Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Martine, George (1635-1712)
MARTINE, GEORGE, the elder (1635–1712), of Clermont, historian of St. Andrews, born 5 Aug. 1635, was eldest son of James Martine (1615–1684), minister successively of Cults (1639), Auchtermuchty (1641), and Ballingry (1669), all in Fifeshire. His mother—his father's first wife—was Janet Robinson, who died 13 Sept. 1644 (Hew Scott, Fasti, pt. iv. 52). His grandfather was Dr. George Martine, principal of St. Salvator's College, St. Andrews. George became commissary clerk of St. Andrews in August 1666, and held that office till August 1690, when he was deprived ‘for not taking the assurance to King William and Queen Mary’ (Macfarlane). He was ‘secretary and companion’ to Archbishop Sharp, for whom he kept a memorandum-book of household and travelling expenses, selections from which are printed by the Maitland Club (Miscellany, ii. 497). In June 1668 he married Catherine, eldest daughter of James Winchester of Kinglassie, Fifeshire, by whom he had several children, one of whom, George, is separately noticed; succeeded his father in ‘seven aikirs at St. Andrews which belonged to the Priorie there’ in 1696 (Hew Scott), and died 26 Aug. 1712. His claim to remembrance rests on the ‘Reliquiæ divi Andreæ, or the State of the Venerable See of St. Andrews’ (St. Andrews, 1797). This work, written in 1683, but not published till 1797, was printed from a manuscript copy in the possession of a descendant (there were at least three copies in existence), and contains some valuable information which has been of use to succeeding historians of St. Andrews. He is referred to as having ‘done several other things in our Scots antiquitys’ (Wodrow, Diary, as below), but nothing further was published from his pen.
[Macfarlane's MS. Genealogical Collections concerning Families in Scotland, in Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, which gives a very full account of the Martine family, as well as Excerpts from the Genealogical Collections of Mr. Martine of Clermont, of which nothing is known; Wodrow's Analecta (Maitland Club), vol. i. p. xxxiv; Miscellany of Maitland Club as above; Editor's Preface to Reliquiæ divi Andreæ; Scott's Fasti Eccles. Scot., Synod of Fife.]