Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/141

 who held the high and almost vice-regal office of Chancellor of Scotland. By the recommendation of this nobleman, aided by his own excellent qualifications, he was created by Charles I., Lord Lion King at Arms, a dignified legal office in Scotland, in which resides the management of all matters connected with armorial honours, as also all public ceremonials. Sir Jerome Lyndsay having previously resigned the office, Balfour was crowned and installed at Holyroodhouse, June 15, 1630, having in the preceding month been invested with the necessary honour of knighthood by the king. On this occasion, Lord Dupplin officiated as Royal Commissioner.

Sir James Balfour now settled in Scotland, in the enjoyment of his office. On the 21st of October, he was married to Anna Aiton, daughter of Sir John Aiton of that Ilk, and in January, 1631, he obtained, in favour of himself and his spouse, a grant of the lands and barony of Kinnaird in Fife. In December, 1633, he was created a baronet by Charles I., probably in consequence of the able manner in which he marshalled the processions and managed the other ceremonials of the royal visit that year. At this period of peace and prosperity, a number of learned and ingenious men were beginning to exert themselves in Scotland. It was a peaceful interval between the desolating civil wars of the minority of King James, and the equally unhappy contest which was soon after incited by religious and political dissentions. Like soldiers enjoying themselves during a truce, the people were beginning to seek for and cultivate various sources of amusement in the more elegant arts. This was the era of Jamieson, the painter—of Drummond, the poet—of the geographer Pont—and the historians Spottiswood, Calderwood, Johnston, and Hume. Sir James Balfour, inspired with the common spirit of these men, commenced the writing of history, with as much zeal as could be expected in an age, when, the printing of a written work being a comparatively rare occurrence, literature might be said to want the greater part of its temptations.

Sir James, as already mentioned, had been bred a strict Presbyterian. In this profession he continued to the last, notwithstanding that, in politics, he was an equally firm royalist. In a letter to a young nobleman, [Correspondence, Advocates' Library,] he is found advising a perusal of "Calvine, Beza, Parens, and Whittaker," as "orthodox writers." When the introduction of the liturgy imposed by Charles I. roused Scotland from one end to the other in a fit of righteous indignation, Sir James Balfour, notwithstanding his connection with the government, joined cordially with his countrymen, and wrote an account of the tumult of the 23rd of July, under the burlesque title of "Stoneyfield Day."