Thomas Sydserf
Thomas Sydserf(f), or St. Serf, (1581 – 1663) was a Scottish minister of the Church of Scotland who served as Protestant Bishop first of Brechin, then Galloway and finally Orkney.
Life
The eldest son of James Sydserf, an Edinburgh merchant, Sydserf graduated from the
However, in the same year, and on the recommendation of
Sydserf was very much a
Sydserf thereafter went to England, briefly becoming a follower of King
Sydserf died in Edinburgh on 29 September 1663 and is buried in
Sydserf was responsible for remodelling the nave of Whithorn Priory in line with the new styles of worship he tried to promote.
Although not formally a member of the Hartlib Circle, he was on friendly terms with some of its members including Arnold Boate, who dedicated to Sydserf his memoir of his wife Margaret Dongan. Their friendship was apparently not affected by Boate's closeness to Oliver Cromwell, for whom he is said to have acted as a spy.
Family
In 1624 he married Rachel Byers, the daughter of an Edinburgh magistrate: they had four sons and four daughters, including Thomas junior, a popular
References
- ^ Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae; by Hew Scott
- Adams, Sharon, "Sydserff, Thomas (1581–1663)", in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006 retrieved 4 May 2007
- Keith, Robert, An Historical Catalogue of the Scottish Bishops: Down to the Year 1688, (London, 1824), pp. 228, 281
- Watt, D.E.R., Fasti Ecclesiae Scotinanae Medii Aevi ad annum 1638, 2nd Draft, (St Andrews, 1969), pp. 42, 127, 133
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