AYTON, (Sir) Robert, an eminent poet at the court of James VI., was a younger son of Andrew Ayton of Kinaldie, in Fife, and was born in the year 1570. From the Registers of St Andrews University, it appears that he was incorporated or enrolled as a student in St Leonard's College, December 3, 1584, and took his master's degree, after the usual course of study, in the year 1588. Subsequently to this, he resided for some time in France; whence, in 1603, he addressed an elegant panegyric in Latin verse, to king James, on his accession to the crown of England, which was printed at Paris the same year; and this panegyric had, no doubt, some influence in securing to the author the favour of that monarch, by whom he was successively appointed one of the gentlemen of the bed-chamber, and private secretary to his queen, Anne of Denmark, besides receiving the honour of knighthood. He was, at a later period of his life, honoured with the appointment of secretary to Henrietta Maria, queen of Charles I. It is recorded on Ayton's funeral monument, as a distinction, that he had been sent to Germany as ambassador to the Emperor, with a work published by king James, which is supposed to have been his Apology for the Oath of Allegiance. If this conjecture be correct, it must have been in 1609, when his majesty acknowledged a work published anonymously three years before, and inscribed it to all the crowned heads of Europe. During Ayton's residence abroad, as well as at the court of England, he lived in intimacy with, and secured the esteem of the most eminent persons of his time. "He was acquainted," says Aubrey, "with all the wits of his time in England; he was a great acquaintance of Mr Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, whom Mr Hobbes told me he made use of, together with Ben Jonson, for an Aristarchus, when he made his Epistle dedicatory, for his translation of Thucydides." To this information, we may add, as a proof of this respect on the part of Ben Jonson, that, in his conversations with Drummond of Hawthornden, he said, "Sir Robert Ayton loved him (Jonson) dearly."
Sir Robert Ayton died at London, in March, 1637-8, in the 68th year of his age. He lies buried in the south aisle of the choir of Westminster Abbey, at the corner of King Henry the Fifth's Chapel, under a handsome monument of black marble, erected by his nephew, David Ayton of Kinaldie; having his bust in brass gilt, which has been preserved, while that of Henry, the hero of Agincourt, (said to have been of a more precious metal,) has long since disappeared. The following is a copy of the inscription:
M. S.
Clarissimi ommgenaq. virtute et eruditione, prasertim Poesi ornatissimi equitis, Domini Roberti Aitoni, ex antiqua et illustri gente Aitona, ad Castrum Kinnadinum apud Scotos, oriundi, qui a Serenissimo R. Jacobo in Cubicula Interiora admissus, in Germaniam ad Imperatorem, Imperiiq. Principes cum libello Regio, Regias authoritatis vindice, Legatus, ac primium Annae, demum Mariae, serenissimis Britanniarum Reginis ab epistolis, consiliis et libellis supplicibus, nee non Xenodochio Ste Catherine præfectus. Anima Creatoris Reddita, hie depositis mortalibus exuviis secundum Redemptoris adventum expectat.
Carolum linquens, repetit Parentem
Et valedicens Mariae revisit
Annam et Aulai decus, alto Olympi
Mutat Honore.
Obiit Coelebs in Regio AlbaulaHoc devoti gratiq. animi
Non sine maximo Honore omniumTestimonium optimo Patruo
Luctu et Mœrore, Ætat. suae LXVIII.Jo. Aitonus M L P.
Salut. Humanæ M.DCXXXVIII.
Musarum decus hic, Patriaeq. Aulaeq. Domique
Et Foris exemplar sed non imitabile honesti.
