Of the Orthographie and Congruitie of the Britan Tongue | Page 2

a reputation for the excellence of his learning and for the power he possessed of communicating it to others. On the dismissal of Hercules Rollock, Rector of the High School, Edinburgh, from his office, Hume was unanimously chosen to succeed him, and his appointment was dated 23rd April, 1596. During his incumbency the High School underwent many changes, and received the form which it retains to the present day. In March, 1606, Hume resigned his office to become principal master in the grammar school founded a short time previously, at Prestonpans, by the munificent John Davidson, minister of the parish. The following document gives an account of Hume's admission to this school:--
{Transcriber's Note: In the following passage, {-e} represents e with overline. Caret ^ means that the following single letter, or bracketed group of letters, was printed in superscript.}
"At hadintoun y^e 25 of Junij 1606. The q^{lk} day M^r Jo^n ker minister of y^e panis producit y^e pr{-e}ntat^one of M^r Alex^r hoome to be schoolm^r of y^e schoole of y^e panis foundit be M^r J^o Davedsone for instructioune of the youth in hebrew, greek and latine subscryvet be yais to quhome M^r Jo^n davedsone gave power to noi?t y^e man q^{lk} pr{-e}ntat^one y^e pr{-e}brie allowit and ordenit y^e moderator & clerk to subscrive y^e samine in y^r names q^{lk} yay ded. As also ordeanit y^t y^e said kirk of y^e panis suld be visited upon y^e eight day of Julij next to come for admissione of y^e said M^r Alex^r to y^e said office. The visitors wer appoyntit M^r Ar^d oswald M^r Robert Wallace M^r George greir M^r andro blackhall & M^r andro Maghye to teach."----"At Saltprestoun July 8, 1606. The haill parischoners being poisit how yay lyckit of y^e said M^r Alex^r w^t vniforme consent being particularly inqwyrit schew y^r guid lycking of him and y^r willingnes to accept and receiv him to y^e said office Q^rupon y^e said M^r Alex^r wes admittit to y^e said office & in token of y^e approba^one both of visitors & of y^e parischon{-e}s p^rnt both y^e ane and y^e vother tuik y^e said M^r Alex^r be y^e hand & y^e haill magistratis gentlemen and reman{-e}t parischoners p^rnt faithfullie p^rmisit to c?curre for y^e further?ce of y^e work y^t yit restis to be done to y^e said schoole as also to keipt y^e said M^r Alex^r and his scholleris skaithlis finallie for farther authorizing of y^e said (_sic_) it wes thought meitt y^t y^e haill visitors & parichon{-e}s p^rnt suld enter y^e said M^r Alex^r into y^e said schoole & y^r heir him teache q^{lk} also wes doone." (Rec. of Presb. of Haddington).[2]
[Footnote 1: Wood's Fasti Oxonienses, by Bliss, I., 217.]
[Footnote 2: M'Crie's Life of Melville, vol. ii., p. 509.]
The school rapidly rose to distinction under Hume, but in 1615 he relinquished his position, and accepted the Mastership of the Grammar School of Dunbar, then in high repute, and the very same school in which he had commenced his own education. When occupied at Dunbar, Hume had the honour of being the first who, in a set speech, welcomed James VI. back to his Scottish dominions, after an absence of fourteen years. The King stopped on his way northward from Berwick on the 13th of May, 1617, at Dunglass Castle the residence of the Earl of Home, and Hume, as the orator of the day, delivered a Latin address.
The date of Hume's death is not known; but he was witness to a deed on the 27th of November, 1627; and later still, in the records of the Privy Council of Scotland, 8th and 16th July, 1630, Mr. D. Laing tells me that there is a memorandum of the King's letter anent the Grammar of Mr. Alexander Hume, "schoolmaster at Dunbar." With regard to his private life, we know that he was married to Helen Rutherford, and had two sons and a daughter born to him in Edinburgh between the years 1601 and 1606. He was the father of three more children, also two sons and a daughter, between 1608 and 1610, in the county of East Lothian.
Hume was a master in controversy, and wrote on subjects of polemical divinity; but his mind was principally drawn towards language and the rules of its construction. He especially gave much of his time to the study of Latin grammar, and feeling dissatisfied with the elementary books which were then in use, he drew up one himself, which he submitted to the correction of Andrew Melville and other learned friends, and published in 1612 under the title of Grammatica Nova. The object he proposed to himself was to exclude from the schools the grammar of the Priscian of the Netherlands, the celebrated John Van Pauteren, but his work did not give the satisfaction which he had expected.