RUDDIMANThomas (1674-1758), an eminent Scottish scholar, was born in October 1674, at Raggal, in the parish of Boyndie, Banffshire, where his father was a farmer. He studied Latin eagerly at the school of his native parish, and when sixteen started off to walk to Aberdeen, there to compete for a college bursary. On the way he was attacked by Gipsies, robbed of a guinea, which was all he had, and otherwise very cruelly treated; but he j>ersevered in his journey, reached Aberdeen, and competed for and won the bursary. He then entered the university, and four years afterwards—on 21st June 1694—received the degree of M.A. For some time he acted as schoolmaster at Laurencekirk in Kincardine. There he chanced to make the acquaintance of Dr Pitcairne, of Edinburgh, who persuaded him to remove to the Scottish capital, where he obtained the post of assistant in the Advocates’ Library. As his salary was only £8, 6s. 8d. per annum, he was forced to undertake additional employment. He engaged in miscellaneous literary work, took pupils, and for some time acted as an auctioneer. His chief writings at this period were editions of Wilson’s De Animi Tran-(Ruillitate Dialogus (1707), and the Cantixi Solomanix Paraphrasis Poetixa (1709) of Arthur Johnstone (ob. 1641), editor of the Delixve Poeiarum Scotornm....
In 1714 he published Rudiments of the Latin Tongue, which is even yet his best known work. This w ’ as intended to be an easy introduction to Latin grammar, and was so successful that it at once superseded all others. Under various forms it has been in use, down to our own day, in the schools of Scotland. In 1715 he edited, with notes and annotations, the works of George Buchanan in two volumes folio. As Ruddiman was a Jacobite, the liberal views of Buchanan seemed to him to call for frequent censure. That censure is often rather implied than openly expressed; but it excited much opposition. A society of scholars was formed in Edinburgh to “vindicate that incomparably learned and pious author from the calumnies of Mr Thomas Ruddiman” by publishing a correct edition of his works. This they never did; but a number of obscure writers from this time attacked Ruddiman λvith great vehemence. He replied; and it was not till the year before his death that he said his “last word” in the controversy.
His worldly affairs, meanwhile, grew more and more prosperous. He founded (1715) a successful printing business, and atyer some time was appointed printer to the university. He acquired the Caledernian Merxury ia 1729, and in 1730 was appointed keeper of the Advocates’ Library, which post, owing to failing health, he resigned in 1752. He died at Edinburgh, 19th January 1758, and was interred in Greyfriars churchyard, where in 1806 a tablet was erected to his memory.
Besides the works mentioned, the following writings of Ruddiman deserve notice an edition of Gavin Douglas’s Aeneid of Virgil (1710); the editing and completion of Anderson’s Selxetus Diplo-rnαtum et Numisinatiim Scotiae Tlixsaurus (1739); Catalogue of ιl ∣ x Advocates' Lihramj (1733-42); an edition of Livy, famed for its “immaculate purity,” in 4 vols. (1751). Ruddimun was for many years the representative scholar of Scotland. Writing in 1766, Dr Johnson, after reproving Boswell for some bad Latin, significantly adds—“Rnddiman is dead.” When Boswell proposed to write Ruddimans life, “I should take pleasure in helping you to do honour to him,” said Johnson.
See Chalmers's Lift of Ruddirnan (1794); Scots Magazine, January 7 1767; Boswell's Life of Johnson.
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