author
George Dempster
1732–1818
A lively Scottish reformer of the 18th century, he combined public life with a practical interest in farming, banking, and trade. His career linked Parliament, the East India Company, and the improvement of rural Scotland.
1 Audiobook
Critical Strictures on the New Tragedy of Elvira, Written by Mr. David Malloch
by James Boswell, George Dempster, Andrew Erskine
About the author
Born in Dundee in 1732, George Dempster of Dunnichen was a Scottish advocate, landowner, and politician. He sat in the House of Commons for many years and became known as an energetic public figure with wide interests, from commerce and finance to agriculture and local improvement.
Dempster was closely associated with practical reform. He helped found a bank in Dundee, served as a director of the East India Company, and took a strong interest in fisheries, roads, and agricultural development. Accounts of his life also remember him as an "improving" landlord, part of a generation that tried to modernize Scottish estate management and farming.
He died in 1818, but he remains a distinctive figure in Scottish history because he moved easily between politics, business, and rural life. That mix of ideas and action gives his story a broader appeal than that of a conventional parliamentary career.