mightie monarche,” petitioning for his admission to an English university, is preserved in the Register Office, and is reproduced in facsimile in “The National MSS. of Scotland” (Part iii. No. 93); it is dated Edenbrugh, 20 June 1620. He was admitted to Christ Church, Oxford, and became (it is said) minister of Speakshall, or Spexall, in Suffolk. “Mrs. Esther Inglis, spouse of Barthilmo Kello, indweller in Leith,” died on 30th August 1624, aged 53. The admirable Scottish divine, Robert Boyd of Trochrig, alludes to her in his diary thus: “Ce moys de Juillet 1625, estant a Edin., j’ appris la mort d’ Esther Angloys, femme de Bart, de Kello; damoyselle doné de pleusieurs beaux dons; et, entre autres, excellent escrivain par dessus toutes les femmes de son siecle, dont j’ay quelques beaux monuments de sa main et son amitié enverse ma femme et moy.” Her husband survived until 15th March 1638; at the time of his death he was styled “Barthilmo Kello, minister of God’s word, and indweller in Edinburgh." Besides her son, two daughters, Elizabeth and Marie, also survived her. Her portrait, painted in 1595, was in Mr. Laing’s possession, and having been engraved under his superintendence, it adorns vol. vi. of the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. (I find the baptisms of two children in the Register of the City of Edinburgh — Jeane in 1599, and Joseph in 1601.)
Among the young men of rank residing in Stirling Castle, and educated along with King James VI., under the tutorship of the great George Buchanan, was a French Protestant youth, Jerome Groslot, Sieur de l’Isle. His father, Jerome Groslot, Bailli of Orleans, was killed in that city during the St. Bartholomew massacre. He had, during his lifetime, shown hospitality to Buchanan; and young Jerome, who fled to Scotland after the massacre, was requited by the sage’s affection and generosity. When he returned to France, the Sieur de l’Isle was not forgotten by the king, who employed him in a private negotiation with Henry IV. He sat in the Synod of Privas in 1612. Although not an author, he was esteemed as one of the literati of his day. The following is a certificate which George Buchanan addressed to Theodore Beza:—
“Jerome Groslot, a young man of Orleans, who is the bearer of this, although born in a distinguished city, of most distinguished parents, is, however, best known in consequence of his calamities. In that universal tumult and universal phrensy which prevailed in France, he lost his father and his patrimony, and was himself exposed to jeopardy. As he could not remain at home in safety, he chose to fix his residence in Scotland till the violence of that storm should a little subside. As the state of national affairs is now somewhat more tranquil, and his domestic concerns require his return, he is determined to travel through England, that, like Ulysses, he may become acquainted with the manners and cities of many men; and, as far as the shortness of his time will permit, may familiarize himself with a branch of civil knowledge which is of no trivial importance. This journey, I trust, he will not perform with- out receiving some benefit, such as he has derived from his late peregrination. During his residence in Scotland, he has not lived like a stranger in a foreign land, but like a citizen among his fellows. The study of letters he has prosecuted so successfully, as not only to be able to soothe by their suavity the sorrows incident to his disastrous condition, but also to have provided for himself and his family a resource against the future contingencies of life. Here it is not necessary for me to persuade, or even to admonish you to treat this excellent youth with kindness; for that is what the uniform course of your life, and the bond of the same faith, demand of you, nay, even compel you to do, for the sake of maintaining your own character.
G. Buchanan.”[1]
“Edinburgh, July the fifteenth, 1581.”
From Melchior Adam’s Lives of German Philosophers, it appears that “Groslot visited the English universities in the company of Paulus Melissus Schedius, and sailed with that philosopher to France, in the spring of 1583.” Dr. Irving (in his Life of Buchanan) informs us that “several philological epistles of Groslot may be found in the collections of Goldastus and Burman. In the latter collection occur his annotations on Tacitus. Casaubon calls him nobilissimus doctissimusque vir.” Melchior Adam names and describes him as “Hieronymus Groslotius Lislaeus, nobilis Gallus, cujus majores ex Francia Germaniae oriundi erant, qui cum adolescentulo Jacobo VI. Scotiae rege sub Georgio Buchanano educatus fuerat.”
No formal reception of Huguenot refugees in Scotland seems to have taken place until the year 1586. The troubles in France at that period may here be summarized. On 10th June 1584, the Duke of Anjou, best known as the suitor of our Queen Elizabeth, had died at the early age of 30, and by his death King Henri of Navarre became the heir-presumptive to the French throne. This circumstance had led to the revival of the League, whose real aim was to dethrone King Henri III. in favour
- ↑ From Buchanani Epistolae — (the translation is by Dr Irving).
