JAMIESON, JOHN Scottish lexicographer, son of a minister, was born in Glasgow on March 3, 1759. He was educated at Glasgow university and at Edinburgh. Jamieson was licensed to preach in 1789 and became pastor of an Anti burgher congregation in Forfar; and in 1797 he was called to the Anti-burgher church in Nicolson street, Edinburgh. The union of the Burgher and Anti-burgher sections of the Secession Church in 1820 was largely due to his exertions. He retired from the
ministry in 1830, and died in Edinburgh on July 12, 1838.
Jamieson's An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language . . . to which is prefixed a Dissertation on the Origin of the Scottish Language (Edinburgh, 2 vols., 1808), with Supplement (2 vols., 1825) was issued in a revised edition by Longmuir and Donaldson in 1879-87.