had numerous descendants, many of whom have distinguished themselves in the public service. It does not appear precisely how the branch of the family to which Arbuthnot belonged was connected with the Lairds of Arbuthnott; and Arbuthnot's father, in his notes on the family history, says nothing of himself. In 1666 Alexander Arbuthnott married. On March 18, to quote from the parish register, Mr. Alexander Arbuthnott, Parson of Arbuthnott, and Margaret Lammy [Lamy] in the Parishe of Marytown, gave up their names to be proclaimed for marriage,' and they 'were married April 4.' In the following year we find the entry which most immediately concerns us: 'Aprile 29, 1667. Alexander Arbuthnott, Parson of Arbuthnott, had ane Sone baptized named Johne.' Other children followed; Robert, baptized in 1669; Alexander, 1671; Katherine, 1672; Alexander, 1675,-the elder child of the name. having no doubt died; Anne, 1681; Joan, 1685; and George, 1688. Of several of these we shall hear from time to time. The present manse, pleasantly situated in a hollow through which the Water of Bervie flows to the sea, stands on the site of the house where Arbuthnot was born, and it is probable that the oldest portions of the building -which has been added to at different times-include the four rooms of which the house perhaps consisted two hundred years ago. But be this as it may, there are still some fine yew trees in the manse garden which must have been several hundred years old when Arbuthnot was a boy. The neighbouring church, moreover, of which his father was minister, is still the parish church. It was gutted by fire in 1889, but while the more modern additions were destroyed, the fine old walls remained, and the building, which was consecrated in the thirteenth century, has now been carefully restored as nearly as possible to its original form. No particulars have come down to us of Arbuthnot's early years; and, taking into account the difficulties of locomotion at that time, we cannot share the interest felt by Dr. Beattie in Scotsmill, where Arbuthnot's grandfather lived. This place,' says Beattie in a letter to Mrs. Montagu, 'in a romantic situation on the brink of a river, about three miles from Peterhead, . . . . I often visit as classic ground, as being probably the place where the Doctor, when a schoolboy, might often pass his holidays. It is stated, with greater probability, that Arbuthnot was educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen, but as the record of students of the college does not go back beyond the beginning of the last century the story cannot be tested. Arbuthnot afterwards took his degree in medicine, not at Aberdeen, but at St. Andrews. The first great turning-point in Arbuthnot's life came when he was twenty-one. The Revolution of 1688 brought with it greater changes in Scotland than in England, because the measures introduced by James II had been especially repugnant to the majority of the Scotch nation. All who had not been willing to comply with the Episcopalian form of Church government had been deprived of religious and civil rights, and it is not to be wondered at that when the opportunity presented itself the people were quick to retaliate. There were grave disorders, especially in the west, and some 200 of the clergy were expelled from their homes and churches, and in many cases were very roughly used in the rabbling of the curates,' which commenced on Christmas Day, 1688. Others were turned out by the Privy Council for refusing to acknowledge William and Mary. Twelve bishops were deprived, and they met with little sympathy. Only two days before William III landed, the Scotch bishops 1 An Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie, LL.D., by Sir William Forbes, Bart., 1807, vol. ii. at Edinburgh composed a letter to King James, whom they called the darling of heaven.' When the bishops had been expelled and the General Assembly restored, all had been done that was necessary for the re-establishment of Presbyterianism, and in June, 1690, an Act was passed ratifying the Confessions of Faith, and vesting the Church government in the hands of the ministers who had been ousted in 1661. In October the General Assembly met, and Commissions were appointed to go through the country and purge out obnoxious ministers. The King wrote to the General Assembly that he expected them to act in such a manner that there should be no occasion to repent of what had been done. We never could be of the mind that violence was suited to the advancing of true religion; nor do we intend that our authority shall ever be a tool to the irregular passions of any party.' The Assembly, though many of its members would have preferred more thorough-going measures, answered respectfully that they had suffered too much from oppression ever