Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/164

 has been much idle controversy as to the date of his birth; while all that is known with historic certainty, may be related in a single sentence. As he was an archdeacon in 1357, and as, by the canon law, no man, without a dispensation, can attain that rank under the age of twenty-five, he was probably born before the year 1332. There is considerable probability that he was above the age of twenty-five in 1357, for not only is that date not mentioned as the year of his attaining the rank of archdeacon, but in the same year he is found exercising a very important political trust, which we can scarcely suppose to have been confided to a man of slender age, or scanty experience. This was the duty of a commissioner from the Bishop of Aberdeen, to meet with other commissioners at Edinburgh, concerning the ransom of David II., who was then a prisoner in England.

As to the parentage or birth-place of Barbour, we have only similar conjectures. Besides the probability of his having been a native of the district in which he afterwards obtained high clerical rank, it can be shown that there were individuals of his name, in and about the town of Aberdeen, who might have been his father. Thus, in 1309, Robert Bruce granted a charter to Robert Barbour, "of the lands of Craigie, within the shirefdom of Forfar, quhilk sumtyme were Joannis de Baliolo." There is also mention, in the Index of Charters, of a tenement in the Castle-street of Aberdeen, which, at a period remotely antecedent to 1360, belonged to Andrew Barbour. The name, which appears to have been one of that numerous class derived from trades, is also found in persons of the same era, who were connected with the southern parts of Scotland.

In attempting the biography of an individual who lived four or five centuries ago, and whose life was commemorated by no contemporary, all that can be expected is a few unconnected, and perhaps not very interesting facts. It is already established that Barbour, in 1357, was Archdeacon of the cathedral of Aberdeen, and fulfilled a high trust imposed upon him by his bishop. It is equally ascertained that, in the same year, he travelled, with three scholars in his company, to Oxford, for purposes connected with study. A safe-conduct granted to him by Edward III., August 23d, at the request of David II., conveys this information in the following terms: "Veniendo, cum tribus scholaribus in comitiva sua, in regnum nostrum Angliæ, causa studendi in universitate Oxoniæ et ibidem actus scholasticos exercendo, morando, exinde in Scotiam ad propria redeundo." It might have been supposed that Barbour only officiated in this expedition as tutor to the three scholars; but that he was himself bent on study at the university, is proved by a second safe-conduct, granted by the same monarch, November 6th, 1364, in the following terms: "To Master John Barbour, Archdeacon of Aberdeen, with four knights (equites), coming from Scotland, by land or sea, into England, to study at Oxford, or elsewhere, as he may think proper." As also from a third, bearing date November 30th, 1368, "To Master John Barbour, with two valets and two horses, to come into England, and travel through the same, to the other dominions of the king, versus Franciam, causa studiendi, and of returning again." It would thus appear that Barbour, even after that he had attained a high ecclesiastical dignity, found it agreeable or necessary to spend several winters at Oxford in study. When we recollect that at this time there was no university in Scotland, and that a man of such literary habits as Barbour could not fail to find himself at a loss even for the use of a library in his native country, we are not to wonder at his occasional pilgrimages to the illustrious shrine of learning on the banks of the Isis. On the 16th of October, 1635, he received another safe-conduct from Edward III., permitting him "to come into England and travel throughout that kingdom, cum sex sociis suis equitibus, usque Sanctum Dionisium;" i. e. with six knights