City Readers Digital Historic Collections at the New York Society Library

Sir John Dalrymple of Cousland, 4th Baronet FRSE FSA(Scot) (1726 – 26 February 1810) was a Scottish advocate, judge, chemist and author. He is best known for his Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland from the dissolution of the last parliament of Charles II until the sea battle of La Hogue, first published in 1771. A new edition of 1790 carried on to the capture of the French and Spanish navies at Vigo.

In later life he was known as John Hamilton Macgill Dalrymple (not to be confused with John Hamilton Dalrymple, 8th Earl of Stair. The Dalrymple family formed a long and large dynasty amongst the legal profession in Scotland. He was one of the central figures of the Scottish Enlightenment and was a friend of persons such as David Hume and Adam Smith. However, his literary works were frowned upon and he has been described as an irritating member of the Edinburgh literati.