plies sufficient data from which we are enabled both to ascertain that, and to identify his individual position, although not to trace with certainty the specific family of which he was a member. This the defective condition of the Scottish records altogether prevents us from supplementing; but regal blood, as will be seen, flowed in his veins. In the sixteenth Book of his Chronicle, when narrating the incremation of Elgin Cathedral by the "Wolf of Badenoch," in 1390, he thus expressly tells us that this savage nobleman, Alexander Stewart, first Earl of Buchan of that name, and fourth son of King Robert II., was his paternal great-great-grandfather, and that George, tenth Earl of Dunbar and March, was related to him in the same degree maternally. "This Alexander, as that sum man sais, e sall nocht fynd in no storie men reidis, The Erle of Marche, callit George of Dumbar, As of befoir, suppois it be nocht far, I schew to 30w how he at Otterburne Come sa gude speid, quhair mony ane did spurne." The We thus learn that his name was Stewart. Earl of Buchan had no legitimate issue, but left five natural sons, from whom several families of the name of Stewart descend; with none of these, however, can the author be connected; but, the name being found, a few lines farther on guide towards his identification. While recording the foundation of the University of St. Andrews, he says: "Myself was ane, quha lykis for to heir, And theologie, that tyme as it micht be; Now, among the early Scottish poets, who flourished at the court of James the Fifth, Sir David Lyndsay, in his Prologue to the "Complaynt of the Papingo," written in 1530, mentions two of the name of Stewart in the following terms: "And Steward, quhilk desyrith ane staitly style, Full ornate warkis daylie dois compyle.' And again, "Stewart of Lorne will carpe richt curiouslie." 1 Of these, in the first-mentioned, there seems to be little doubt the author of the Metrical Chronicle may be recognized, since various payments made by order of the Sovereign, in addition to the fact of his having been educated at St. Andrews, as stated by himself, make it almost a matter of certainty that this translator of Boece's History was MR. WILLIAM STEWART. 1 Works, ed. Chalmers, vol. i. p. 286. It is necessary, however, to keep in view that there were two persons of the same name educated at St. Andrews, both of whom were connected with the court of the Scottish monarch at nearly the same period. Among the Determinants, in the year 1494, the first name in the list is "Wil. Stewart;" and in the following year it occurs as second in the list of Licentiates," Mr. William Stewart." This may have been William, son of Sir Thomas Stewart of Minto, by his wife Isabel, one of the daughters and co-heirs of Sir Walter Stewart of Arthurly; who is said to have been born in 1479; and is known subsequently to have filled several places of distinction both in Church and State. He was Doctor of Laws, and was successively parson of Lochinaben, rector of Ayr, and a prebendary of Glasgow. In the year 1527 he was preferred to the deanery of Glasgow, and in 1530 became Lord High Treasurer, and Provost of the Collegiate Church of Lincluden. He was afterwards appointed one of the Lords of Session and promoted to the episcopate of Aberdeen. He died on the 17th of April 1545, and was interred in the Cathedral church of his see.1 His namesake, the poetical chronicler, who does not seem to have been oppressed by the weight of similar preferments, was probably born about 1481. In the Registers of the University of St. Andrews, "Wil. Stewart" is found among the Determinants in 1499, and Mag'. Wilhelmus Stewart" stands at the head of the Licentiates in the year 1501.2 That he was educated for the Church may be inferred from the lines just quoted; while one or other of the preferments assigned to his namesake the Canon of Glasgow, afterwards Bishop of Aberdeen, may have been conferred on him. His name first appears shortly after James V. assumed the reins of government, and in the accounts of the High Treasurer, Archibald Douglas of Kilspindie, from 15th October 1526 to 29th August 1527, it occurs among those of the King's attendants who received "leverays (or dresses) at Yule: ”— Fo. 20. "Item to Maister William Stewart, be "Item iij. ellis blak veluot to be him a dowblet, Again, in those of High Treasurer Robert Bertoun, 1529-1530, we find:: Fo. 30. "Item to Maister William Stewart nyne xlli." The Treasurer's accounts during James's reign are only partially preserved: Stewart's name is to be found in the following extracts, but those under the date of 'Salaries, or wages. January 1533-4 undoubtedly refer to the Bishop elect of Aberdeen, who was sent as one of the Ambassadors for a treaty of peace with England; as we learn from the safe-conduct printed by Rymer, and from letters included in the collection of State Papers temp. Henry VIII. "Compotum Wilelmi Electi Aberdonen. Thesau- Fo. 39. "Item the v. day of December, to Maister 1533 to 2 Oct. 1534. Fo. 33. "Item to Maister William Stewart, be At the same time Rothesay Herald received a gown of "pareis blak" "at his passing to Lundone with the Ambassatouris, · viij." "Hugtoun with lumbertis," a cassock or short jacket, with skirts. |