BLACKWELL, THOMAS, an eminent Scottish writer, was son of a minister at Aberdeen, and born there 1701. He had his grammatical learning at a school in Aberdeen, studied Greek and philosophy in the Marischal college there, and took the degree of M. A. in 1718. Being greatly distinguished by uncommon parts, and an early proficiency in letters, he was, Dec. 1723, made Greek professor in the college where he had been educated; and continued to teach that language with applause even to his death. In 1737, was published at London, but without his name, "An Enquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer," 8vo; a second edition of which appeared in 1736; and not long after, "Proofs of the Enquiry into Homer's Life and Writings," which was a translation of the Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, and French notes, subjoined to the original work. In 1748, he published "Letters concerning Mythology," 8vo; without his name also. The same year, he was made principal of the Marischal college in Aberdeen, and is the only layman who hath been appointed principal of that college, since the patronage came to the crown, by the forfeiture of the Marischal family, in 1716; all the other principals having been ministers of the church of Scotland. March 1752, he took the degree of doctor of laws: and the year following came out the first volume of his Memoirs of the Court of Augustus, 4to. The second volume appeared in 1755; and the third, which was posthumous, and left incomplete by the author, was fitted for the press by John Mills, Esq. and published in 1764. At the same time was published a third edition of the two former volumes: Which is a proof of the good reception the work met with from the public; though it must be acknowledged that the parade with which it is written, and the peculiarity of its language, exposed it to some severity of censure.
Soon after he became principal of his college, he married a merchant's daughter of Aberdeen, by whom he had no children. Several years before his death, his health began to decline: his disorder was of the consumptive kind, and thought to be forwarded by an excess of abstemiousness which he imposed upon himself. His disease increasing, he was advised to travel, and accordingly set out in Feb. 1757; however, he was not able to go farther than Edinburgh, in which city he died the 8th of March following, in his 56th year. He was a very ingenious and very learned man: he had an equable flow of temper, and a truly philosophic spirit,
Blackwell, spirit, both which he seems to have preserved to the last; for on the day of his death he wrote to several of his friends.