James Cooper

“ On the 12th Forsyth was already on his way south, and on Christmas day he arrived at Nice. The next eighteen months he spent in the more famous cities of Italy, where he had access to the literary circles, and saw everything with the eyes of a man well read in the poets and historians of the country, both ancient and modern, a connoisseur in architecture and a keen observer of thought and life. ”

“ In 1617, during the visit of James I to his ancestral kingdom, Guild was in Edinburgh, and was a member of the ‘mutinous assemblie’ which met in the music school of that city, and protested for the liberties of the kirk. Although the temper of the king was thought to make it dangerous to sign the protestation, Guild was one of the fifty-five who subscribed the ‘roll’ warranting its signature by their scribe. ”

“ The bishop permitted favoured guests to drink out of Prince Charlie's brogues; she sent to the ‘royal exile’ the seed-cake which Oliphant of Gask presented to him. ‘Ay,’ said Charles, ‘a piece of cake from Scotland, and from Edinburgh too.’ Then, rising from his seat, and opening a drawer, ‘Here,’ he said, ‘you see me deposit it, and no tooth shall go upon it but my own.’ Forbes began about 1760 to write in the ‘Edinburgh Magazine,’ his articles being chiefly topographical and antiquarian. ”

“ In 1664 he joined with Nairne in a protest against his diocesan's deposing a minister without the consent of his synod; and in 1669, when the Scottish bishops were coerced into voting for a very Erastian act of supremacy, Charteris was 'one of the episcopal clergy who thought,' says Burnet, 'that it made the king our pope.' Nor in spite of strong pressure from his friend Leighton, now bishop of Dunblane, would he accept a bishopric. ”

“ In 1677 he was ordained by Bishop Scougall, and appointed to succeed his father in the church of Forgue, the bishop's son, Henry Scougall [q. v.] , preaching at his induction. Two years later Garden was promoted to Old Machar (the church of which was the cathedral of Aberdeen) . In June 1678 he preached in the chapel of King's College the ‘funeral sermon’ on his friend, the admirable Henry Scougall. It is printed in many editions of Scougall's works, and throws light on the ideas of ministerial duty entertained among the clergy of the ‘second episcopacy’ (1662–1690) . ”

“ He was one of the bishops who, ‘clothed in silk and velvet,’ rode in procession between the earls and the lords at the opening of the parliament at Perth in 1606. The general assembly at Linlithgow in December of the same year appointed him, as bishop, perpetual moderator of the presbytery of Caithness, which was charged by the privy council (17 Jan. 1607) to receive him as such within twenty-four hours on pain of rebellion. ”

“ Introduced by the Earl of Mar, then secretary of state for Scotland, they were received with marked graciousness, and poured into her majesty's not unwilling ear (along with their thanks for the freedom they now enjoyed, ‘not only in their exercise of the pastoral care over a willing people, but also in their use of the liturgy of the church of England’—then a new thing among the Scotch episcopalians) their complaints of the persecution they had lately suffered, and their entreaties for a further measure of relief. The queen's death made Garden and his brother Jacobites again ”

“ He had really been the restorer of the liturgy to the Scottish episcopal church; and it had been his influence which in 1727 secured at the synod of Edinburgh the restoration of diocesan, as distinguished from ‘the college’ episcopacy. He died at Aberdeen in 1733, and was buried in the grave of Bishop Scougall [q. v.] within the parish church of Old Machar. Until the revolution this church had been the cathedral of Aberdeen. ”

“ FORBES, ROBERT (1708–1775) , bishop of Ross and Caithness, was born in 1708 at Rayne in Aberdeenshire, where his father was schoolmaster. He was educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen (A.M. 1726) . In 1735 he went to Edinburgh, was ordained priest by Bishop Freebairn, and ere long appointed minister of the episcopal congregation at Leith, a town which was his home for the rest of his life. ”

“ He was the son of John Forbes of Ardmurdo in Aberdeenshire, by his second wife, a daughter of Graham of Morphie. Educated at St. Andrews, where he took his degree of A.M. in 1585, he was appointed in 1588 minister of Fettercairn in Kincardineshire, and soon began to take a position of some prominence in the church. So early as 1594 we find him associated by the general assembly in a committee of the most eminent ministers appointed ‘to treate upon the offence conceaved by the king against John Ross,’ a too freespoken preacher. ”

“ A story that he received from Charles II in March 1652 a grant of a house in Aberdeen in return for a basin full of gold pieces is disproved by the fact that the house was already his property. Guild was a benevolent man; he purchased the convent of the Trinity Friars at Aberdeen and endowed it as a hospital, for which he received a royal charter in 1633. His widow left an endowment to maintain poor students, and for other charitable purposes. Guild died at Aberdeen in August 1657. ”

“ He ‘was never heard to speak against his enemies or their procedure, but suffered all things with great patience, attending God's will’—firm, however, in his refusal of the covenant, ‘saying he would not hurt his conscience for worldly means.’ For a time he occupied a chamber in the college which he hitherto had ruled. ”

“ He died at his own house in Perth on 5 April 1665, leaving two sons, James and George, by his marriage with Catherine Lindsay. Keith calls him ‘a very good, worthy man;’ writers of the other side admitted he was a ‘man of utterance,’ but inferred insincerity from his frequent changes. ”

“ They may be called the Scottish Quietists. Garden's sermon preached at Scougall's funeral was printed first in 1726. His elder brother, James (1647-1726) , minister successively of Carnbee (1678-81) , New Machar in Aberdeenshire, Maryculter in Kincardineshire, and of Balmerino in Fife, became professor of divinity at King's College, Aberdeen, and was deprived in 1696 for refusing to sign the Westminster Confession of Faith. 'He seems to have shared his brother's love of mystical theology, without falling into errors of doctrine' (Grub) ”