to be oppressors. But the Commissions they appointed certainly did not always show the moderation that had been promised1. Alexander Arbuthnott was among the clergy who would not conform to the Presbyterian system, and accordingly, on the 29th of September, 1689, he was deposed from his living by his patron, Viscount Arbuthnott. The minister and his sons were strong partisans of the Stuarts, and the second son, Robert, a youth of twenty, had taken part in the battle of Killiecrankie, in the preceding July, when the Highlanders achieved a victory for James, which, however, they were not able to pursue. Alexander Arbuthnott retired to a small property he had inherited, called Kinghornie, which still gives its name The Church History of Scotland, by John Cunningham, 1882; Wodrow's History of the Sufferings, &c.; Macaulay's History of England, chaps. xiii and xvi; Lecture on the Revolution Settlement, delivered in St. Giles's Cathedral by the Rev. R. H. Story. to a farm in the parish of Kinneff1. In this quiet spot, near Hallgreen Castle, and on rising ground by the sea, about three miles south-east of Arbuthnott, he spent the few remaining months of his life. He died on the 27th of February, 1691, but the religious strife in which he had been involved was not closed over his grave. When deprived of his charge he had, it seems, carried away with him the Session record, and in November, 1690, soon after his successor, Francis Melvill, had been ordained, certain persons were appointed to see the late incumbent on the matter. But their visit appears to have been without result, and immediately after his death the question of the return of the book was again raised in the Kirk Session in the manner described in the following minute: March 4, 1691. Wednesday. The which day the Session met. Sederunt, Robert Viscount of Arbuthnott, Alex. Arbuthnott of Pitcarles', &c., Elders, and William Leper, Alex. Jeffray, &c., Deacons. They considering that Mr. Alex. Arbuthnott late incumbent departed this life on Friday last, the twentieth and seventh of February, and that the Session book is not given up, it is thought fit that Thomas Allardes should go and speak to his sons and desire them to give up the said book, or if they will not to assure them that the ground in order to the said Mr. Alexander's burial would not be opened; which message the said Thomas undertook to deliver and to return their answer on Thursday before ten of the clock in the forenoon, which was that Mr. John Arbuthnott his eldest lawful son had given his bond to the Viscount of Arbuthnott for the 1 Statistical Account of Scotland (1845), vol. xi. p. 158, by the Rev. James Mylne, of Arbuthnott. Ib. vol. xi. p. 313. 2 The third son of Robert, third laird of that name, was called Alexander, and his father gave him in patrimony a piece of land adjacent to the manor house of Arbuthnott, called Pitcarles, which had formerly been possessed by Andrew, son of Robert (the second) and grandson of Robert (the third). This Andrew was father of the Alexander Arbuthnott who was Principal of Aberdeen University. The fourth son of Robert (the third), named Robert, was presented by his father to the living of Arbuthnott, and there spent the remainder of an exemplary life. He resided with his brother in Pitcarles, there being, as the Rev. Alexander Arbuthnott tells us in his family notes, no manse at that time for the incumbent. delivery of the said book under the failzie [forfeiture] of one hundred merks. The burial was accordingly permitted, and took place, as we learn from the register, on the 6th of March. The question of a monument was then raised, and on the 8th of April The Viscount of Arbuthnott informed the Session that Mr. John Arbuthnott had spoke to him and desired to have the liberty of making ane tomb or monument above the grave of his deceased father, Mr. Alex. Arbuthnott late incumbent of this congregation, to which the said Viscount replied that it would neither be done without the answer of the heritours nor without the will and consent of the Session, neither without ane bill presented to the Session desiring the same, as is formal in all judicatories, as also the inscription of the said tomb must be seen and known, that there be nothing found therein which may be derogatory to the present Government, or reflecting on the present minister at the place.' Perhaps Arbuthnot refused to comply with these conditions; at all events, no monument to his father is now extant. II. UPON the death of Alexander Arbuthnott his sons left their native country to seek their fortune in various directions. John went to London 1, and maintained himself by teaching mathematics. He lived, it is said, at the house of Mr. William Pate, a woollen-draper, who was well known for his learning2. It cannot be stated |