Robert Forman

Robert Forman (d. 1530) was a late medieval Scottish churchman. He the son of one Janet Blackadder and her husband, a Berwickshire landowner named Nicholas Forman of Hatton. [McGladdery, "Forman, Andrew (c.1465–1521)".] Sometime before February 11, 1500, he was made Precentor of Glasgow. [Watt, "Fasti Ecclesiae", p. 159.] He was Dean of Glasgow from 1505, a position he would hold until his death. [Watt, "Fasti Ecclesiae", p. 155.] Between 1506 and 1511 he was also in possession of the Chancellorship of the diocese of Moray. [Watt, "Fasti Ecclesiae", p. 227.]

After the death of William Elphinstone (d. October 24, 1514), the bishopric of Aberdeen became vacant. At Rome Pope Leo X provided Forman to the vacant see. However, the canons of Aberdeen prepared to elect a successor. According to John Spottiswoode, Alexander Gordon, 3rd Earl of Huntly, pressured the canons to elect his own cousin, also Alexander Gordon, a man who was at that time the Precentor of Moray. [Dowden, "Bishops of Scotland", p. 135, quoting John Spottiswoode (i.209).] Forman was persuaded by his brother Andrew Forman, Archbishop of St Andrews, to yield his claim to Gordon upon the promise of the next vacancy. [Dowden, "Bishops of Scotland", pp. 135-6; Innes, "Registrum", pp. li-ii.]

He never, however, obtained any other bishopric. He died as Dean of Glasgow on November 19, 1530.

Notes

References

* Dowden, John, "The Bishops of Scotland", ed. J. Maitland Thomson, (Glasgow, 1912)
* Innes, Cosmo, "Registrum Episcopatus Aberdonensis: Ecclesie Cathedralis Aberdonensis Regesta Que Extant in Unum Collecta", Vol. 1, (Edinburgh, 1845)
* Keith, Robert, "An Historical Catalogue of the Scottish Bishops: Down to the Year 1688", (London, 1924)
* McGladdery, C. A., "Forman, Andrew (c.1465–1521)", in the "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/9883 , accessed 1 May 2007]
* Watt, D.E.R., "Fasti Ecclesiae Scotinanae Medii Aevi ad annum 1638", 2nd Draft, (St Andrews, 1969)