Volume I Part 33 (2/2)

III. Sir Ninian Seyton, his son and successor, on the 26th of August 1516, obtained a divorce from his wife Matilda Grahame.

(Liber Ofliciulis S. Andreae, p. 8.) He was alive in 1534: David Seyton was probably another son, as well as Alexander. They prosecuted their studies at the same time at St. Andrews.

IV. Walter Seyton, son and heir of Sir Ninian Seyton of Tullibody, had a charter of the barony of Touchfraser and Tullibody, 14th January 1535-6; and another, 4th May 1546.

Among Wodrow's Biographical Collections at Glasgow, are ”Collections upon the Life of Alexander Seaton, Dominican Frier, Confessor to King James the Fifth, and afterwards Chaplain to the Duke of Suffolk in England;” which are printed in the Appendix to ”The History of the House of Seytoun,” pp. 113-118, Glasgow 1829, 4to. But Wodrow's account consists of little else than mere extracts from Knox, Foxe, and Calderwood.

Alexander Seyton, as already stated, was educated at St. Andrews. A person of the same name became a Licentiate in 1501; but the Confessor may more probably be identified with Alexander Seyton, who, with David Seyton, appear among the Determinants in 1516, and the Intrants in 1518, as _potentes_, who paid the highest fees.

At page 48 I have suggested that the year of Seyton's flight to England, when he addressed his Letter to King James the Fifth, may have been 1535 or 1536. According to Knox, Seyton remained in England, and taught the Gospel in all sincerity; which drew upon him the power of Gardyner Bishop of Winchester, and led to his making a recantation or final declaration at Paul's Cross, in opposition to his former true doctrine.

This was published at the time in a small tract, of which a copy is preserved in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth. It is ent.i.tled, ”The Declaracion made at Paules Crosse in the Cytye of London, the fourth Sonday of Advent, by Alexander Seyton, and Mayster w.i.l.l.yam Tolwyn, persone of S. Anthonyes in the sayd Cytye of London, the year of our Lord G.o.d M.D.XLI., newly corrected and amended.” (The colophon,) ”Imprinted at London in Saynt Sepulchre's parysshe, in the Olde Bayly, by Rychard Lant. Ad imprimendum solum.” 12mo. eight leaves.

An account is given by Foxe of Seyton's examination, or ”Certaine places or articles gathered out of Seyton's sermons by his adversaries;” which, he says, he ”exhibits to the reader, to the intent that men may see, not only what true doctrine Seyton then preached consonant to the Scriptures, but also what wrangling cauillers can do, in depraining that is right, or in wrastyng that is well ment, &c.”--1177, edit. 1576.

Bale informs us that Seyton died in the year 1542, in the house of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, to whose household he officiated as Chaplain.--(Script. Bryt. Cent. xiv. p. 224.)

No. VIII.

SIR JOHN BORTHWICK.

Sir John Borthwick was a younger son of William third Lord Borthwick, who was slain at Floddon in 1513. Sir Ralph Sadler mentions ”Captain Borthwick, Lieutenant of the French King's guard,” as one of the persons who were appointed by James the Fifth, to accompany the English Amba.s.sador when presented at Court in February 1539-40.--(State Papers, vol. i. p. 19.)

On the 28th of May 1539-40, or immediately after the baptism of Prince James, and after James the Fifth had purposed setting out on his voyage round the Western Isles, Borthwick had been cited to appear before Cardinal Beaton and other prelates at St. Andrews, on a charge of heresy. In the Cardinal's absence, who accompained the King in this expedition, Gawin Archbishop of Glasgow, and Lord Chancellor of Scotland, presided; but Borthwick having escaped to England, he was condemned, and excommunicated, and his effigy burnt at the market-cross of St. Andrews.

Soon after this Borthwick wrote a defence of himself, in the form of answers to the several articles of his accusation. It has been preserved by Foxe, in his Latin Commentaries printed at Basil, in 1559, folio, pp.

166-179, with the t.i.tle of ”Actio, Processus, seu Articuli contra D.

Joan. Borthuic.u.m, Equitem Auratum in Scotia, &c.,” [1540,] to which is prefixed an address ”D. Borthuichus ad Lectorem.” In the first edition of Foxe's English ”Actes and Monuments,” 1564, pp. 574-586, and in 8vo.

edit. 1838, vol. v. pp. 607-621, it occurs under this t.i.tle, ”The Act or Processe, or certain Articles agaynst Syr Jhon Borthuike knight, in Scotland; with the answer and confution of the said Borthuicke; whose Preface to the Reader here followeth, &c.” But Foxe, when republis.h.i.+ng his work, says, ”For as muche as the storye of hym, with his Articles objected against hym, and his confutation of the same is already expressed sufficiently in the Firste edition of Actes and Monuments, and because he being happily deliuered out of their handes had no more but onely his picture burned, referring the reader to the booke above mentioned, we wyll now, (the Lord willing,) prosecute such other as followed, &c.”--(3d edition, 1576, p. 1230.)

After the Reformation, Borthwick brought an action of Declarator before John Wynram, Superintendent of Fife, (who, as Sub-prior of St. Andrews, had sat, in 1540, as one of his judges,) 20th of August 1561, and on the 5th of September following, the Articles and Sentence were reversed. The Process of Declarator, embodying the original Sentence and Articles extracted from the Register of Cardinal Beaton, is printed in the Bannatyne Miscellany, vol. i. pp. 251-263. See also Calderwood's Hist.

vol. i. pp. 114-123; Keith's Hist. vol. i. p. 20; Lyon's St. Andrews, vol. i. pp. 288-290.--”This worthie knight, (says Calderwood,) ended his aige with fulnesse of daies at St. Andrewes.” This took place before 1570, when William Borthwick is mentioned as son and heir of the late Sir John Borthwick of Cinery.

No. IX.

GEORGE WISHART THE MARTYR.

Calderwood states, that ”Mr. George Wishart was a gentleman of the house of Pittarrow.”--(Hist. vol. i. p. 185.) And in the Wodrow Miscellany, in an introductory notice, I have said, ”He was born in the early part of the 16th century, and is believed to have been a younger son of James Wishart of Pittaro, who was admitted Justice Clerk, in December 1513, and continued till between 1520 and 1521.”--(vol. i. p. 5.) Further inquiries have failed in ascertaining this point; and it must have been through some collateral branch if any such relations.h.i.+p existed. A note of various early charters relating to the Wisharts of Pittaro, was most obligingly communicated by Patrick Chalmers of Auldbar, Esq.; and several others are contained in the Register of the Great Seal; but the want of s.p.a.ce, and their not serving to throw any light upon the Martyr's parentage, causes me to omit such notices. There is a fine old portrait, not unworthy of Holbein, said to be of George Wishart, in the possession of Archibald Wishart, Esq., W.S., Edinburgh, which bears the date, M.D.XLIII. aetat. 30. If this portrait can be identified, the date would fix his birth to the year 1513. But his early history and education are quite unknown. The facts discovered relating to his history may briefly be stated.

1538. Wishart had been employed as master of a school in Montrose; but being summoned by John Hepburn, Bishop of Brechin, on a charge of heresy, for teaching his scholars the Greek New Testament, he fled to England. See Petrie's History of the Catholick Church, part 2, p. 182.

Hague 1662, folio.

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