18 MEMOIR OF 



is a sepulchral monument in the Greyfriars 

 Churchyard of Edinburgh, commonly denomi- 

 nated the Martyrs' Tomb, which was erected 

 after the Revolution by the Cameronians, to the 

 memory of those of their brethren who fell in 

 the battles of Pentland and Bothwell-bridge, 

 which is supposed to have been originally built 

 by Mr Alexander Smellie, or his father, Mr 

 William Smellie, who was also a builder ; and 

 there Mr Alexander Smellie and several of the 

 elder branches of the family are interred. 



William received the first rudiments of his 

 education at a school in the village of Dudding- 

 stone, about a mile from his paternal residence, 

 which was followed by a regular course of 

 classical study at a grammar school, from 

 whence he was taken, in 1752, at twelve years 

 of age, and apprenticed on the 1st of October, 

 1752, to Messrs Hamilton, Balfour, and Neil, 

 printers in Edinburgh, for six years and a half; 

 during which time he conducted himself with 

 most exemplary diligence, and gave indication 

 of superior intelligence ; so that, two years 

 before the expiration of his apprenticeship, his 

 masters appointed him to the important em- 

 ployment of corrector of their press, with a 

 weekly allowance of ten shillings. They also 

 kindly permitted him to attend some of the 

 classes of the University, an indulgence he 

 appears to have turned to very good account. 



In the year 1757, the Edinburgh Philosophical 

 Society offered a prize for the most accurate 



