from court, but after James began to reign in person he returned, and his counsel and services were always sought by the king, to whom he had been recommended by Queen Mary. James kept him constantly about the court, but Melville declined missions to England, Denmark, and Spain. On the king's return from Denmark with his queen, Melville was knighted, and appointed a privy councillor and gentleman of the bedchamber to Queen Anne; but when in 1603 James succeeded to the English crown and earnestly desired Melville to go with him to London, Melville declined on account of his age. He retired to his estate of Hallhill, formerly Easter Collessie, in Fife, which he acquired from Henry Balnaves. Balnaves had no children of his own, and had adopted Melville as his heir. Here Melville occupied himself in writing the ‘Memoirs’ of his own life. He paid one visit to the king at London, and was graciously received. He died at Hallhill on 13 Nov. 1617. He married Christina Boswell, and had by her one son, James, who succeeded him, and two daughters—Elizabeth, wife of John Colville, commendator of Culross [see Colville, Elizabeth], and Margaret, who was the second wife of Sir John Scott of Scotstarvet.
The ‘Memoirs’ written by Melville form an important contribution to the historic literature of his period. The original manuscript was first discovered in Edinburgh Castle in 1660, and was first published by George Scott of Pitlochie, the author's grandson, in 1683, London, folio. Two impressions were issued (Notes and Queries, iv. xii. 86). A second edition appeared in 1735 in octavo, and a reprint of this in 1751 in duodecimo. The latest and best edition is that issued by the Bannatyne Club in 1827. A French translation was published at the Hague in 1694 (2 vols. 8vo), which was reprinted at Lyons in 1695, and at Amsterdam in 1704; while a new French edition was published at Edinburgh in 1745 (3 vols. 8vo), the third of which contained a collection of letters by Queen Mary.
[Memoirs of his own life, by Sir James Melville of Hallhill; Sir W. Fraser's Melvilles of Melville and Leslies of Leven, i. 133–62.]
MELVILLE or MELVILL, JAMES (1556–1614), Scottish reformer, nephew of Andrew Melville [q. v.] and son of Richard Melville of Baldovie, minister of Mayton, near Montrose, by Jabel Scrimgeour, sister of the laird of Glasswell, was, according to his own account, born 26 July 1556, although ‘Mr. Andrew,’ he states, held that he ‘was born in anno 1557’ (James Melville, Diary, Wodrow Society ed., p. 13). After receiving his early education under the care of Mr. Gray, minister of Logie, and at Montrose, he entered as student of St. Leonard's College, St. Andrews, not as he himself states in November 1571, but, according to the roll of entrants, in 1569. He was admitted B.A. in November 1571, but there is no record as to when or where he proceeded M.A. He was a diligent and eager student, and being unable at first to understand the Latin lessons of the regent, William Collace, burst into tears, whereupon the regent undertook to give him lessons in private. Besides attending the usual classes at the university he obtained lessons in music from Alexander Smith, servant to the principal, and ‘lovit singing and playing on instruments passing well’ (ib. p. 29). At St. Andrews he also heard Knox preach his weekly sermons in 1571–2 (ib. p. 33).
Melville was originally intended by his father for the law, but in accordance with his own preference for the church he was placed under his uncle Andrew's charge in 1574, and received special instruction from him in Greek and Hebrew. On the appointment of his uncle in October 1574 to be principal of the university of Glasgow he accompanied him thither, and in 1575 was elected one of the regents, the course of instruction in the first year being Greek and logic, and in the second logic and mathematics. He was the first regent in Scotland who read the Greek authors to his class in the original tongue. In 1580, for ‘correcting’ Mark Alexander Boyd [q. v.], he was assaulted in the kirkyard by Boyd's cousin, Alexander Cunningham, who, when brought before the privy council, was ordered on 29 July to crave pardon publicly in the churchyard on 7 Aug. (Diary, p. 70; Reg. P. C. Scotl. iii. 296–7).
On the translation in December 1580 of Andrew Melville to be principal of the New College (now St. Mary's), St. Andrews, his nephew accompanied him as professor of Hebrew and oriental languages. He zealously seconded his uncle in his extreme views as to the authority of the kirk and the divine origin of presbyterianism. On the flight of his uncle to England in February 1584, he undertook the charge of his classes in addition to his own, and also the general superintendence of the affairs of the college; but in May of the same year, having learned that Bishop Adamson held a warrant for his apprehension, he escaped to Dundee, whence, disguised as a shipwrecked seaman, he set sail in an open boat for Berwick. After remaining there about a month he resolved to join his
