Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/159

 prettie roum within a lig [league] to Genev, and biggit thairon a trim house called “the Vilet,” and a fear ludging within the town, quhilks all with a douchtar, his onlie bern, he left to the Syndiques of that town’ (Autobiography and Diary, Wodrow Soc. 1842, p. 42). He enjoyed the friendship of literary men of all shades of opinion throughout Europe, and was in close companionship with Calvin and Beza, as well as with George Buchanan, Andrew Melville, and other leading reformers in Scotland. While at Geneva he composed valuable notes upon Athenæus, Strabo, Plutarch, Diogenes Laertius, the Basilics, Cornutus, Palæphatus, Demosthenes, Cicero's ‘Philosophica,’ and Eusebius's ‘Ecclesiastical History.’ These Scrimger intended to publish; but that intention was frustrated, owing to a dispute between him and Henry Stephen the printer, who suspected him of a design to set up a rival establishment. Most of these notes came eventually into the possession of Isaac Casaubon, who published some of them as his own. Scrimger died at Geneva in November 1572.

Scrimger's only published works are: 1. ‘Exemplvm Memorabile Desperationis in Francisco Spera propter abivratam fidei Confessionem, Henrico Scoto [i.e. Henry Scrimger] avtore,’ printed in ‘Francisci Spieræ … Historia …’ (Geneva? 1549?), 8vo, pp. 62–95 (cf. Notes and Queries, 8th ser. viii. 433). 2. ‘Αὐτοκρατόρων Ἰουστινιανοῦ, Ἰουστίνου, Λέοντος νεαραὶ διατάξεις Ἰουστινιανοῦ ἔδικτα. … Ivstiniani quidem opus antea editum, sed nunc primum ex vetustis exemplaribus studio & diligentia Henrici Scrimgeri Scoti restitutum atque emendatum, et viginti-tribus Constitutionibus, quæ desiderabantur, auctum,’ Geneva, 1558, fol. Scrimger's text is the basis of the current edition of the ‘Novellæ’ by Ed. Osenbrüggen, Leipzig, 1854.

Scrimger bequeathed his manuscripts to his nephew, Sir Peter Young of Seatoun, whose brother Alexander brought them to Scotland in 1576. The care of this unique library devolved upon Dr. Patrick Young, and it is stated by Thomas Smith (Vitæ Illustrium Virorum, 1707, under ‘Peter Junius,’ p. 4) that ‘the most valuable portions of it passed into public collections through his [Sir Peter's] son, Dr. Patrick Young.’ Scrimger's autograph ‘Commentaria in Jus Justinianeum,’ his ‘Collectanea Græco-Latina,’ and other manuscript works by him were sold in London at the dispersal of the library of Dr. John Owen (1616–1683) [q. v.], dean of Christ Church, on 26 May 1684 (Bibliotheca Oweniana, p. 32).

[Buchanani Epistolæ, 1711, p. 17; Dempster's Hist. Eccles. Gent. Scot. 1627, p. 586; European Mag. 1795; Irving's Lives of Scotish Writers, i. 176; Mackenzie's Scotch Writers, ii. 471; Michel's Écossais en France, ii. 262; Millar's Burgesses of Dundee, 1887; Moreri's Grand Dictionnaire, 1740, vii. ‘S.,’ p. 200; Notes and Queries, 5th ser. xii. 322, 402, 6th ser. i. 265; Senebier's Hist. Littéraire de Genéve, 1790, i. 365; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. p. 657; Teissier's Eloges des Hommes Savans, 1715, ii. 383; Terasson's Hist. de la Jurisprudence Romaine, 1750, p. 431; De Thou's Historia, 1733, iii. 69, 70.]

 SCRYMGEOUR, JAMES (1550?–1612), of Dudhope, constable of Dundee, was descended from Sir Alexander Carron, called ‘Skirmisheour,’ who was standard-bearer to Alexander I (1106–1124), an office still held as hereditary by the representative of the family. Among Sir James's notable ancestors were Sir Alexander (d. 1310?), the companion-in-arms of Sir William Wallace, from whom he received confirmation of the estate of Dudhope and the office of constable of Dundee in 1298; Sir James, who fell at the battle of Harlaw in 1411; James (d. 1503), a prominent member of the Scottish parliament; and James (d. 1544), constable and provost of Dundee, and also a distinguished M.P. As the latter died without male issue, the succession fell to his cousin, John Scrymgeour of Glaister (d. 1575), who was the father of Sir James. He was returned as heir to his father's estates in 1576, and succeeded to the hereditary offices of constable of Dundee and ‘vexillarius regis.’ On 6 Feb. 1576 Scrymgeour was admitted burgess of Dundee, and for more than thirty years took an active part in national and municipal affairs. He was a man of indomitable will, unscrupulous in his exercise of feudal power, and tyrannical towards those who opposed him. His name appears with ominous frequency in the register of the privy council, to which complaints were repeatedly made of his oppressions. He considered that the office of constable of Dundee gave him arbitrary control of the burgh; and he often imprisoned in the dungeons of Dudhope Castle those who resisted his authority. On more than one occasion he was denounced as a rebel by the privy council, but his position as favourite of James VI enabled him to defy these sentences of outlawry. In 1582 he fell into the more perilous error of joining with the Gowrie party, and for this offence he was banished from the three kingdoms; but he fled to England and disregarded the futile attempt of the king to secure his exile from England and Ireland. In 1586 he re-