LIFE OF DR. ARBUTHNOT.

I.

ABOUT three miles east of Bervie, a small town on the coast of Kincardineshire, between Stonehaven and Montrose, stands Arbuthnott Castle. Of the castle itself, and of its various owners, it is not necessary to our purpose to speak at length; but, fortunately for the family and for those interested in its story, one of its members, Alexander Arbuthnott, who was Principal of King's College, Aberdeen, until his death in 1583, and who was also the first Protestant minister at Arbuthnott, left a manuscript history called Originis et Incrementi Arbuthnoticae Familiae Descriptio Historica; and this account is immediately connected with our subject, from the fact that DR. ARBUTHNOT's father wrote a continuation, the original of which is now in the Library of the Faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh: A continuation of the Genealogie of the noble family of Arbuthnott by Mr. Alexr. Arbuthnott sometime Minister at the Kirk of Arbuthnott. An abstract of these accounts is given in the Calendar of the papers in the possession of Viscount Arbuthnott, which was prepared by Sir William Fraser for publication by the Historical Manuscripts Commission in 1881; and the reader can there trace the history of the various lairds from the thirteenth century, or earlier, to the seventeenth,

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when Robert was created first Viscount Arbuthnott by Charles I. His son Robert, who succeeded to the title in 1655, took a somewhat active part in public affairs, and lived until 1682. The third Viscount, whose name was also Robert, married in the following year Anne, daughter of George, Earl of Sunderland, but he died in 1694, in his thirty-first year.

Lord Arbuthnott was patron of the living of Arbuthnott, and sometimes the parson was a connection of the patron's family. Such was the case in 1662, when Dr. Arbuthnot's father became incumbent upon the death of the Rev. John Sibbald1. The Rev. Alexander Arbuthnott was the son of Robert Arbuthnott2, a gentleman farmer of Scotsmill, a pretty place near Peterhead, and grandson of John Arbuthnott, who was Notary Public in 1598. The descent has been traced two generations further back, to James Arbuthnott, who was of Lentusch, Kincardineshire, in 1540, and whose three sons moved northwards about 1560, in order to be under the protection of the Keiths, the hereditary Earls Marischal 3, who had intermarried with their own family. John, one of Alexander Arbuthnott's brothers, was factor to the Earl Marischal; while another brother, Robert, was a farmer in Buchan, and has

In his Continuation of the Genealogie of the noble family of Arbuthnott the Rev. Alexander Arbuthnott wrote: Mr. John Sibbald was my own predecessor at the Kirk of Arbuthnott, whose memory is yet recent in this place, and his fame doth and will flourish to all succeeding ages for his pious and religious life, his great painfulness in his calling, his learning and charitable works.' Sibbald was chiefly instrumental in building a school, gave money for a schoolmaster, and left his books, worth more than 1000 marks, for the use of incumbents who might follow him. He died suddenly, after thirty years' work.

2 A copy of the inscription in St. Fergus Churchyard to Robert Arbuthnott and his wife Beatrix Gordon is given in Annals of Peterhead, by P. Buchan: Peterhead, 1819, p. 134.

3 George, the tenth Earl Marischal, joined the Earl of Mar in the insurrection of 1715, and was attainted and deprived of all his dignities (Notes on Dignities in the Peerage of Scotland which are dormant, or which have been forfeited, by W. O. Hewlett: London, 1882, pp. 156-163; An Historical and Authentic Account of the ancient and noble Family of Keith, Earls Marischal of Scotland, by P. Buchan Peterhead, 1820.

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.

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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 holidays1.' 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. pp. 357, 358.