Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crichton, George
CRICHTON, GEORGE (1555?–1611), jurist and classical scholar, was born in Scotland about 1555. He quitted his country at an early age in order to pursue his classical studies at Paris. He studied jurisprudence at Toulouse for several years, and returned to Paris in 1582. For a short time he practised at the bar, and then accepted the post of regent in the Collège Harcourt (November 1583). He also resided for a time in the Collège de Boncourt. He succeeded Daniel d'Ange as professor of Greek in the Collège Royal, and was created doctor of canon law by the university of Paris in 1609. He died on 8 April 1611, and was buried in the church of the Jacobins in the Rue Saint-Jacques.
Niceron enumerates no fewer than twenty-nine works by him. Among them are: 1. ‘In felicem Ser. Poloniæ Regis inaugurationem Congratulatio,’ Paris, 1573, 4to. This is a poem on the election of Henri de Valois, duc d'Anjou. 2. ‘Selectiores notæ in Epigrammata è libro primo Græcæ Anthologiæ decerpta, et Latino carmine reddita,’ Paris, 1584, 4to. 3. ‘Laudatio funebris habita in exequiis Petri Ronsardi,’ Paris, 1586, 4to. 4. ‘Oratio de Apollinis Oraculis et de sacro Principis oraculo,’ Paris, 1596, 8vo. 5. ‘De Sortibus Homericis Oratio,’ Paris, 1597, 8vo. 6. ‘In Oppianum de Venatione prefatio,’ Paris, 1598, 8vo. 7. ‘Orationes duæ habitæ in auditorio regio, anno 1608,’ Paris, 1609, 8vo. One of these is on the laws of Draco and Solon, and the other on the title ‘De Judiciis’ in Harmenopulus.
[Niceron's Mémoires, xxxvii. 346–57; Moreri's Dict. Historique; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.]