John Adamson (university principal)

John Adamson (died 1653) was a Scottish minister and academic.

Adamson was Principal of the University of Edinburgh from 1623 until his death in 1653.

Adamson's father, Henry, who served as Provost of Perth, was an elder brother of Patrick Adamson, Archbishop of St Andrews. Educated in grammar in his native city, Adamson proceeded early to the University of St Andrews, where subsequently he held the professorial chair of philosophy. In 1589 he was appointed a professor at the University of Edinburgh, a post he held until 1604. In 1604, having been presented to the church of North Berwick, he resigned his professorship. Later he was translated to the parish of Liberton, near Edinburgh.

In 1625, on the death of Robert Boyd of Trochrig, Adamson was appointed Principal of the University of Edinburgh, a post he held until his death. He was succeeded by Robert Leighton, who did not take office until 1653 after outside interference with the original choice, William Colvill.

Adamson was a close friend of Andrew Melville, and it is believed that he collected the Latin poems of Andrew Melville, under the title Viri clarissimi A. Melvini Mvsae (1620). His own works include Dioptrae Gloriae Divinae (1637), a commentary on Psalm XIX, and Methodus Religionis Christianae (1637). His Traveller's Joy, to which is added The Ark (1623) are poetry.

He edited the Muses Welcome (1617); it preserved speeches, theses and poems by himself and many contemporaries (among them Alexander Hume, David Hume, Drummond of Hawthornden, David Wedderburn, Robert Boyd, and David Primrose), and includes Drummond's 'Panegyricke to the King,' which contains his enumeration of the rivers of Scotland. Nichols's Progresses of James I preserves the speeches.

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