Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Campbell, John (d.1563)
CAMPBELL, Sir JOHN (d. 1563), of Lundy, Scotch judge, was, according to Crawford (Officers of State, p. 370), the son of John Campbell of Lundy (who was nominated lord high treasurer of Scotland in 1515, and was succeeded by the Master of Glencairn in 1526), by Isabel, daughter of Patrick, lord Gray, and widow of Sir Adam Crichton of Ruthven; but Haig and Brunton (Senators of the College of Justice, p. 25) are of opinion that the treasurer and judge are one and the same person. From an entry in the records of the court, 20 July 1532, it would appear that Sir John Lundy, the judge, had been treasurer. On account of his wide knowledge of the laws, Sir John Lundy was appointed one of the first lords of session when the College of Justice was instituted by James V in 1532. He was also a member of the privy council from 1540. When an alliance was proposed between King James and the Queen of Hungary, Campbell was sent to Flanders to ‘inquire of her manners and wesy her persoun, and to assay how the marriage might be concluded, but without any commission to conclude until the king had taken counsel’ (Cal. State Papers, Henry VIII, vol. iv. pt. iii. app., entry 239). He was also employed on various diplomatic services—among others, that of concluding a peace ratifying the privileges of the Scots in the countries under the dominion of the emperor in 1531, and in 1541 as ambassador from James V to Henry VIII (Cal. State Papers, Scottish Series, pp. 39, 42). On 16 May 1533 he was appointed captain-general of ‘all the fute-bands in Scotland.’ In February 1548 he arrived with troops at Dundee, which, however, immediately beat a retreat (ib. 81). In the books of sederunt of the court of session, 25 Feb. 1560, there is a letter to him from Queen Mary, regarding ‘a pretendit testament of the queen-regent, our mother, whom God assoilzie, wherein ye are executer, the nullity of which is evidently known, as we made evidently appear by the letters we despatch instantly away to our realm for that effect.’ On 11 Feb. 1563 he was succeeded as justice by Henry Balnaves of Halhill, who had previously held the same office between 1538 and 1546.
[Crawford's Officers of State, 370; Haig and Brunton's Senators of the College of Justice, 21–3; Cal. State Papers, Scottish Series, vol. i.; Brewer's Cal. State Papers, Reign of Henry VIII; Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. i.]Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.51
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 364 | i | 18,20,21 | Campbell, Sir John (d. 1563) : for Sir John Lundy read Campbell of Lundy |