BLACKWELL, THOMAS, a Scottish writer, born in 1701 at Aberdeen, where his father was a minister. He studied Greek and philosophy in the Marischal College, and took the degree of A.M. in 1718. Being distinguished for uncommon parts and an early proficiency in letters, he was, in December 1723, made professor of Greek in Marischal College, and continued to teach that language with applause till his death. In 1735 he published anonymously at London, An Inquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer, 8vo, a second edition of which appeared in 1736; and not long after he published Proofs of the Inquiry into Homer's Life and Writings, being a translation of the Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, and French notes, subjoined to the original work. In 1748 he published Letters concerning Mythology, 8vo, but without his name. The same year he was made principal of Marischal College in Aberdeen; being the only
Blackwell layman who had been appointed to that office since the patronage came to the crown by the forfeiture of the Marischal family in 1716. In 1752 he became LL.D.; and the year following published 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 prepared for the press by John Mills, Esq., and published in 1764. At the same time a third edition of the two former volumes appeared, which is a proof that his literary talents found many admirers; although it must be acknowledged that the parade with which it is written, and the peculiarity of its language, exposed it, not without reason, to some severity of censure. He died at Edinburgh, March 8. 1758, of a consumptive disorder, which was probably accelerated by his excessive abstemiousness.