Robert Blair (moderator)

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Robert Blair
Couston Castle where Robert Blair died.[1]
Personal details
Born1593
Irvine
Died(1666-08-27)27 August 1666
Couston Castle
BuriedAberdour
NationalityScottish
DenominationPresbyterian
SignatureRobert Blair's signature
Emigrants memorial, Larne commemorating the first ship to leave Larne for America in 1717. The Eagle Wing left Groomsport in 1636 and was over halfway there when they turned back. (The Mayflower sailed in 1620).[2]
Westminster Abbey, west facade

Robert Blair (1593 – 27 August 1666) was a

Cromwell to establish "a uniformity of religion in England". He was summoned to London by Cromwell in 1654, but excused himself on grounds of ill health. On the establishment of episcopacy he was removed from his charges in September 1661, confined to Musselburgh, then to Kirkcaldy for three and a half years, and then to Meikle Couston, Aberdour, Fife, where he died on 27 August 1666 and was buried.[4]

Life

Robert Blair's Gravestone
Robert Blairs Grave, St Fillans, Aberdour. The scroll that surmounts it bears the inscription, Mors Janua Vitae — Death is the Gate of Life; and the simple epitaph when translated runs thus : "Here lie the mortal remains of the Reverend Robert Blair, a most faithful preacher of the Gospel at St. Andrews. He died on the 27th of August 1666, in the 73d year of his age."[5]

He was a native of

Irvine, Ayrshire
. His father was a merchant-adventurer, John Blair of Windyedge, a younger brother of the family of Blair of that ilk; his mother was Beatrix Muir (of the house of Rowallan), who lived for nearly a century.

From the parish school at Irvine Blair proceeded to the

polemics for the Covenanters, Robert Baillie.[6]
In 1616 he was licensed as a preacher of the gospel in connection with the established church (presbyterian) of Scotland. In 1622 he resigned his professorship.

Having gone over to Ireland, he was called to

Charles I, he was restored in May 1634; but the former sentence was renewed, with excommunication, by John Bramhall, bishop of Derry
, the same year.

Excommunicated and ejected, Blair, along with others, fitted out a ship, intending to go to

St. Andrews
in the same year, and was admitted there on 8 October 1639.

In the Second

Bishops' War of 1640, he accompanied the Scottish army on its march into England. He assisted in the negotiations for the treaty of peace presented by Charles I on 8 November 1641. After the Irish Rebellion of 1641
he once more went to Ireland with several other clergymen of the Scottish kirk, the Irish general assembly (presbyterian) having petitioned for supplies for their vacant charges. He afterwards returned to St. Andrews.

In 1645 he attended the

Robert Spottiswoode and others to the scaffold. In the same year, he was one of the Scottish ministers who went to Newcastle to speak very plainly to the king. In 1646 he was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (3 June). Later, on the death of Alexander Henderson, he was appointed chaplain-in-ordinary to the king, supported by the revenues of the Chapel Royal. The Commission of the General Assembly, in 1648, named him one of those for 'endeavouring to get Cromwell
to establish a uniformity of religion in England.'

At the division of the church, in 1650, into

Resolutioners
and Protesters, he leaned to the former, but lamented the strife. Summoned with others to London in 1654, that 'a method might be devised for settling affairs of the church', he pleaded ill-health and declined to go. In the same year he was appointed by the council of England 'one of those for the admission to the ministry in Perth, Fife, and Angus.'

At the Restoration, he came under the notice of Archbishop

Covenanter
he preached outdoors. He died at Aberdour on 27 August 1666, and was buried in the parish churchyard.

Works

  • Autobiography was published by the Wodrow Society (1848); fragments were published in 1754.
  • Preface to Durham's Treatise on Scandal.
  • Commentary on the Book of Proverbs, (ready but not published)
  • Answer to Bishop Hall's Remonstrance, ready for the Press, but these were never published.[4]

Bibliography

  • Edin. Guild. Reg. ;
  • Edin. Marr. Reg. ;
  • Reg. Sec. Sig. ;
  • G. R. Sas., iii. 164, ix. 106;
  • Lamont's Diary;
  • Tombst. ; [5]
  • Baillie's Letters ;
  • Hill's Life of Hugh Blair ;
  • Reid's Ireland, i., 101 et seq. ;
  • Dictionary Nat. Biog.[4]
  • Reed's Presbyterianism of Ireland, i.;
  • Row and Stevenson's Hist.;
  • Rutherford's and Baillie's Letters;
  • Kirkcaldy Presb. Reg.;
  • Connolly's Fifeshire;
  • Chambers's Biogr.;
  • Scott's Fasti, ii. 91;
  • Hill's Life of Hugh Blair[8]

Family

He married first Beatrix, daughter of Robert Hamilton, merchant, in right of whom he became a burgess of Edinburgh on 16 July 1626; she died in July 1632, aged 27. Their issue were two sons and a daughter: James, one of the ministers of Dysart, Robert, and Jean, who married William Row, minister of Ceres. His second wife was Katherine, daughter of Hugh Montgomerie of Braidstane, afterwards Viscount Airds. Their issue were seven sons and a daughter. One of these sons, David, was the father of Robert Blair, the poet of the Grave, and another, Hugh, grandfather of Dr. Hugh Blair.

He married (1) on 16 July 1626, Beatrix (died July 1632, aged 27), daugh. of Robert Hamilton, merchant, burgess of Edinburgh, and had issue – James, min. of Dysart; Robert; Jean (marr. William Row, min. of Ceres). He married (2) Katherine, daugh. of Hugh Montgomerie of Braidstane, Viscount Airds, and had issue – William; David, min. of Old Kirk Parish, Edinburgh [father of Robert B., min. of Athelstane-ford, author of The Grave]; Samuel; John, writer, Edinburgh, born 1640; Archibald; Alexander in Edinburgh; Andrew, born 1644; Montgomery, born 1646; Hugh, merchant, Edinburgh; Catherine (marr. George Campbell, min. of Old Kirk, Edinburgh, and Professor of Divinity).[4]

References

Citations
  1. ^ Historic Environment Scotland. "Couston Castle including Walled Garden and Garage (Category C Listed Building) (LB3606)". Retrieved 20 March 2019.
  2. ^ Kirkpatrick 2015.
  3. ^ Scott 1925, p. 232.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Scott 1925, p. 233.
  5. ^ a b Ross 1885, p. 256.
  6. ^ Campbell 2017, pp. 27, 143.
  7. ^ Ford 2007, pp. 166–168.
  8. ^ Grosart 1886, p. 164.
Sources
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