David Lindsay (d. 1641)

infobox bishopbiog
name = David Lindsay


religion=Church of Scotland
See = Diocese of Edinburgh
Title = Bishop of Edinburgh
Period = 1634–1638
consecration = November 23 1619 (as Bishop of Brechin)
Predecessor = William Forbes
Successor = Vacant (until 1662)
post = | ordination =
bishops = Bishop of Brechin (1619–1634)
date of birth = c. 1575
place of birth = Probably Angus, Scotland
date of death = 1641
place of death = England

David Lindsay (died December 1641) was a Church of Scotland minister and prelate active in the seventeenth-century.

Early life and career

Born around 1575, he was a son of Colonel John Lindsay, laird of Edzell in Angus, and graduated with a Master of Arts from the University of St Andrews in 1593. He became master first of the grammar school at Montrose, and then in 1597 of Dundee grammar school, holding also from 1599 the ministry of Guthrie parish, and from 1605 of Dundee.

Next year, however, he resigned his mastership, while petitioning the town council to "take consideration of his estate, and that he may have ane sufficient moyan quhairupon he may lieve as ane honest man", but it was not till 1620 that he obtained a full payment of the augmentation then voted to his stipend.

Meanwhile, in 1616 he became a member of the high commission; in 1617 he defended at St Andrews, before James VI, some theses about "the power of kings and princes", and in 1618 supported the "king's articles" at the Perth general assembly, advancing similar arguments in the following years.

Bishop of Brechin

He was rewarded with the bishopric of Brechin, being consecrated at St Andrews on November 23 1619. On June 18 1633 he crowned Charles I at Holyrood palace|Holyrood.

He was admitted to the Privy Council of Scotland on July 31 1634. He lived on at Dundee until September 16, when he was translated to the bishopric of Edinburgh, and made one of the lords of exchequer.

Bishop of Edinburgh

On July 23 1637, the Sunday appointed for the introduction of a new service book, he was present at both the services in the St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh. Both times he was pelted as he left the church, and in the afternoon there arose a great clamour in the streets, and the cry was "Kill the traitour". The Earl of Roxburgh took him up in his coach, but stones were cast at it, and some of them hit Lindsay so that with great difficulty he reached his lodgings at Holyrood.

The anonymous author of "A breefe and true Relation of the Broyle &c.", first printed as an appendix to Rothes' "Relation" (Bannatyne Club, 1830), is the sole authority for crediting Lindsay with displaying "the most shameful pusillanimity on this occasion". Deposed and excommunicated by the Glasgow general assembly in 1638, "he retired", says Mr. Lippe, "to England, and died there in 1641".

Death and family

Such is not, however, Wodrow's statement, and Jervise places his death between 1638 and 1640, as in the latter year his son John, was served heir to him in the estate of Dunkenny. Documents in National Archives of Scotland however reveal that he died in December 1641, and information from the Northumberland County Record Office indicate that he was buried at Berwick on December 15. [Watt & Murray, "Fasti Ecclesiae", p. 166.]

Lindsay married Christian Rutherford, widow of one of Lindsay's predecessors as master of Dundee school, either in or sometime before 1603. After her death he married Katherine Ramsay, daughter of Gilbert Ramsey of Banff.

ources (from DNB article)

:"This article incorporates text from the Dictionary of National Biography (1892)"Wodrow's Biographical Collections, ed. by the Rev. Robert Lippe (New Spalding Club, Aberdeen, 1890); A. Maxwell's Hist. of Old Dundee (Edinb. 1884); Scott's Fasti Eccl. Scot. vol. iii. pt. ii.; Lives of the Lindsays; A. Jervise's Land of the Lindsays; Keith's Scottish Bishops, p. 167.

Notes

References

* Groome, F. H., "Lindsay, David (d 1641?), bishop of Edinburgh", "Dictionary of National Biography", 1892
* Stevenson, David, "Lindsay, David (c.1575–1639/40)", "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/16698 , accessed 14 April 2008]
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