PITCAIRN, ROBERT (1520?–1584), commendator of Dunfermline and Scottish secretary of state, born about 1520, was descended from the Pitcairns of Pitcairn in Fife. The name of Piers de Pitcairn appears on the Ragman Roll as swearing fealty to Edward I in 1296; and Nisbet had seen charters of the family as far back as 1417 (Remarks on the Ragman Roll, p. 36). The commendator was, however, descended from a younger branch of the family, being the son of David Pitcairn, not of Pitcairn, as usually stated, but of Forthar-Ramsay in the barony of Airdrie, Fifeshire, and his wife Elizabeth Dury or Durie (Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 1546–80, entry 667). On 22 Jan. 1551–2 his father sold to him the lands of Forthar (ib.) He was educated for the church, and became commendator of Dunfermline, in succession to George Durie, in 1561. Occasionally his name appears in letters and contemporary documents as abbot, but he was only so by courtesy, the office having ceased to exist with the abolition of the religious houses. He was also archdeacon of St. Andrews.
Pitcairn was one of those summoned on 19 July 1565 to a meeting of the privy council as extraordinary members, to take into consideration a declaration of the Earl of Moray as to a conspiracy against his life, at Perth (Reg. P. C. Scotl. i. 341). On 19 Oct. of the same year he was appointed keeper of the havens of Limekilns and North Queensferry, with the bounds adjacent thereto (ib. p. 381). He is erroneously stated by Keith (Hist. ii. 540) to have been one of Argyll's assessors at the trial of Bothwell. After the surrender of Queen Mary at Carberry Hill on 15 June 1567, he was chosen a lord of the articles; and on 29 July he was present at the coronation of the young king, James VI, in the kirk of Stirling (Reg. P. C. Scotl. i. 537). On 2 June 1568 he was appointed an extraordinary lord of session; and in September of the same year was chosen one of the principal commissioners to accompany the regent Moray to the conference with the English commissioners at York in reference to the charges against Queen Mary. He was present in the same capacity at Westminster and Hampton Court. At the Perth convention, in July 1569, he voted against the queen's divorce from Bothwell (Reg. P. C. Scotl. ii. 8); and in September he was sent to London to acquaint Elizabeth with the various negotiations connected with Mary's proposed marriage to Norfolk (Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1569–1571, entries 420, 457; Herries, Memoirs, pp. 117, 119). Some time after the assassination of the regent Moray he was, in May 1570, again sent ambassador to Elizabeth to know her pleasure in reference to the future government of the realm, and to ask for aid in ‘repression of the troubles’ (Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1569–71, entries 871, 927); but his mission met with indifferent success.
On his return to Scotland Lennox was chosen regent, and, as this election caused Maitland [see Maitland, William, 1528?–1573] finally to sever himself from the king's party, Pitcairn was chosen to succeed him as secretary. In November of the same year he was again sent on an embassy to England (ib. entries 1393, 1404); and he was also chosen to accompany Morton on an embassy, in the following February, to oppose proposals that had been made for Mary's restoration to her throne (ib. entry 1518; Herries, p. 131). Along with Morton, he was also sent, in November 1571, to treat with Lord Hunsdon and other English commissioners at Berwick for an offensive and defensive league with England, the chief purpose being to obtain aid from Elizabeth against the party of Queen Mary in the castle of Edinburgh (Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1569–71, entry 2133). The negotiations were successful, and on their return the Scottish emissaries received the special thanks of the privy council (Reg. P. C. Scotl. ii. 99). Pitcairn enjoyed so much of the confidence of Morton that he was entrusted by him with the delicate duty of conducting negotiations with the English ambassador Killigrew in regard to the proposal for delivering Mary to the Scottish government with a view to her execution (cf. especially Proofs and Illustrations, No. xxiv to vol. iii. of Tytler's Hist. of Scotland, ed. 1864). He was frequently employed in negotiations with the defenders of the castle of Edinburgh, and was one of the commissioners for the pacification, with Huntly and the Hamiltons, at Perth in February 1572–3 (Reg. P. C. Scotl. ii. 193).
Notwithstanding his close association with Morton, Pitcairn was a party to the conspiracy against him in 1578; and he was one of the new council of twelve chosen after Morton's fall to govern in the name of the king (Moysie, Memoirs, p. 6; Calderwood, Hist. iii. 397). On 27 June he was, ‘in respect of his ability and experience,’ chosen as ambassador to Elizabeth to thank her for the favour shown to the king ‘in his younger age,’ and to confirm and renew the league between the realms (Reg. P. C. Scotl. ii. 707–8). On his return he was declared to have ‘truly, honestly, and diligently performed and discharged his charge,’ and this declaration was ordered to be embodied in an act ‘ad perpetuam rei memoriam’ (ib.
