his younger brother, Walter (1687–1770), who had been working with the printer Freebairn since 1706, as a partner. The first book printed by the new firm was the second volume of Abercromby's ‘Martial Achievements,’ 1715, and Ruddiman not infrequently edited or revised the works which he printed. He mainly devoted himself to schoolbooks and works having a ready sale. In 1718 he took an active part in founding a literary society in Edinburgh, which included the masters of the high school, and afterwards Henry Home, Lord Kames, and other eminent persons. Ruddiman helped Thomas Hearne in preparing his edition of Fordun's ‘Scotichronicon,’ 1722, and Hearne referred to him in the preface as his ‘learned friend.’ His reputation for scholarship caused him to be employed in translating into Latin various public papers; and his notebooks show that by 1736 his capital had increased to 1,985l.
Ruddiman had begun, in 1724, to print the revived ‘Caledonian Mercury’ for its proprietor, Rolland, and in 1729 he acquired the whole interest in that paper, which continued in his family until 1772. This periodical was an organ of Prince Charles Edward during the rising of 1745 (History of the ‘Mercurius Caledonius’, Edinburgh, 1861). In 1728 Ruddiman and James Davidson were appointed printers to the university of Edinburgh, the patent running until the death of the survivor; and in 1730 Ruddiman, on the death of John Spottiswood, became chief librarian to the Society of Advocates, which he had so long served as assistant. The promotion, however, was not accompanied by any increase in salary.
In 1742 he brought out, with the assistance of Walter Goodall (1706?–1766) [q. v.], the first volume of a catalogue of the Advocates' Library. On 13 Aug. 1739 Ruddiman resigned half of the printing business to his son Thomas, and about the same time bought, for 300l., a house in Parliament Square, close to the Advocates' Library. William Lauder's ‘Collection of Sacred Poems,’ 1739, contained three poems by Ruddiman, besides notes. In the same year he wrote a lengthy introduction for James Anderson's ‘Selectus Diplomatum et Numismatum Scotiæ Thesaurus.’ A translation of this introduction was published separately in 1773. In 1740 he wrote, but did not print, ‘Critical Remarks upon Peter Burman's Notes on Ovid's Works,’ and in 1742 he published a sermon on Psalm xi. 7 by John Scott, D.D., with a preface by himself urging the need of genuine devotion.
During the troubles of 1745 Ruddiman lived in retirement in the country, and published ‘A Vindication of Mr. George Buchanan's Paraphrase of the Book of Psalms from the Objections raised against it by William Benson, esq.’ [see Benson, William, (1682–1754)]. He also prepared a ‘Pars Tertia’ of his ‘Grammaticæ Latinæ Institutiones,’ but did not print it, fearing that the sale would not cover the expenses. An abstract of this work was afterwards added to the ‘Shorter Grammar.’
In the meantime Ruddiman had become involved in a controversy with the Rev. George Logan [q. v.] on the subject of hereditary succession to the throne, arising out of Ruddiman's Jacobitical notes to Buchanan. Logan's ‘Treatise on Government, showing that the Right of the Kings of Scotland to the Crown was not strictly and absolutely hereditary, against … the learned antiquarian, Mr. Thomas Ruddiman,’ appeared in 1746, and was followed by Ruddiman's ‘An Answer to the Rev. Mr. George Logan's late “Treatise on Government,”’ 1747. Logan's reply, ‘The Finishing Stroke, or Mr. Ruddiman self-condemned,’ was answered by Ruddiman's ‘Dissertation concerning the Competition for the Crown of Scotland between Lord Robert Bruce and Lord John Baliol,’ 1748. In April and May 1749 Logan brought out ‘The Doctrine of the Jure-Divino-ship of Hereditary indefeasible monarchy enquired into and exploded, in a letter to Mr. Thomas Ruddiman,’ and ‘A Second Letter from Mr. George Logan to Mr. Thomas Ruddiman.’ In May Ruddiman's friend, John Love (1695–1750) [q. v.], wrote in defence of Buchanan, and was answered in July by Ruddiman's ‘Animadversions on a late pamphlet intitled “A Vindication of Mr. George Buchanan.”’ On Love's death next year, Ruddiman forgot their differences, and eulogised Love in the ‘Caledonian Mercury.’
Ruddiman assisted his friend Ames in the ‘Typographical Antiquities’ of 1749, and published an edition of Livy in four small volumes in 1751. But his sight was now failing, and early in 1752 he resigned the post of keeper of the Advocates' Library, where he was succeeded by David Hume (1711–1776) [q. v.] In 1753 the attack on Ruddiman was resumed in ‘A Censure and Examination of Mr. Thomas Ruddiman's Philological Notes on the Works of the great Buchanan,’ by James Man [q. v.] Man said that Ruddiman was a finished pedant and a furious calumniator. Ruddiman, who complained that his enemies would not let him pass his few remaining years in peace, brought out ‘Anticrisis, or a Discussion of a Scurrilous
