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JOHN HAMILTON (Archbishop of St. Andrews).

HAMILTON, John, archbishop of St Andrews, and the last Scottish primate of the Roman catholic faith, was the natural son of James, earl of Arran, by a gentlewoman of Ayrshire. No nearer approximation seems to have been made to the period of his birth, than that it must have happened some time during the reign of James V. The early education of a person so situated is not likely to have attracted much attention, and we may, with a pretty equal chance of arriving at the truth, either receive or reject the statement of M'Kenzie,^[1] made with the laudable desire of biographers, to afford complete and minute information, that he sudied the belles lettres and philosophy at Glasgow, and theology in France, where he entered into holy orders. It is, however, sufficiently ascertained, that he returned in the year 1543, from some residence or journey in France, and found himself abbot of Paisley, a situation within the limits of the extensive church patronage of his father, to which the son was nominated in 1541. 1 The circumstance of his journey through England in his return from France introduced this ambitious man to .the commencement of his restless career. He was graciously received by Henry VIII., and either in duplicity, or ignorance of the scene of action about to open to him, he entered into the views of the English monarch with regard to a matrimonial alliance with Scotland, which he was afterwards to use his best endeavours to frustrate. On his arrival in Scotland he found the path of distinction just opened to his view, by the recent advancement of his vacillating brother to the regency of the kingdom, and may have conceived those high projects which the weakness of his unhappy relative fostered, while it interfered with their consummation. He joined cardinal Beaton in that opposition which the primate's fears for the safety of the church prompted him to exhibit towards the matrimonial alliance with England, and the enemies of Hamilton have not been backward in attributing to him an unhesitating application to the most ungenerous and infamous means for the achievement of his ends, throughout the heart-burning and unfortunate progress of that renowned conference. The change produced in the regent's policy by the persuasion of the abbot, and the something more than persuasion of the cardinal, assisted by the insults of the English monarch, is well known, with all its calamitous consequences. The perseverance of Hamilton was rewarded by the offices of privy seal, and of high treasurer, in which latter he succeeded Kirkaldy of Grange. In 1545, he was further rewarded by the wealthy bishopric of. Dunkeld. With much modesty he wished to retain, after his elevation, both the dignity and emolument of his abbacy, but was prompted to resign them on his brother James being nominated his successor, with the moderate reservation of the fruits of the benefice during his lifetime, and the power to re-enter, in the event of surviving his brother. On the death or

↑ M'Kenzie's Lives of Scots Writers, iii. 102.—The accurate authors of the History of the Senators of the College of Justice, have referred this presentation to so early a period as 1525. . These authors'are usually extremely minute in their references, but here the authority is omitted. We presume it to be that of Crawford, who in his Officers of State refers the event to the same period. The latter is certainly the more veracious authority of the two, yet, admitting that we have not undergone the labour of an investigation among (he original records which might clear up so wide a divergence, we are inclined in this instance to believe the dictum of M'Kenzie. The authors of the late work alluded to falsify the statement of M'Kenzie, that Hamilton was on the continent for some years previously to 1543, by a reference to the records of parliament, in which the abbot of Paisley is mentioned in two sederunts, that of 1534, and that of 1540. If Hamilton was not appointed till 1541, this must have been the previous abbot. If he was appointed in 1545, we can only accede to M'Kenzie's statement of his absence on the continent, on the supposition that he had taken advantage of the act 3d. James I. chap. 52, which entitled prelates, earls, &c. to appear by their procurators, on producing proof of a necessary cause of absence a privilege which, if it was ever taken advantage of, fell soon after into disuse.

[1] M'Kenzie's Lives of Scots Writers, iii. 102.—The accurate authors of the History of the Senators of the College of Justice, have referred this presentation to so early a period as 1525. . These authors'are usually extremely minute in their references, but here the authority is omitted. We presume it to be that of Crawford, who in his Officers of State refers the event to the same period. The latter is certainly the more veracious authority of the two, yet, admitting that we have not undergone the labour of an investigation among (he original records which might clear up so wide a divergence, we are inclined in this instance to believe the dictum of M'Kenzie. The authors of the late work alluded to falsify the statement of M'Kenzie, that Hamilton was on the continent for some years previously to 1543, by a reference to the records of parliament, in which the abbot of Paisley is mentioned in two sederunts, that of 1534, and that of 1540. If Hamilton was not appointed till 1541, this must have been the previous abbot. If he was appointed in 1545, we can only accede to M'Kenzie's statement of his absence on the continent, on the supposition that he had taken advantage of the act 3d. James I. chap. 52, which entitled prelates, earls, &c. to appear by their procurators, on producing proof of a necessary cause of absence a privilege which, if it was ever taken advantage of, fell soon after into disuse.

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