Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stewart, William (1470-1545)
STEWART, WILLIAM (1479–1545), bishop of Aberdeen, was the second son of Sir Thomas Stewart of Minto, of the family of Garlies, by Isabel, second daughter of Sir Walter Stewart of Arthurlie. His elder brother, Sir John Stewart of Minto, was killed at Flodden on 9 Sept. 1513 [see under Stewart or Stuart, Walter, first Lord Blantyre]. He was born in Glasgow in 1479, and educated at the university there, where he took the degree of B.A., being a determinant in 1494, and licentiate in the following year. In accordance with the custom of the period, he probably studied canon law and theology abroad. He was successively parson of Lochmaben, rector of Ayr, and prebendary of Glasgow; and in 1527 he was made dean of Glasgow. On 2 Oct. 1530 he was named lord high treasurer of Scotland, and at the same time he obtained the provostry of Lincluden. On 14 Nov. 1532 he was elected bishop of Aberdeen. On 3 March 1533–4 he left Scotland as principal ambassador, with a large company of attendants, to treat of a peace with England (Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 17), and he returned, after a satisfactory embassy, on 3 July (ib. p. 18). On 5 Aug. he left on an embassy to France to treat regarding a marriage between James V and Marie de Bourbon (ib.) He resigned the treasurership in 1537, and died on 17 April 1545. According to the ‘Album Amicorum Collegii Regii Aberdonensis’ (Fasti Aberd. p. 533), Bishop Stewart built the library of King's College, Aberdeen, and furnished it with a number of books, and also built the jewel- or charter-house, as well as the vestry or chapter-house.
[Keith's Scottish Bishops; Crawfurd's Officers of State; Diurnal of Occurrents in the Bannatyne Club; Fasti Aberdonenses in the Spalding Club; Turnbull's Pref. to Hector Boece (Rolls Ser.)]