Walter Whitford
Walter Whitford | |
|---|---|
| Bishop of Brechin | |
| Church | Church of Scotland |
| See | Brechin |
| In office | 1635–1638 |
| Predecessor | Thomas Sydserf |
| Successor | Vacant (until 1662) |
| Orders | |
| Consecration | 7 December 1635 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | c. 1581 Probably Lanarkshire, Scotland |
| Died | 1647 (aged 65–66) England |
Walter Whitford (c. 1581 – 1647) was a seventeenth-century
As a bishop, Whitford was already mistrusted by hardline
Early life and career
Born about 1581, he was the son of Adam Whitford of Milntown (later called Milton Lockhart) near Carluke, by his wife Mary, daughter of Sir James Somerville of Cambusnethan in Lanarkshire. The family of Whitford derives its name from the estate of Whitford in Renfrewshire on the river Cart. Adam Whitford was accused of being concerned in January 1575–6 in a conspiracy against the regent, James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton.
Walter was educated at the
On 27 June 1617 Whitford signed the protestation to parliament in support of the liberties of the kirk, but he suffered himself soon after to be won over by the king, and on 15 June 1619 he was nominated a member of the court of high commission. On 30 August he was constituted minister of Failford in Ayrshire by James VI, in addition to his other charge. In March 1620 he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Glasgow University; and on 4 August 1621 he was confirmed in his ministry by act of parliament. In 1623 his commission as justice of the peace was renewed, and he was appointed convener of the stewartry of Annandale.[3]
In the same year James proposed to translate him to
Bishop of Brechin
In 1635 Whitford was consecrated as
The minister of Brechin, Alexander Bisset, refused to obey Whitford's commands to follow his example. The bishop caused his own servant to read the service regularly from the desk. This obstinacy roused intense feeling against him, and towards the close of the year, after his palace had been plundered, he was compelled to flee to England, where, with two other bishops, he violently opposed the Scottish treasurer, Sir John Stewart, 1st Earl of Traquair, whose moderation he disliked, drawing up a memorial against employing him as a commissioner to treat with the Scots.[6]
Exile in England
On 13 December 1638 he was deposed and excommunicated by the Glasgow assembly, whose authority, in common with the other bishops, he had refused to recognise. In addition to the ecclesiastical offence of signing the declinature, he was accused of drunkenness and incontinence, and of "using of masse crucifixes in his chamber".[7] On 23 August 1639 he and the other Scottish prelates drew up a protest against their exclusion from parliament.[8]
On 28 December 1640 Whitford was living in London in great poverty,
Family
He married Anne, fourth daughter of Sir John Carmichael
His eldest son, John Whitford (died 1667), divine, was presented, at the instance of Laud, to the rectory of Ashton in Northamptonshire, and instituted in 1640. He was ejected in 1645, and took refuge with his father. He was reinstated at the Restoration, and on 5 July 1661 received a grant of £100 in compensation for the loss of his books and other property.[13] He died at Ashton on 9 October 1667. He married Judith (died 5 March 1707), daughter of John Marriott of Ashton.
The third son, Adam Whitford (1624–1647), soldier, born in 1624, was a king's scholar at Westminster School, and in 1641 was elected to Christ Church, Oxford, whence he matriculated on 10 December, graduating B.A. on 4 December 1646. Like his brother David, he enrolled himself in the royal garrison at Oxford, and was killed in the siege. He was buried in the south transept of Christ Church Cathedral on 10 February 1647.
Sources from Dictionary of National Biography article
Scott's Fasti Eccles. Scoticanæ, I. ii. 655, II. i. 172, III. ii. 889; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iii. 1016; Keith's Catalogue of Scottish Bishops, 1824, p. 167; Registrum Magni Sigilli Regum Scotorum, 1620–33 pp. 243, 513, 1634–1651 pp. 40, 156, 214, 710; Bridges's Hist. of Northamptonshire, ed. Whalley, i. 284–5, 301, ii. 129–30; Baillie's Letters and Journals (Bannatyne Club), vol. i. passim; Nisbet's Heraldry, 1722, i. 376–7; Spottiswoode's Hist. of the Church of Scotland (Spottiswoode Soc.), i. 44; Calderwood's Hist. of the Kirk (Wodrow Soc.), vol. vii. passim; Black's Hist. of Brechin, 1839, pp. 51–2, 303–4; Row's Hist. of the Kirk of Scotland (Wodrow Soc.), pp. 269, 342, 388; Balfour's Annales of Scotland, 1825, i. 364, ii. 309; George Crawfurd's Description of the Shire of Renfrew, ed. Robertson, 1818, pp. 56–7; Memoirs of Henry Guthry, 1748, p. 16; Irving's Upper Ward of Lanarkshire, 1864, ii. 420; Hewins's Whitefoord Papers, 1898; Kennet's Reg. and Chron. 1728, p. 204; Hamilton's Description of the Sheriffdoms of Lanark and Renfrew (Maitland Club), pp. 18, 79; Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, 1833, I. ii. 70; Munimenta Alme Glasguensis (Maitland Club), passim; Grub's Ecclesiastical Hist. of Scotland, 1861, ii. 353, iii. 32, 42, 44, 88; Acts of Parliament of Scotland, iv. 688, v. 46, 120, 129, 479, 505, 528, vii. 347; Spalding's Memorials of Trubles (Spalding Club), passim; Peterkin's Records of the Kirk, 1843, pp. 26–7, 99–106; Paterson's Hist. of Ayr and Wigton, 1866, ii. 466; Wood's Hist. and Antiq. of the Colleges of Oxford, ed. Gutch, p. 510; Misc. Gen. et Herald. 2nd ser. i. 289; Laud's Works (Library of Anglo-Catholic Theol.), iii. 313, vi. 434–5, 438, 590, vii. 427.
References
- ^ MASSON, Reg. of Privy Council, 1613–16, pp. 162–3, 546–7, 552.
- ^ ib. 1616–1619, p. 389.
- ^ ib. 1622–5, p. 344.
- ^ Reg. Mag. Sigil. Regum Scot. 1620–33, p. 356.
- ^ ib. 1634–51, p. 94.
- ^ BAILLIE, Letters and Journals, i. 74
- ^ ib. i. 154.
- ^ Hist. MSS. Comm. 9th Rep. App. ii. 254.
- ^ BAILLIE, Letters, i. 288.
- Sir Robert Douglas, rev. John Philip Wood, Peerage of Scotland, 1813, i. 753.
- ^ DALTON, Army Lists, i. 79
- ^ Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 23114, f. 135.
- ^ Acts of Parl. of Scotl. vol. vii. App. p. 82.
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Whitford, Walter (1581?-1647)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.