Sir John Dalrymple of Cousland, 4th Baronet FRSE FSA (Scot) (1726 – 26 February 1810) was a Scottish advocate, judge, chemist and author, 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.
Though he was a central figure in the Scottish Enlightenment and a friend of persons like David Hume and Adam Smith, Dalrymple's writings were little appreciated – he has been seen as an irritating member of the Edinburgh literati.
David Hume, when writing his History of England, requested Dalrymple to search the French state archives.
Dalrymple wrote: "When I found Lord Russell intriguing with the Court of Versailles, and Algernon Sidney taking money from it, I felt very near the same shock as if I had seen a son turn his back in the day of battle.
"[8] When the first volume of Dalrymple's Memoirs appeared in 1771, Hume criticised it: "There is not a new circumstance of the least importance from the beginning to the end of the work.
"[9] He said of the controversy over the revelations on Russell and Sidney: It is amusing to observe the general, and I may say national rage, excited by the late discovery of this secret negotiation [with the French Court]; chiefly on account of Algernon Sidney, whom the blind prejudices of party had exalted into a hero.
His ingratitude and breach of faith in applying for the King's pardon, and immediately on his return entering into cabals for rebellion, form a conduct much more criminal than the taking of French gold.
"[11]Maurice Ashley ascribed to the publication of the Memoirs "a striking change in the historiography of the revolution", as he had access to important papers.
[12] J. P. Kenyon termed the "careful and accurate transcripts [Dalrymple] published... [of] key documents... a boon to other historians right down to the present day.