Segethus Thomas was a native of Scotland, who spent much of his time in visiting foreign countries. No detailed account of his wanderings has reached the present age ; but the vicissitudes through which he passed in Bohemia, Hungary, Poland and Muscovy, according to Ruarus, were sufficient to have filled a volume. While in Poland he became a member of the Socinian Church ; but what was his original inducement for visiting that country does not appear. Count Krasinski says, "Many Scotch families settled in Poland during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, where they resided, some for commercial purposes, some as military adventurers, and some, perhaps, because they found a safe asylum during the religious commotions which disturbed their own as well as many other countries. They had large congregations at Cracow, Posnania, Keydany, (a town in Lithuania,) and at Lissa or Leszno, the heritage of the illustrious family of Lesczynski. They became thoroughly Poles, and many Scotch names, such as Haliburton, Gordon, Middleton, Watson, &c, are found amongst the Polish gentry. Several others, as Forbes, Inglis, &c, are extinct, but are well known. There was a celebrated Polish author descended from these families, Dr. Johnston, who wrote several works on Natural Philosophy." (Hist. Sketch of the Reformation in Poland, Vol. II. p. 181.) It is difficult to resolve the name Segethus into any North British name, with which we are now familiar. But the person who bore it may have dropped his national surname, and substituted this in its place, as other foreigners are known to have done, after their settlement in Poland.

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