [see under ]. Scrope was an excellent classical scholar, a keen sportsman, and one of the ablest amateur artists of his time. He painted views in Scotland, Italy, Sicily, and elsewhere, exhibiting occasionally at the Royal Academy, and later at the British Institution, of which he was one of the most active directors. He was frequently assisted in his work by William Simson, R.S.A. [q. v.] Throughout his life Scrope was a devotee of deer-stalking and salmon-fishing, and he published two well-known books, ‘The Art of Deerstalking,’ 1838, and ‘Days and Nights of Salmon-fishing in the Tweed,’ 1843, both illustrated with plates after Edwin and Charles Landseer, Wilkie, W. Simson, and others. They are valuable contributions to the literature of their subjects, and have been reissued, the former in 1885, the latter in 1883. Scrope rented a place near Melrose, where he lived on terms of great intimacy with Sir Walter Scott (, Life of Scott, 1845). He was a member of the Academy of St. Luke at Rome, and a fellow of the Linnean Society. He died at his house in Belgrave Square, London, on 20 July 1852. He was the last male representative of his family. He married, in 1794, Emma Long, daughter of Charles Long, esq., of Grittleton, Wiltshire, and had an only daughter and heir, Emma Phipps; she married, in 1821, George Poulett Thomson, who then assumed the name and arms of Scrope [see ].

[Gent. Mag. 1852, ii. 201; Athenæum, 1852, p. 800; G. P. Scrope's History of Castle Combe, 1852; Graves's Dict. of Artists.]  SCRYMGEOUR or SCRIMGER, HENRY (1506–1572), professor of civil law at Geneva, was descended from the ancient family of the Scrymgeours or Scrimgers of Dudhope [see ]. He was the second son of Walter Scrimger of Glasswell, provost of Dundee, and was born in that city in 1506. His sister Isobel married Richard Melville of Baldovie, and was mother of James Melville [q. v.], professor of theology at St. Andrews. Another sister, Margaret, became the wife of John Young, burgess of Edinburgh, in 1541, and her second son was Sir Peter Young of Seatoun, tutor of James VI. After a preliminary training in the Dundee grammar school, Scrimger was sent to the university of St. Andrews, where he passed his course of philosophy with great applause. He then proceeded to the university of Paris, and subsequently studied civil law at Bourges under Eginar Baron and François Duaren. There he formed an acquaintance with Jacques Amyot, professor of Greek and afterwards a cardinal. Being appointed secretary to Bernard Bocnetel, bishop of Rennes, he visited Italy with that prelate, who had been appointed ambassador from the court of France. Though professing the catholic religion, Scrimger had been influenced by the reforming spirit of his college companions, George Wishart, George Buchanan, John Erskine of Dun, and Provost Haliburton; and while he was at Padua he came in contact with Francesco Speira, who, it was stated, ‘died under great horror of mind in consequence of his recantation of the protestant religion.’

Having resolved to adopt the new doctrines, he was invited by the syndics and magistrates of Geneva to settle there, and was appointed professor of philosophy. A year or two afterwards his house was burnt down, and he was reduced to great straits; but two of his former pupils sent him money, and Ulrick Fugger, a munificent patron of learning, invited him to Augsburg, where, during a residence of several years, he formed a noble library of printed books and manuscripts. On his return to Geneva he resumed the duties of his professorship of philosophy in 1563. His name appears as one of the witnesses to Calvin's will in 1564, and he was nominated to the chair of civil law in the university of Geneva in 1565. The freedom of the city was conferred upon him, and on 3 Jan. 1569–70 he was elected a member of the council of forty (Fragmens Biographiques et Historiques extraits des Registres du Conseil d'État de la République de Genève, 1815, p. 16).

His nephew, James Melville, in an account of Andrew Melville, says: ‘In Genev he abead fyve years. … Ther he was weill acquented with my eam, Mr. Hendrie Scrymgeour, wha, be his lerning in the laws and polecie and service of manie noble princes, haid atteined to grait ritches, conquesit a