Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/234

 abolished, and, in consequence of the periodical failure of the crops in the straths or river valleys, the crofters were removed to settlements on the coast. On a charge of oppression in connection with these removals Sellar was tried at Inverness on 23 April 1816 before Lord Pitmilly, and was acquitted by the unanimous verdict of the jury.

Sellar retired from the Duke of Sutherland's service in 1818, but retained his sheep-farms on the estate till his death in 1851. In 1819 Sellar married Anne, daughter of Thomas Craig of Barmuckety, Elgin, by whom he had nine children. The third son, [q. v.], is noticed separately.

His seventh son, (1835–1890), graduated B.A. with a first class in literæ humaniores from Balliol College, Oxford, in 1859 (M.A. 1865), joined the Scottish bar in 1862, became assistant education commissioner in 1864, was legal secretary to the lord-advocate from 1870 to 1874, and was M.P. in the liberal interest for the Haddington Burghs from 1882 to 1885. In 1885 he was elected for the Partick division of Lanarkshire, and joined the liberal unionist party on its formation next year, when he was re-elected for the same constituency. In the new parliament he acted as whip of his party until 1888. He died on 16 Jan. 1890.



SELLAR, WILLIAM YOUNG (1825–1890), professor of Latin in Edinburgh University, third son of [q. v.], was born at Morvich, Sutherlandshire, on 22 Feb. 1825, and joined, at the early age of seven, the youngest class in the Edinburgh Academy, then under its first head master, Dr. Williams, the friend of Scott and Lockhart. At the age of fourteen he was ‘dux’ or head boy of the school. Thence he went to Glasgow University, where Edmund Law Lushington was professor of Greek and (1806–1865) [q. v.] was professor of Latin. Under these teachers and friends Sellar advanced in classical learning. He gained a Snell exhibition and a Balliol scholarship, matriculating 1 Dec. 1842, and was a contemporary of his friends Matthew Arnold and Principal Shairp, and a pupil and friend of Benjamin Jowett, later master of Balliol. After taking a first class in literæ humaniores, and graduating B.A. in 1847 (M.A. 1850), Sellar was elected to a fellowship at Oriel in 1848. He lectured for a short time in the university of Durham, whence he went to assist Professor Ramsay in the Latin chair at Glasgow (1851–3). From 1853 to 1859 he was assistant professor of Greek at St. Andrews. From 1859 to 1863 he held the Greek chair in that university, and from 1863 till his death was professor of Latin in the university of Edinburgh. He died at Kenbank, Dalry, Galloway, on 12 Oct. 1890. He married, in 1851, Eleanor, daughter of Mr. Dennistoun of Golfhill, and left issue.

The least permanent, though perhaps the most important, part of Sellar's work was academic. A sound though not, in his own judgment, a brilliant scholar, his appreciation of classical literature was keen and contagious. His modesty, humour, and generous sentiments conciliated the affection, while his learning secured the respect, of his pupils, many of whom have been distinguished. His published works were ‘The Roman Poets of the Republic’ (1863); ‘The Roman Poets of the Augustan Age: Virgil,’ 1877; and ‘Horace and the Elegiac Poets’ (edited by Professor W. P. Ker), 1892. He also contributed ‘Characteristics of Thucydides’ to ‘Oxford Essays,’ 1857. These are remarkable examples of sound and sensitive literary criticism.



SELLER, ABEDNEGO (1646?–1705), non-juring divine, son of Richard Seller of Plymouth, was born there about 1646, and matriculated from Lincoln College, Oxford, as ‘pauper puer,’ or servitor, 26 April 1662. He left Oxford without a degree, and ‘past through some mean employment’ (, Athenæ, iv. 564). On 11 March 1665 he was ordained deacon by Bishop Seth Ward at Exeter, and was described as a literate, but did not proceed to the priesthood until 22 Dec. 1672, when he was ordained by Bishop Sparrow in Exeter Cathedral. He was probably the Abednego Seller who married Marie Persons at Abbotsham, near Bideford, on 2 Dec. 1668.

Seller was instituted to the rectory of Combe-in-Teignhead, near Teignmouth, Devonshire, on 29 March 1682, and vacated it on 8 Sept. 1686 by his institution to the vicarage of Charles at Plymouth. Refusing the oaths to the new sovereigns, he was deprived of this preferment, and his successor was admitted to it on 2 Sept. 1690. Seller removed to London and settled in Red Lion Square. Bishop Smalridge wrote rather harshly of him in 1696, that he ‘had the reputation of a scholar, though not of a good