Fast to my chaftis my tung sall be
Claspit, or that I it forget
In my maist gladnes and my game,
I sall remember Jerusalem,
Aud all my hart upon it set.
Wedderburn is said to have ultimately gone to England, where he died in 1564-5.
WEDDERBURN, David, a poet of considerable eminence, was born probably about the year 1570. Neither the place of his birth nor his parentage has been ascertained. Of the latter all that is known is that his mother was buried in St Nicholas church at Aberdeen in 1635.[1] It is highly probable from various circumstances that Wedderburn was educated in the city just named, and that he studied either in King's, or in the newer institution, Marischal college. In 1602, a vacancy occurred in the grammar-school of Aberdeen, by the death of Thomas Cargill, a grammarian of great reputation, and author of a treatise on the Gowrie conspiracy, now apparently lost. After an examination which lasted four days and extended to "oratorie, poesie, and compositioun in prois and verss," Wedderburn and Mr Thomas Reid, afterwards the well-known Latin secretary to James VI., were appointed "co-equall and conjunct masters" of the institution, with salaries of 4,0 yearly, and the quarterly fees of the scholars limited to ten shillings. They were inducted into this office by "delivery to thame of ane grammar buke."[2] Early in 1603, Wedderburn appeared before the town council, and stated, that being "urgit and burdenit be the lait provinciall assemblie of ministers, hauldin at this burghe, to accept upon him the function of ane minister of Goddis word, he wes resolvit to enter in the said function and obey God, calling him thairto be the said assemblie, and to leave and desert the said schooll," and concluded by craving leave to demit his office. This the council granted, and accompanied it with a testimonial of his faithful discharge of his duty; but, from what cause is now unknown, Wedderburn in the same year resumed his office. Before he had retained it twelve months, a complaint was lodged against him for making exorbitant claims on the scholars for fees, charity on Sundays, "candle and bent siller." These exactions were repressed by the magistrates, and in 1619, the quarterly fees were advanced from ten shillings to thirteen shillings and fourpence. Several years before this, in 1612, his scholars distinguished themselves by an act of mutiny of the boldest nature. In conjunction with the other scholars of the town, they took possession of the Song or Music school, and fortified themselves within it Being armed with guns, hagbute, and pistols, they boldly sallied forth as occasion required, and, attacking the houses of the citizens, broke open the doors and windows, "and maisterfullie away took their foullis. pultrie, breid, and vivaris." They also intercepted the supplies of fuel and provisions intended for the city markets, and continued in this state of open insurrection for two days, when they submitted to the authority of the magistrates, who punished the ringleaders by imprisonment, and banished twenty-one of their associates from all the city schools.[3]
In 1614, on the death of Gilbert Gray, principal of Marischal college, Wedderburn was appointed to teach "the high class" of the university, probably meaning the class then usually taught by the principal. In 1617, appeared the first of his publications, two poems on the king's visit to Scotbud in that year, the one entitled, "Syneuphranterion in reditu Regis