“ Such doctrines would not have been tolerated elsewhere in Scotland, but in Aberdeen they were received with favour, and on Aidie's enforced resignation in 1620 the town council of the city, who were patrons of Marischal College, 'thought it meet and expedient' that Forbes 'salbe earnestlie dealt with to accept upon him to be primar [principal] of the said college, with this alwayis condition, that he continew his ministrie in teaching twa sermons every week as he does presentlie.' In the end of 1621 he was chosen one of the ministers of Edinburgh. ”

“ His family claimed to have held Innes since 1160, and at one time possessed the whole territory between the Spey and the Lossie, besides estates in Banffshire; but for a century their fortunes had been ebbing, and in 1767 Innes was obliged to sell his ancient barony of Innes to his first cousin, the second Earl of Fife. On 19 April 1769 he married his first wife, Mary, eldest daughter of Sir John Wray, bart., of Glentworth, Lincolnshire, by Frances, daughter of Fairfax Norcliffe of Langton, Yorkshire. ”

“ A minute account of the interview that ensued is preserved in his third ‘Journal.’ He made no submission, but thought it better to have his services conducted henceforth without singing; and, receiving significant advice from a friend ‘to make a visit for some months to the country, lest some things might happen, should he stay at home, which would be very disagreeable to him,’ he betook himself for some weeks to London. ”

“ His zeal for the observance of the Perth articles was distasteful to many, and when he taught that the doctrines of the Romanists and the reformed could in many points be easily reconciled, discontent was succeeded by disorder. ”

“ They received the thanks of the king for their firmness, and on 25 March 1639, on the approach of the covenanting army to Aberdeen, Leslie, with Sibbald and Baron and some sixty cavaliers, sailed for England. Charles was unable to protect them, Leslie and Sibbald returned home in the autumn, and in July 1640 the general assembly which met in Aberdeen deposed him from the ministry, and deprived him of his principalship, on general charges of laziness, negligence, drunkenness, and his refusal to subscribe the covenant. ”

“ After a year in London he returned to Elgin, intending to settle there; but his constitution, never robust, had been undermined by his thirteen years of exile. He died on 20 Sept. 1815, and was buried in his parents' tomb in the Elgin Cathedral churchyard, where his epitaph may still be read. ”

“ The general assembly which met at Aberdeen the same year called his conduct in question, and expressed a wish that Patrick Forbes [q. v.] should be appointed to the vacant see. But the promotion of the Bishop of Caithness seems to have been already decided on at court, and he was formally elected by the chapter of the diocese. ”

“ He was in presbyterian orders, but, except in a few cases in the diocese of Aberdeen, there was no reordination of the parish ministers who had been appointed in the time of presbytery; only, to save the rights of patrons, those who had been admitted to benefices since 1649 were required to obtain presentation from the lawful patron, and collation from the bishop. ”

“ In 1725 he sent home to Scotland, to his brother, his portrait and his diploma from the university of Padua, relics still preserved at Warthill, along with some interesting letters describing his prosperity. ”

“ In the autumn of 1552 he was at Paris on public business, but he took no active part in politics. While he was bishop the church of Scotland was converted from Roman catholicism to protestantism. At first Gordon resisted the conversion, but he did not persevere. The dean and chapter of Aberdeen exhorted him (January 1558) 'for reformation to be made, and stanching of heresies pullulant within the diocie of Aberdeen ... to shew good example ... ”

“ On their reaching Edinburgh, James laid before the council the king's letter, dated 1 May 1682, appointing Haddo lord high chancellor of Scotland, and shortly afterwards (30 Nov. 1682) he was raised to the Scottish peerage as Earl of Aberdeen, Viscount Formartine, Lord Haddo, Methlic, Tarves, and Kellie. He was also appointed sheriff-principal of the shires of Aberdeen and Midlothian. His administration was firm, not to say severe. 'All people saw,' says Burnet, 'that they must either conform' (to the established episcopacy) 'or be quite undone. ”

“ One of his sons, John Forbes, minister of Auchterless, Aberdeenshire, suffered for his loyalty in the civil war, and was recommended for compensation by the parliament of the Restoration; another, Colonel William Forbes, is probably the same as an officer of that name and rank in the army of Montrose.
[Calderwood's History of the Kirk of Scotland; Grub's Eccl. History of Scotland; Scott's Fasti; Lumsden's Family of Forbes; Row's Historie of the Kirk of Scotland; Bishop Patrick Forbes's Funerals; Keith's Catalogue of Scottish Bishops, &c.] ”

“ Both he and Campbell were known to be zealous supporters of ‘the usages’ at the Holy Communion: (1) the mixing water with the wine, (2) commemoration of the faithful departed, (3) invocation of the Holy Ghost in the consecration prayer, and (4) oblation before administration, which had already caused division among the English nonjurors. ”

“ He made some efforts to protect the cathedral plate and jewels, and many of his alienations of the lands and revenues of the see were perhaps meant only to put them in safe keeping till the storm had blown over. He survived the Reformation (1560) seventeen years till his death, and exercised the temporal functions of his office. ”

“ His Bourignianism, says Grub doubtfully, was probably due to sheer weariness of the controversies wherewith his country had been so long distracted; moreover, his friend Henry Scougall had been in the habit of going to France as well as to Flanders for spiritual improvement. ”

“ In 1663 he threw up his appointment and studied law. He was on the continent studying when in March 1667 his elder brother, Sir John, died without male issue, and the baronetcy and estate devolved on him. ”